Need some help with spell and ritual rules (taking time to cast, cast retry...)

Question

I'm using the M20 version of Mage, but I find that it sometimes lacks some examples. And I have a doubt about my understanding of two rule points in particular: taking several rounds to cast a spell, and continuing to cast an incomplete spell.

The first rule point states that it is possible by taking up to 3 extra rounds to get a -3 on the difficulty of the cast. So this will apply to every casting that is not done in an emergency situation, right?

Corollary to this first point: if the Mage decides to do a ritual instead, can he take his time as well to get the -3? If not, then a ritual is much more difficult to cast than a quick spell, no?

It is possible, with a +1 malus, to continue casting an unfinished spell. But how many times can this be done in a row? If there is no limit, then taking your time (-3) + try to continue an unfinished casting (+1) allows you to cast spells more easily and with less risk than in ritual, as long as you stay under 4 rolls (because you start at -3, then -2, then -1 instead of directly starting at +0)

So what is the good practice for making the rituals better than normal casting?

Answer 1

By rereading I see that the rules concerning the critical failures are much more forgiving during the rituals than during the traditional launches. Indeed, in case of a critical failure, you can spend a point of willpower to counter the effect of the critical failure and you can decide to abandon the ritual there. So in fact, the rituals are a bit more difficult to manage, but less dangerous in terms of paradox.

Moreover, it is indicated that one can use a skill roll related to the ritual in order to get a -1 difficulty per success (up to -3), which in fact makes the ritual, in the end, more accessible and less dangerous than the basic spell casting. I think I ended up answering myself in the end.

This explain, I think, the differences between standard spellcasting and ritual spellcasting in terms of difficulties.