Free Ritual Casting

cdrcjsn · Oct 6, 2010

How balanced would it be for a daily utility power to remove the component cost of a ritual spell of equal level or lower?

I was looking at the list of ritual spells and it seems that for the most part rituals seem well balanced to me, about equal in power to a normal Wizard utility power of that level.

Of course, creation rituals that create permanent magical items are right out.

Zaran · Oct 6, 2010

I usually hand wave the cost of ritual components except for creating magic items or Raise Dead. I like promoting the use of Rituals and wish there was more support from WotC on them.

P1NBACK · Oct 6, 2010

I usually just hand out components for rituals as a bonus in treasure. Of course, I don't say, "you find components". I wrap it up bacon flavored fluff.

"You find the sun-dried gizzard of a basilisk. It can be used as a component up to 250 gp."

Or, whatever. This is a bonus I usually put on top of regular treasure. Having items the party finds like this, specifically for use with rituals, gives them incentives to use those rituals.

Just give out as many components as you want them to cast rituals.

fba827 · Oct 6, 2010

cdrcjsn said:
How balanced would it be for a daily utility power to remove the component cost of a ritual spell of equal level or lower?

I was looking at the list of ritual spells and it seems that for the most part rituals seem well balanced to me, about equal in power to a normal Wizard utility power of that level.

Of course, creation rituals that create permanent magical items are right out.

You'll end up with the potential to have some plots completely bypassed from divination rituals. For instance, once a day the party could sit around and use divination to do all the investigative leg work for them. By contrast, if there was a cost, even if they had access to the ritual they would realize there was a limited cost to work with.

It might be fine if you limit your "once a day free ritual" to a specific category, like rituals of the travel category... that would also remove your item creation rituals from the mix as well.

i might also go so far as to say it only works on rituals you have mastered -- as opposed to a random scroll you just found that might have been put there as a plot device they have to work for.

Anyway, just my take on it.

Ryujin · Oct 6, 2010

It wouldn't be all that bad, as long as you state that any required focus must still be used. I would also limit them to one or (at most) two per tier, per day.

Saeviomagy · Oct 6, 2010

Bards already get this for bard rituals (once per day they can use a bard ritual and not expend components). So for specific subsets of the ritual list it's just fine.

There's also a bluff skill power (daily 10) that lets you pay half price for a ritual and sub in your bluff skill.

Evilhalfling · Oct 7, 2010

One of my PCs just got an artifact to (pleased) status and it told him that it would now provide the magic components for one ritual each day.

His reaction "I was just thinking of throwing this into the burning lake to see if I could destroy it, you must really want me to keep this. Oh well I guess familiar mount is free then. " (The artifact told him that not to be dunked into the lake, and dislikes any contact with elemental chaos)

The scroll is one of the Black Scrolls of Amn (3.0 BoVD)- It summons and controls dretches. (cause I like dretches)

----
Bard spells are not exactly free, you still have to have a magic instrument of a value based on the level of the ritual. The party's archer bard still finds this annoying.

xnosipjpqmhd · Nov 9, 2010

Saeviomagy said:
Bards already get this for bard rituals (once per day they can use a bard ritual and not expend components). So for specific subsets of the ritual list it's just fine.

Is there any clarification that specifically states that the phrase "bard rituals" means those rituals with "Prerequisite: Bard" in them?

I thought "bard rituals" were any ritual learned through the Bardic Training class feature.

After all, are there "wizard rituals"?

Ryujin · Nov 9, 2010

ironregime said:
Is there any clarification that specifically states that the phrase "bard rituals" means those rituals with "Prerequisite: Bard" in them?

I thought "bard rituals" were any ritual learned through the Bardic Training class feature.

After all, are there "wizard rituals"?

I doubt that you'll find any clarification on that, since the comment about Bard rituals appears immediately in the paragraph following the one stating that you get start with one free ritual with the Bard Prereq and one other. The clear message is that Bard prereq = Bard ritual.

There are no "Wizard Rituals" that I've seen, just rather a bunch of open requirement rituals that Wizards can use.

xnosipjpqmhd · Nov 9, 2010

Ryujin said:
I doubt that you'll find any clarification on that, since the comment about Bard rituals appears immediately in the paragraph following the one stating that you get start with one free ritual with the Bard Prereq and one other. The clear message is that Bard prereq = Bard ritual.

I dunno. It doesn't seem like a clear message to me. "A ritual cast by a bard = bard ritual" seems just as likely an assumption as anything else, if not moreso.

Free Ritual Casting

cdrcjsn

First Post

Zaran

Adventurer

P1NBACK

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fba827

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Ryujin

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Saeviomagy

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Evilhalfling

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xnosipjpqmhd

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Ryujin

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xnosipjpqmhd

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