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In a campaign world where high-level characters are rare (for example, Eberron), the inevitable question of "where did this magic item/spell effect come from?" will eventually rear its head.
Now, often it is thematically appropriate to say "it was done by a single high-level character with a specific backstory who has long-since died," but sometimes (such as the gentle repose effect tied to the cathedral's hallow spell, or a small city's mage guild using permanency) that explanation won't fly.
I know there's a system for circle magic in the 3.0 and 3.5 Faerun material, but there is also Pun-Pun in 3.5 Faerun material, so I would prefer not to use it.
I was thinking of basically adding a note to the text of Allied Spellcaster, but I'm not sure how the numbers would work out.
I do know that it should require a minimum of 12 characters, because this is something that the PCs shouldn't be doing, and also because of the significance of the number 12.
Any thoughts?
I've always loved the idea of using ritual magic to pull off things that would be normally out of reach for an individual, especially in a low-level game or an E6/8/10 setting.
I've never sat down and worked out the details of such a process, but the basic idea I had was that all the participants would need to be about the same capability (not necessarily the same level, but all within 3 or so caster levels of each other - that number of course can be tweaked as necessary, or even ignored) and the most capable/talented/powerful of the bunch would be the "circle leader" that all the effects would be based off of. For each additional participant, the total caster level of the ritual would go up by 1 or 2 - a small amount, but more than they could manage on their own. So two 12th-level casters could pull off a spell of a higher level than either of them would be capable of alone.
Continue adding people to increase the caster level, or instead you could sacrifice an added caster level to add a different effect - a free metamagic (+1 level adjustment per sacrificed caster's boost, perhaps?), or a mythic tweak like increasing the range/duration/intensity of the effect, or a handful of other alterations that, again, wouldn't be possible by a lone caster, perhaps even one of a higher level than the participants.
Like I said, I haven't put much mechanics work into it, but it's an idea I've batted around several times.