Looking at the Ceremony Performance table on HC p 108, a level 1 ceremonialist can cast a 6th level ceremony with a throw of 20+. Not good odds, but possible. Is this intended to only be used when a low level ceremonialist is helping in a Collabortative Ceremony, or can a level 1 ceremonialist who gets hold of a level 6 ceremony try to cast it by themselves? For example, casting Unknown Ceremonies doesn't say anything about level
The Ceremonial Magic proficiency lets a ceremonialist "add one ceremony (of any level he can cast) to his repertoire." If a ceremonialist can cast any level ceremomy, can he add any ceremony to his reportoire?
A ceremonialist can cast any ceremony, but if it's not in his repertoire he must do so as an Unknown ceremony, etc.
The Ceremonial Magic proficiency isn't clearly written. The intent is that the ceremonialist can add one ceremony to his repertoire of a level he could learn based on his caster level. So, no, he can't take a 6th level ceremony.
The consequences of failure are hilarious, though....
I'd probably consider increasing the target for failure from 1-3 (assuming hasty) to 1-3+(spell level), so a 1st level ceremonialist that's somehow learned a level 6 spell botches and invokes a mishap on two rolls of 9 or less....or 8 or less, if you do (spell level - max) as the range increase.
No need to increase the range of failure: Performing an out-of-repertoire ceremony means -4 to the throw and ANY failure is treated as a botch with the ceremonialist suffering a mishap. Even performed methodically, a 1st level unknown ceremony performed by a 1st level ceremonialist is fouled up to catastrophic effect on a 9 or less, unless some serious bonuses come from somewhere.
I'd been goofing around and replaced spell progression with, essentially, a series of Apostasy proficiencies. One of the witches did take a couple out-level ceremonies - and since he spent hard-earned class benefits on it, he's been more likely to use them. I'm still awaiting a failure...firggin' dice.
The Freebooter can take the Ceremonial Magic proficiency to get a repertoire of one 1st level ceremony. He has no ceremonial spell progression, so does that mean he never gets access to any higher-level spells for that one repertoire slot? If he selects that proficiency again at levels 4, 8 and 12, is he still stuck with selecting from only level 1 spells?
Also, do these spells ever level-up in power? Does he forever cast those level 1 spells as a level 1 caster? If his class level gets him more caster levels, at what rate does he advance?
If the Freebooter successfully collaborates with another ceremonialist, does that caster level boost represent the only way he can cast a spell at level 2 power?
The Freebooter gets to create Talismans. That normally happens at level 5, but a half-caster like a Thrassian Deathchanter wouldn't get to do that until level 9. When can a Freebooter do that?