Ritual focused feats

[porter235]

I have heard some complaints about the time and cost associated with using rituals, and so I have come up with the following feats that could be used to mitigate these elements. Thoughts?

Feat: Astral Ritualist
Requires: Ritual Caster
You only require half of the standard components when performing a ritual. This cannot replace special or optional components. (You are creating the other components in your mind’s eye.)


Feat: Astral Altar
Requires: Ritual Caster, Astral Ritualist
You only require a quarter of the standard components when performing a ritual. This cannot replace special or optional components. (You are creating the other components in your mind’s eye on your Astral Altar.)


Feat: Astral Temple
Requires: Ritual Caster, Astral Altar
You do not require any standard components when performing a ritual. This cannot replace special or optional components. (You are creating the other components in your mind’s eye in your Astral Temple.)

Feat: Ceremonial Ritualist
Requires: Ritual Caster
When ever you are performing a ritual that does not specify a required number of assistants, you may divide the casting time by the total number of people performing the ritual (including yourself).
(Many hands make light work.)

 

[Smeelbo]

While I haven't seen Rituals in action yet, I have been reading up on them lately, so I have some observations.

First, we know Arcane Power is coming out soon, and that in order to sell books, Hasbro will no doubt lard it up with awesome rituals, and feats to improve ritual casting.

Second, component cost as a balancing factor is very campaign dependent. If the money is tight enough, it might work, but when costs are trivial, a high coin cost is no cost at all.

Third, assuming ritual coin costs are significant in the campaign, then having feats that reduce costs could be balanced. Again, with Arcane Powers coming out soon, it is hard to evaluate the trade-offs, because we don't know what rituals will be available, or what other arcane feats might be taken instead.

Fourth, what rituals are you really talking about? Give me cheap Magic Circles, and encounters may change dramaticly. Obviously, you can't reduce the cost of Enchant Item or Transfer Enchantment or Brew Potion. The exploration and travel rituals look intriguing, but the NPC quester can just provide those if really necessary.

Fifth, component costs are already most much cheaper than the market price for a ritual. Do they really need to be made cheaper?

Sixth, there is currently no limit other than game time and money for the number of rituals a character can learn. Indeed, since a character can only have a very limited number of powers, but as many rituals as they can afford, from a marketing point of view, a ritual heavy Arcane Power book would probably sell better.

Personally, I'd wait until Arcane Powers comes out, then evaluate if reducing ritual component costs further is worthwhile.

Smeelbo