[SmilinIrish]

I am playing an intuition mage who is a detective.  I started with R6 in ritual casting, with the intent to use locate person and locate object with remote sensing, with summoned and bound spirits as the spotters.  I also have taken the watcher ritual for help with surveillance and such.  I did all this because it made sense for my theme. 

The reality seems to be that a single mage pulling off a decent force ritual is very difficult.  My first three attempts at F6 watchers were unsuccessful.  We have another mage, and eventually I hope to do ritual casting together, but I had planned it by myself.  Unfortunately, watchers have an Intuition of F-2.  So even a decent F4 watcher only has an Int of 2.  This only grants 6 perception dice. 

What are good uses for watchers, if they have limited dice pools?  Even the search power requires rolls.  With such a low dice pool (remembering that extended tests use diminishing pools), you can't expect much success.  Does anyone use them in their games? 

[Jack_Spade]

You'll need an initiation: Greater Ritual (p.153 SG) adds your magic rating to your force, allowing you to cast much stronger rituals even when you are alone.
Getting an Ally Spirit to help you with your ritual casting will also benefit you greatly.

If you have a lot of Watchers you can use them to either aid each other through teamwork or use them to mob a target in astral combat (You'd likely have to max out your spirit control)

[SmilinIrish]

Yes, if I decide that watchers are worthwhile, I am planning on taking that metamagic.  Suddenly, with an F4 watcher, he is effectively F10, with a dice pool of 13.  I'm just trying to see if they have enough utility to spend an initiation on. 

[Jack_Spade]

You could get the Homunculus ritual as an addition. Getting R12 golems made from hardened concrete in addition to a bunch of watchers will allow you to greatly expand your ritual mage's repertoire of tricks.

[Tym Jalynsfein]

Corpse Cadavre and Zombie Rituals for the Win.

[Beta]

Not everything requires perception, I'd think.  Most people are not expecting magical surveillance, so often they can just be spotted, vehicles followed, rooms checked for living things, etc.