Nxla portal ritual casting itmes? speed of fragments?

[Plane]

pg 21 (left) talks about a 900 PPE ritual which allows Nxla to send out fragments for 1d6+2 minutes - this is cheaper and at low levels lasts longer than your usual Dimensional Portal spell (which lasts a minute per level when cast as a ritual, 30 sec per level othewise) but I'm not sure how long it would take to cast.

Nothing like this is listed under the starting spells of a Soul Harvester, and casting times are normally based on spell level.

Could a Harvester teach this spell to others? I don't imagine there's any point to trying to keep this top-secret since random portals letting Nxla take over worlds is usually a good thing.

One vague thing here is how the fragments work - clearly they attack in bursts of 1D4+2 melees so they can't just spam the same person for the full 1D6+2 minutes. But how do we determine who is targeted for the per-melee possession savings throws?

There's a sensaiton of cold/fear within 2 miles of the rift which I might assume is the functional maximum range of the essence fragments to create Xombies (at which point they could wander beyond that) but it doesn't explicitly say this...

Mostly I'm looking for the speed of the fragments, how long it takes for them to travel from the open rift to the 2 mile limit (or possibly further) and how difficult it might be to outrun them. Also can they be sensed? Are they visible?

Another variable is this 15-days limit. Is that per caster? Per world? Per all dimensions?

- - -

pg 21 (right) also has a 1000 PPE ritual to visit Nxla for exorcism purposes - it's the same cost as Dimensional Portal but clearly a different spell since it has a special benefit: "the magic of the ritual prevents Nxla from sending new essence fragments through" - something I imagine is not a benefit in your usual DP spell/ritual

In the 2nd case we're not told how long the exorcism portal remains open - plus since we don't know it's level we don't know how long the ritual will take to cast or what its duration is.

Pg 22 has the closest thing to a guideline which is 'one minute per restoration' and you can restore a maximum of 40 per ritual (helps to cancel out the 1D4x10 he can create per 900 PPE ritual) so that's up to 40 minutes of duration.

There's a "6 days" limit to how often this can be done (more than the 15 days for bringing fragments in) though as above unclear if this is per person or per caster.

- - -

The 15-day and 6-day limits seem like a risk of metagaming if it's not per-person. If it's per-planet then what happens if you try to open a portal and enough time has not passed? Waste of PPE ?

This would require soul harvesters keeping in contact with each other so they know how often a portal was opened - or anti-harvester factions to keep in contact so they know how long it's been since the last exorcism attempt.

[ShadowLogan]

pg 21 (left) talks about a 900 PPE ritual which allows Nxla to send out fragments for 1d6+2 minutes - this is cheaper and at low levels lasts longer than your usual Dimensional Portal spell (which lasts a minute per level when cast as a ritual, 30 sec per level othewise) but I'm not sure how long it would take to cast

Ritual Casting Times can be found in RUE pg 187 (and likely RMB, I know it is in PF2E), but that is based on level of the Ritual which can be estimated to be around Level 14 or 15 given the PPE cost of other spell/rituals at those levels. That means it would take 1d4x10+15minutes (PF2E has it at 1d6x10+15minutes, so some fluctuations are possible depending on where you look).

Could a Harvester teach this spell to others? I don't imagine there's any point to trying to keep this top-secret since random portals letting Nxla take over worlds is usually a good thing.

I don't see why not

One vague thing here is how the fragments work - clearly they attack in bursts of 1D4+2 melees so they can't just spam the same person for the full 1D6+2 minutes. But how do we determine who is targeted for the per-melee possession savings throws?

GM Call likely, but likely go for the closest suitable subjects (I'm assuming Harvesters are treated as non-suitable, possibly other "cultists" they might have then again the "cultists" might be there for that very reason as suitable)

Another variable is this 15-days limit. Is that per caster? Per world? Per all dimensions?

I'd treat it as per dimension, but world is also suitable I think.

Mostly I'm looking for the speed of the fragments, how long it takes for them to travel from the open rift to the 2 mile limit (or possibly further) and how difficult it might be to outrun them. Also can they be sensed? Are they visible?

They should be able to be sensed, and the text gives a description of them so I'd say they are visible (pg21 "these fragments appear as black energy snakes that attack the minds and souls of potential victims").

Unless the Fragments are radically different than the generic AI essence fragments, D&G (pg72) establishes it would have an attribute Speed of 50 (35mph/56kph)

[Plane]

Nice find with that! I can't seem to find these speed guidelines on pages 205 and 206 of the original conversion book where it describes AIs and possesion... nor in Dark Conversions on 8 and 188... even though DC does reference Dragons and Gods it seems like an oversight they left it out.

Not entirely sure how far to follow standard AI guidelines with Nxla though since it clearly doesn't use standard possession rules (limit of 2 attempts per day, the roll being against a D20 instead of a fixed number) but 50 is as good as anything.

I'm actually wondering - assuming a fragment has to make physical contact before the savings throw happens, if you can actually see the fragment (either an alwadys visible energy snake, or people with see the invisible) shouldn't it actualyl have to make a strike roll to make physical contact and you should have the option to dodge it?

This could allow people with low saves vs possession to still avoid it by spamming dodges.

[ShadowLogan]

Nice find with that! I can't seem to find these speed guidelines on pages 205 and 206 of the original conversion book where it describes AIs and possesion... nor in Dark Conversions on 8 and 188... even though DC does reference Dragons and Gods it seems like an oversight they left it out.

Not entirely sure how far to follow standard AI guidelines with Nxla though since it clearly doesn't use standard possession rules (limit of 2 attempts per day, the roll being against a D20 instead of a fixed number) but 50 is as good as anything.

I'm actually wondering - assuming a fragment has to make physical contact before the savings throw happens, if you can actually see the fragment (either an alwadys visible energy snake, or people with see the invisible) shouldn't it actualyl have to make a strike roll to make physical contact and you should have the option to dodge it?

This could allow people with low saves vs possession to still avoid it by spamming dodges.

The differences between CB1o and DC and D&G I don't know officially, but likely something along the lines of a C&P job for the first two where the 3rd was edited. But that's a wild guess.

I agree Nxla doesn't use standard possession rules, but if something is missing from Nxla I don't see a problem with filling it in from this source until its officially addressed.

The text specifically indicates it is visible, so an energy snake it is, no need for See the Invisible unless it has the power to turn invisible. I do think making a melee strike before you have to worry about possession makes sense.

[Plane]

I do think making a melee strike before you have to worry about possession makes sense.

do you figure with AI fragments making touch-attacks to initiate this give them whatever's standard for PP and combat bonuses?

if non-Nxla fragments are nromally invisible I'd imagine dodeging invisible attacks would be highly penalized and you'd need some reason to know they're coming like maybe an ally w/ See the Invisible shouting for you to move?