One of my characters is a Wizard. I am trying to stat out a sort of "ritual" that takes a minute or more to do, making it inapplicable for in combat.
The effect in question is Continuous Summon. The idea is that he could only cast this summoning ritual outside of combat. Because it would take at least a minute (but no more than ten).
How could I emulate this, mechanically?
As usual for Mutants & Masterminds, there is more than one way to achieve this.
The easiest to describe is a "jury rigged" ritual, created with the Ritualist advantage. This requires spending a Hero Point.
You may even be able to create a custom Benefit: Known Ritual that removes the design check (and the time required) when performing that single ritual, with GM permission; that's not a defined Benefit but fits within the limits of that Advantage.
Any power less than 100 power points would take less than 10 minutes to cast via "jury rigged". Without spending the Hero Point it would take 10 minutes per power point.
Another option is the Limited flaw. Specifically, Limited (requires a [1/5/10] minute ritual preparation). You'll want to talk to your GM about which time is the best fit for the cost reduction and specific campaign.
A more house-rule option is to adapt the Slow flaw from the Variable power to your Summon. It does pretty much exactly what you want, but that flaw is normally only available to Variable - you'll need GM permission to adapt it.
Good luck!
I think you're looking for the Activation Flat Flaw.
A power with this flaw requires an action to prepare or activate before any of its effects are usable. If the power requires a move action to activate, the flaw is –1 point. If it requires a standard action, it is –2 points. Activation taking less than a move action is not a flaw, although may qualify as a complication (see the Power Loss complication for details).
Activation has no effect other than making all of the power’s effects available for use. The effects themselves still require their normal actions to use. You can use a power’s effects in the same turn as you activate it, provided you have sufficient actions to do so. If the power is deactivated—either voluntarily or involuntarily via effects like Nullify—you must activate it again in order to use any of its effects.
Activation applies to an entire power and all of its effects. Activating the power brings all of its effects “online” and makes them available. If you have to activate different effects separately, apply this flaw to each of them, requiring separate actions for each.
If Activation is not automatic, apply the Check Required flaw to the entire power as well and have the player make the necessary check in order to activate the power. If the check fails, the power does not activate, and the character has to take the activation action to try again.
By the book, it can't take longer than a Standard action, but I think that letting it go a few more ranks up the Time and Value chart won't hurt as long as you avoid obvious abuse, and squash arguments of "Oh, well obviously I started the summoning ritual this morning and chanted the formula all throughout the morning during the press conference and the pick--up basketball game, so he's already summoned".
