Rituals

[LostSoul]

Dragon 405 has some rituals that, if made into a scroll, don't take a long time to cast. You might want to apply that logic to other rituals on a case-by-case basis.

The component cost is also an issue as Tony Vargas has said. I'd recommend handing out ritual components as extra treasure.

 

[Rhenny]

My suggestion is to begin slowly and not go too crazy with the rituals. If the PCs find one or two, they may start using them. Sometimes they help to develop the story as well.

In my campaign, I gave the Dragonborn Cleric Gentle Repose and later on he found Last Sight Vision. During the adventure, they found a past contact left dead in the middle of the road as they were traveling toward their desired destination. Since the contact had asked them to help her (and the PCs told her that they would after they completed another part of their quest), the PCs felt that they needed to preserve her body and carry it with them (in a bag of holding). They also decided to investigate how the NPC died, so they cast Last Sight Vision. As DM, I described a horrible creature that entombed the NPC in the earth, and then when the NPC struggled free eventually, the creature used its razor claws and kissed the NPC sucking out her last breath. This really spooked the PCs. It also gave them important information that helped them when the same creature attacked them only moments later.

 

[Dragoslav]

What do you know, the same day I complain about not having a chance to put rituals to good use, I later use one twice to great effect in the same session.

The ritual in question was Object Reading, and our party used it once on a nondescript amulet found on an ancient skeleton in a burial chamber. What we learned had a huge impact on the direction we took afterwards, and the DM actually really liked it because otherwise he would have just prodded us to go in one direction on another seemingly inconsequential adventure.

With Object Reading you just have to make sure you follow the ritual as written so it's not too powerful. For example, the PCs find a tattered cloak and ask to see "An image of the cloak's owner," but can't ask to see where the owner went (because that is beyond the scope of information about the specific object being read).

 

[MrBeens]

I guess the thing that bothers me the most about rituals is the cost of components...They seem prohibitive. Why would anyone go to the trouble of purchasing the reagents to brew a potion when you could simply buy the potion (assuming you are at a market that has both available)? If buying the parts to install new brakes for your car cost the same as having a garage install new brakes for you, who would ever buy the parts (and how would the garage ever make any money)?!?! If you go to the local shaman and ask him to sell you a potion that cost him 50gp in components to produce, why would he sell it for 50gp? Maybe I'm misunderstanding?

So I think house rule number one is that the "Cost" for a ritual is not the component cost, but the cost to have some NPC perform the ritual (so for an NPC to brew you a healing potion costs 50gp...). The cost for components to peform the ritual yourself will be considerably less. I lean towards 1/3. Will this break anything?

House rule two is that if you have training in the relevant skill, you can perform its associated rituals.

I also intend to start including in treasures, components and ritual scrolls.

You purchase the reagents to brew your own potions so that you can brew your own potions where ever you are and don't have to rely on NPCs having stuff in stock.

With regards to prices you have missed a fundamental ascpect of the cost of things - the listed price of everything (including rituals, magic items etc) is the base cost to make the item. NPCs are expected to ass 10-40% markup if the players are buying them from an NPC, so there is no need to reduce the price for PC's to make stuff.

If you are giving out rituals and components as treasure (which is a good idea - we do this as well, and the value of those are not taken from the normal treasure amounts) then you won't need to reduce the cost of cast ing the rituals.