D&D 5E What spells should have had the ritual tag, but don't?
- Thread starter gyor
- Start date
Most of them.
I was working on a thing where I was giving each spell a section at the bottom called "As a Ritual." It would come after the "At Higher Levels." for spells that have that (which should also be most of them).
The reason I made a section for each spell is that the ritual requirements would be slightly different for each spell. Spells that are already rituals would say:
A common entry for higher-level and higher-scaling spells (practically every spell of 6th level or higher) was like:
For some spells (such as fireball), I would instead add a material component:
I was working on a thing where I was giving each spell a section at the bottom called "As a Ritual." It would come after the "At Higher Levels." for spells that have that (which should also be most of them).
The reason I made a section for each spell is that the ritual requirements would be slightly different for each spell. Spells that are already rituals would say:
As a Ritual. When you cast this spell as a ritual, you don't expend a spell slot. The casting time increases by 10 minutes, and you cast the spell at its lowest level.
A common entry for higher-level and higher-scaling spells (practically every spell of 6th level or higher) was like:
As a Ritual. When you cast this spell as a ritual, you don't expend a spell slot. The casting time increases by 1 hour per spell level.
For some spells (such as fireball), I would instead add a material component:
As a Ritual. When you cast this spell as a ritual, you don't expend a spell slot. The casting time increases by 10 minutes, and the spell consumes a special material component: a ruby worth 100 gp per spell level.
I like this! It opens up a lot more design space for rituals. There are a bunch of spells that feel like they shouldn't cost combat/adventuring resources, but also shouldn't be usable every 10 minutes. This would make it possible to add other limiting factors. I particularly like the option of ritual-only material components.
I let some spells be cast as a ritual on a case by case basis (scrying probably, fireball no), and have several unique spells that can only be cast as a ritual.
But if you don't want your spells to take up a slot.....create a scroll.
Which, by the way, with the example above of scrying, I would have the caster add the equivalent cost to make a scroll to the process.
In addition to any already existing material costs.
But if you don't want your spells to take up a slot.....create a scroll.
Which, by the way, with the example above of scrying, I would have the caster add the equivalent cost to make a scroll to the process.
In addition to any already existing material costs.
I think people underestimate the power of divinations as rituals, or in general honestly. If you run a campaign with any downtime, divinations are crazy strong.
Case in point, one of my players just hit 9th level (with access to contact other plane) and has a month of downtime in the game. That gives him access to 150 questions...at base. And before people start mentioning the saving throw, he has a paladin buddy, so only fails on a 1 (and we were factoring that in to the number of questions he could ask, which drops it to about 142 on average).
And then....we realized it was a ritual. So... basically it just comes down to "he can just ask me any number of questions on any subject he wants." The only limit is his ability to come up with new questions. And that is just a month of downtime, imagine what a 9th level wizard would learn after a year? Or more appropriately, what would be left to learn? There isn't a reason a wizard that has a 20 int shouldn't be able to learn everything they want to know about the plot, which of course forces the DM to neuter parts of the spell ("you don't learn anything about THAT subject". Oh, well THAT subject is blocked by a diety or something, etc etc".)
Rituals are very powerful when time is on your side, be careful about doling them out carelessly just because in a combat adventure the non-combat spell's cost is actually meaningful.
Case in point, one of my players just hit 9th level (with access to contact other plane) and has a month of downtime in the game. That gives him access to 150 questions...at base. And before people start mentioning the saving throw, he has a paladin buddy, so only fails on a 1 (and we were factoring that in to the number of questions he could ask, which drops it to about 142 on average).
And then....we realized it was a ritual. So... basically it just comes down to "he can just ask me any number of questions on any subject he wants." The only limit is his ability to come up with new questions. And that is just a month of downtime, imagine what a 9th level wizard would learn after a year? Or more appropriately, what would be left to learn? There isn't a reason a wizard that has a 20 int shouldn't be able to learn everything they want to know about the plot, which of course forces the DM to neuter parts of the spell ("you don't learn anything about THAT subject". Oh, well THAT subject is blocked by a diety or something, etc etc".)
Rituals are very powerful when time is on your side, be careful about doling them out carelessly just because in a combat adventure the non-combat spell's cost is actually meaningful.
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Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
An earlier thread discussed casting False Life over and over again until the player rolled the max value, then starting his adventuring day.
There ought to be an option to "ritual-cast" a cantrip and get the maximum result. Then you take a known 10 minutes, instead of 'however long it takes'; using hot dice means '1 round'; using my old (cursed?) dice set means 'all day'.
There ought to be an option to "ritual-cast" a cantrip and get the maximum result. Then you take a known 10 minutes, instead of 'however long it takes'; using hot dice means '1 round'; using my old (cursed?) dice set means 'all day'.
MarkB
Legend
A little specialised, given that the main class capable of casting them doesn't have ritual casting, and has better things to spend its feats on.
At that point you may as well just make it a class feature.
Yaarel
He Mage
Unfortunately, the Ritual Caster feat sucks. Even many people who like the idea, never end up taking it because of the other ‘must have’ feats that compete for the same space.
I am thinking of making Ritual Caster a BACKGROUND, that any character can take. Minimally, they only access level 1 rituals. But maximally, they might access higher level spells as they progress in level.
As such, any spell that is suitable as a ritual, would also need to be balanced for a noncaster to do.
A caster benefits from this background by accessing the rituals of other caster classes.
I am thinking of making Ritual Caster a BACKGROUND, that any character can take. Minimally, they only access level 1 rituals. But maximally, they might access higher level spells as they progress in level.
As such, any spell that is suitable as a ritual, would also need to be balanced for a noncaster to do.
A caster benefits from this background by accessing the rituals of other caster classes.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
No one has better things to spend feats on, though. Linguist is great! Keen Mind is the bees knees! Feats don’t matter.
But more than that, Paladins should have a ritual casting, and we are here discussing “should”, not “is”.
For who? Every class that can get it? Easier to just keep it a spell. Everyone but wizard has to have it Known or Prepared to use it, and Wizards aren’t spending a slot on an AC fix unless they get hit by an anti magic effect.
Someone who gets it via Magic Initiate can still only do it once per day, but it boosts Ritual Caster a bit.
edit: also, why would a given spell being “specialized” be an issue? So what?
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