Mind, you should check my logic with this, since I may be wrong, but I've examined what I could so far of the theory, and it looks sound - and in case you're wondering, Street Magic helped provide this 'technique' in the form of metamagic.

Tools needed:
Initiate of at least 2nd level (with specific metamagics)
ritual spellcasting skill (duh)
ability to counterspell (the more the better).
at least 2 mages (you need at least one per person that is going to reduce their drain. So you can solo ritual cast if a friend serves as the other factor).
all the other neccessities of ritual casting (lodge, etc, etc).

How to lower your drain:
1)The Initiate who is providing the main spell must have shielding, and Absorption (from SM) as their metamagics of choice. The said initiate must also activate their shielding before starting the ritual, so it is on.

2)Shortly before the ritual itself is about to be completed, the assisting mage NOT in the ritual must choose a spell (preferably not dangerous) and cast it at the ritual caster.

3) (important step that needs research to prove it is valid). the Ritual caster deliberately resists the spell, be it harmful or beneficial, and uses their absorption metamagic. Depending on the force of the spell used, the metamagic technique will absorb the force of the spell used, making it a reserve of drain resistance for that mage in particular.

4) before the reserved energy is lost, complete the ritual and use the points to lower the drain code of the spell cast...at least for yourself that is (it's possible the code is lowered for alll other participating mages in the ritual, but I'm not certain).

5) congratulations, you completed the ritual without being quite as tired as usual!


So....any immediate ways to shatter my dreams of having made ritual spellcasting more feasible, or you all going to let a GM do it for me (which, in truth, a GM can do anything to dash anyones dreams, I'm just curious if this is a creative, not entirely tweaked solution to higher power spells).


And before you immediately say it's broken, bear in mind that there are at least two very important factors to using this trick: spare mages to help offset the drain in the first place, and the ability of the ritual casters to resist the spells to absorb them. If you can't absorb, and you're doing a major spell.....ouch. The stronger the spell, the greater the risk of serious injury if you don't absorb properly.

The turns issue is a real challenge, yes. realistically speaking, if there are no tell tale signs, it would be a risk. bear in mind, however, that turns in SR are relative - in combat they may be only a few seconds, but turns can also represent minutes or hours or, in extreme circumstances, days.

So the timing isn't quite crazy if you have it on a matter of minutes, but you still need ot know when the ritual is going to go off.

Nice to see no other major kinks popping up though. (though I may have created a monster when people start using this all the time, and with regular casting too).

Nothing stops a GM from using the turn system to measure something. It's technically not combat when two people a are running around looking for cover until someone gets shot, but the GM isn't going to throw out the combat rounds until someone pulls a gun is he/she?

Just because a turn is usually used for combat, doesn't mean you have to use it for combat.

and when did extended tests come into this? Where is an extended test in ritual casting or absorption? I miss something?

Extended tests came into this because they were the only thing you could have been talking about that wasn't willfully ignorant. I regret my erronous assumption.

GM fiat cannot change the (meta)physics of the game. An absorption charge can only be retained for Initiate turns. A turn is three seconds. Period. Some fantasy/rule simplication used in unusual circumstances doesn't change that. Making a combat round last longer for simplifying vehicle combat, for example, doesn't somehow make a bound spirit's Sustain Spell service last longer just because the spell it's sustaining is vehicle mask.

an extended test involves making several 'tests' between certain intervals until you reach a certain number of successes, glitch horribly, or just take too damn long.

Nowhere in ritual casting, holding charges, or otherwise does an extended test come in.

The length of time it takes for absorbed force to dissipate is duration, and also has nothing ot do with an extended test. the only test involved is the shielding test, which is also not extended.

there is no extended test ever brought in.

The one point I can see where you got extended test, however, is from the section where it does talk about combat turns and with one set of time. That is an error in my part, because I recalled (incorrectly) there being a paragraph in that talking about extending combat turns to involve more than a few seconds in certain situations (such as fighting while racing cars, etc, etc). Maybe it was sr3, or maybe it was just a fluke on my part and I ended up combining extended test info with combat turns.

I made a mistake. Power bolt me. There's still room to blast a person to make this work, there's still room for creative use or leniency from a GM, there's still room for there to be something in the book that supports me too that we both missed.

i can only imagine that it can't be too hard to tell when the ritual is going to end. i mean, unless the whole ritual is improvised, then you just tell the supporting mage (or spirits )what his cue is. for example, if the ritual ends with someone ringing a bell 3 times, then you tell the supporting mage to cast the spell on the first ring. he can ready an action when the ritual team picks up the bell, or whatever, and as soon as the first time the bell is rung, he just casts the spell.

i certainly don't see any problems with this. as has been mentioned, there are lots of resources involved in it.