D&D 5E What spells should have had the ritual tag, but don't?

doctorbadwolf · Jul 4, 2019

Yaarel said:
Right, but is a spell description that says ‘make a spell attack’ considered an attack?

It is considered an action. It’s also considered an attack, but the part that interferes is that using it is an action, and you can’t combine actions.

As an action, you cast Booming Blade, and make an Attack with a melee weapon. You’re making an attack as part of the action of casting Booming Blade.

doctorbadwolf · Jul 4, 2019

Yaarel said:
Note that the description of Extra Attack never mentions the need to use a weapon, and includes other kinds of attack such as ‘brawling with fists’.

Yep, but it is something you do as an Action. You don’t get to make two Attacks on your turn. That’s the key thing. Your Attack Action gains the ability to make another Attack.

Booming Blade or Eldritch Blast are Actions, which means that they can’t be made part of another action.

Yaarel · Jul 4, 2019

doctorbadwolf said:
It is considered an action. It’s also considered an attack, but the part that interferes is that using it is an action, and you can’t combine actions.

As an action, you cast Booming Blade, and make an Attack with a melee weapon. You’re making an attack as part of the action of casting Booming Blade.

The cantrip is probably understood as an action because ‘Cast A Spell’ (PH 192) is an action. However, arguably, the spell description itself is an example of ‘specific beats general’, so that this particular kind of spell is considered an ‘attack’.

doctorbadwolf · Jul 4, 2019

Yaarel said:
The cantrip is probably understood as an action because ‘Cast A Spell’ (PH 192) is an action. However, arguably, the spell description itself is an example of ‘specific beats general’, so that this particular kind of spell is considered an ‘attack’.

Min general, they specifically say, “as part of casting the spell” or something like that.

Garthanos · Jul 4, 2019

gyor said:
I'd make certain exceptions to that for anything game breaking.

Ritually cast a fireball... and you take 10 minutes to do it, good for burning down an inn I suppose.

77IM · Jul 7, 2019

Garthanos said:
Ritually cast a fireball... and you take 10 minutes to do it, good for burning down an inn I suppose.

This is actually a good technique during warfare due to fireball's long range, because it allows casters to save spell slots while exploding people.

"Hey, why do you suppose they put all their war mages up in that tower? What could they be up to in there?"

Garthanos · Jul 7, 2019

77IM said:
This is actually a good technique during warfare due to fireball's long range, because it allows casters to save spell slots while exploding people.

"Hey, why do you suppose they put all their war mages up in that tower? What could they be up to in there?"

I think in most battlefields 50 yards is considered within missile range ... our small man skirmishing teams with a 5 or 6 man band of heros makes it sound like long distance in part because some people still like using miniatures and terrestrial sized tables

Henry VIII set a minimum practice range for adults using flight arrows of 220 yd (200 m)

I think the real effect is that the battle field would stay mobile or outside of that known range unless actually engaged.

Arvok · Jul 7, 2019

I kind of have the opposite question: why is silence a ritual spell? Has anyone found a use for it as a ritual spell? Am I missing something?

Sargon of Balmora · Jul 7, 2019

To answer the original post: I can think of a few spells that really should be rituals, but for the most part I understand why the PHB is somewhat conservative about limiting rituals. The ones that jump out at me are:

Arcane Lock
Glyph of Warding
Knock
Leomund's Secret Chest
Locate X spells (Locate Animals or Plants already is one)
Magic Circle (especially because the combination of Summon X + Magic Circle + Planar Binding is so expensive and difficult to pull off, otherwise)
Rope Trick
Scrying

In home games (where I can control the amount of GP given), I've toyed with the idea of making every spell a ritual spell IF the caster pays a material cost (10 GP x spell level). I also tend to make rituals require only 1 minute, rather than 10, because it always seems absurd to me that the party is just going to take 10 every time the Wizard needs to focus on Detecting Magic. But YMMV.

D&D 5E What spells should have had the ritual tag, but don't?

doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle

doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle

Yaarel

He Mage

doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle

Garthanos

Arcadian Knight

77IM

Explorer!!!

Garthanos

Arcadian Knight

Arvok

Explorer

Sargon of Balmora

Villager

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