D&D 5E Eternal See Invisible

See Invisible is a ritual spell, and lasts for an hour. Is there anything preventing a wizard from spending 10 minutes every hour of adventuring casting this spell over and over, "just in case"? Would there be any drawbacks to doing this, other than "wasting" a fair amount of time?

Just wondering if any other tables have been dealing with wizards who can see invisible most/all of the time.

Nope. Although frequently staying in one spot for 10 minutes at a time while in dangerous territory (i.e. dungeon complex, the underdark, an enemy compound, or various wilderness areas) can lead to additional encounters from wandering monsters, patrols, etc.

Longer Casting Times
Certain spells (including spells cast as rituals) require more time to cast: minutes or even hours. When you cast a spell with a casting time longer than a single action or reaction, you must spend your action each turn casting the spell, and you must maintain your concentration while you do so. If your concentration is broken, the spell fails, but you don't expend a spell slot. If you want to try casting the spell again, you must start over.

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You have to spend your action each turn casting the spell. You can still move, use bonus actions, or use reactions while casting a spell that takes longer than 1 action. You wouldn't be sneaky chanting whilst walking for 10 minutes, but you certainly aren't immobile.

thethain said:

You have to spend your action each turn casting the spell. You can still move, use bonus actions, or use reactions while casting a spell that takes longer than 1 action. You wouldn't be sneaky chanting whilst walking for 10 minutes, but you certainly aren't immobile.

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It's been my experience that PC's stay in one spot while ritually casting a spell. Every time, so far. Maybe we've all just been making the same assumption and haven't read that bit of text thoroughly.

Regardless, my point stands. Walking around chanting really isn't any better (and probably worse) than staying in one spot chanting.

Just depends, my warlock/paladin for example always kept his phantom steed up this way, but considering he was wearing full plate and riding a white horse he wasn't exactly trying to sneak up on anyone.

There is no rule stopping it, albeit as mentioned, walking around chanting and waving your arms in the middle of a dark dungeon quiet cavern is sure to attract attention. As would casting in the middle of a crowded marketplace (where magic may even be illegal depending on setting). Likewise, depending on specific terrain, or the evironmental conditions, they may be required to make a saving throw to keep from looking Concentration. Keeping a delicate spell wording or gestures correct is difficult if they are walking across a narrow ledge, uneven ground in the dark, or in when surrounded by a crowd of people talking, likewise, if they are whipping out certain material components the smell may attract wondering creatures as well as the sound, and they would likely suffer a disadvantage on perception to notice things while focusing on magic.

That said, this does bring up a minor gripe in have with ritual casting. I am very very glad that it exists (albeit in wish all casters had it, not just wizards/clerics/druids), as it encourages players to use more of the utility spells without sacrificing all effectiveness, but it does bother me that they can move/travel while doing it. To me ritual casting seems thematically to be there to imitate scenes in fiction such as performing exercisms, witches "sniffing" out magic, reviving/communicating with the dead, and performing divination and reading fortunes type of stuff, etc. The idea of such acts "on the go" is just odd...

I completely missed the bit where they can walk around, I always envisioned it as a stationary ritual using materials and whatnot to cast. I might keep it that way in my games, it seems to fit with the way rituals are depicted in media.

I suppose the correlative of that would be "why would you"? Are invisible things so common that it's worth creatures potentially hearing your chanting? Plus, there's a chance that an encounter or trap will interrupt the ritual, meaning that the spell lapses, so while you could try to have it always on, odds are you wouldn't succeed in doing so. Plus, arguably if you're focused on spellcasting, you're not focusing on your surroundings, which could lead to unpleasant consequences.

I love it when my players spam ritual spells in dangerous situations, because I always play intelligent enemies as... intelligent.

Enemy Group #1 hears an approaching caster rambling away with magic words every round, usually from 50-100 feet away. In a quiet house with no nearby car traffic, I can easily hear someone talking in a normal voice through a closed door from 50 feet away, so that seems eminently reasonable. If the group is intelligent, they will be able to recognize spellcasting - it's not a normal conversational cadence; it's one dude/dudess chanting away in a monotone, round-after-round. Enemy Group #1 immediately leaves their room and gathers Enemy Groups #2 and #3, forming a single Deadly+ encounter. Further, any enemy caster will take the time to cast preparatory defensive spells, archers will overturn tables and get behind cover, stealth-specialists will prepare ambushes. The party will never surprise the enemy, and will be facing them in optimal defensive positions. This happens virtually every time in my games, and the party knows that they'll be "pulling aggro" on nearly everything in the dungeon if they give the enemy ample warning.

If they stay in one place and try the same, it's simple enough to measure distances. Unless the party is at least 100 feet away from the nearest enemy, and behind at least 1-2 closed doors, and the enemy has no motivation to send patrols... then they can expect to be attacked. And, once more, the enemy will come en masse; it will be multiple encounters gathered together in overwhelming numbers, with pre-cast spells and other defensive measures.

So, does this invalidate ritual casting altogether? Not at all. Fundamentally, rituals are for casting after you've cleared the area out, or just before you enter the "dungeon" (tavern, tower, ship, forest, whatever) for the first time. They're great for that first room or two (until the duration expires, or concentration is broken), and for tying up loose ends at the end. In the specific context of see invisible, it's ritualled to find invisible defenses in the first 30 minutes of the dungeon, or find invisible "phat lootz" after the boss monster is killed.

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So, what if the party pulls back out of hearing range to cast it again, before moving forward? Easy enough; the enemies discover the bloodied signs of their intrusion so far, and prepare ambushes for when they return. Perhaps not every time, but often enough to make it unprofitable as a tactic. Besides: how many invisible stalkers, sprites and prepared wizards are they running into? There are so few creatures that are actually invisible, and so many creatures that have excellent natural stealth. If you're casting see invisible to spot the minority of enemies, but giving the majority of enemies advance warning of your approach and allowing them to prepare a non-invisible ambush, what's the point?

Werebat said:

See Invisible is a ritual spell, and lasts for an hour. Is there anything preventing a wizard from spending 10 minutes every hour of adventuring casting this spell over and over, "just in case"?

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The fact that See Invisibility is not ritual spell solves the problem.