Shouldn't most Rituals be free?

[drachasor]

Looking over most of the rituals, I don't understand why so many of them have a cost beyond time. You shouldn't have to split resources between encounter-based conflicts and non-encounter conflicts, imho. Furthermore, during an adventure, there are time-critical tasks that need to be accomplished. For instance, picking a lock in a dungeon is usually not something you care toss 10 minutes around for (wandering monsters, sentries, etc). If it is something you can spend 10 minutes on, then it doesn't really matter if the rogue tries a few times or the ritual caster uses a ritual. For many other ritual effects, the time component is also a sufficient impediment (such as Arcane Lock).

For other rituals, of course, I think other restrictions are better than a gold piece cost. Drawmij's Instant Summons, for instance, has a built-in restriction that only allows it to be in effect on one item at a time (for one person). That's a sufficient restriction in my mind, given the time requirement. Other abilities, such as consulting Oracles and the like, are better handled by other time-related or other limits that prevent you from spamming the few problematic rituals that are left.

Thoughts?

 

[Styracosaurus]

How long does it take to use a scroll?

 

[Andor]

You shouldn't have to split resources between encounter-based conflicts and non-encounter conflicts, imho.

As soon as someone starts giving me seperate pools of money to buy guns and food with I'll agree with you on this.



Quips aside, no I don't think that there is any mechanical requirement for them, aside from a design decision on the part of the 4e team that magic should never have any practical day to day use except for the 'Lifestyles of the rich and bloodthirsty' crowd.

 

[IanB]

If rituals were free, characters would be constantly spamming them any time they thought they might get the tiniest advantage out of doing so.

 

[Cryptos]

In many cases, rituals reduce adventurers' costs, secure valuables, or provide opportunities to find treasure and make money. Having them free would allow adventurers to avoid costs.

Buy new equipment or Make Whole?

Rent or buy enough pack mules and a cart (or enough henchmen) to carry around 500 - 1000 (up to 2,000, even) pounds of goods or spend 10gp on Tenser's Floating Disk?

Hire a courier, an animal trainer to train a messenger pigeon, etc, or cast a ritual for instant communication?

Go to a temple to have the dead raised and pay through the nose, or raise the dead yourself?

Hired a skilled, educated translator to follow you around or Comprehend Languages?

In many cases, rituals allow adventurers to avoid physical travel, or have easier travel options, better communication, equipment repair, reduces the need for skilled hirelings or services, and so on.

 

[Dragonbait]

AND if you think about religious rituals of the days of yore, they often required 'sacrifices' of a variety of things. Spell components, basically. Silver crosses, bales of wheat, and so on. The GP cost represents this.

 

[JDillard]

This is a game-balance issue.

Take "Detect Secret Doors", for example. If it only took a moment, and was free, why *wouldn't* you use it, all the time? And if the wizard is detecting all the secret doors, then what good is it to have a ranger or rogue with high perception to find them?

Rituals cover things that in general can be done via other means, but the ritual method is more assured of actually happening. Giving them a gp cost means you only use them when you *need* them and are willing to pay for it, rather than using them to take away from the value of other classes.

Wizard should not be > than all.

 

[FourthBear]

I believe that ritual costs should, in anything, be higher in campaigns that focus less on combat. There, the power of rituals is even more powerful since they allow for such a wide range of effects and the power to bypass so many problems. I fear that without significant resource costs, rituals will quickly become fix-it-alls. In combat-heavy, who cares if it doesn't do damage campaigns, you could make a good case for rituals being free or low cost, since they would have less relative value.

Using time as a balancing resource may be fine for some campaigns, but really only if the challenges are carefully controlled in time dependence. The restrictions on rituals then become even more situational. The pacing of the campaign then determines the utility of rituals. The gp costs may not be the most elegant, but at least they put a additional consideration and limited resource at play. They also help explain why rituals aren't in constant use throughout the gameworld.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I think free rituals would work fine in a high magic campaign (although you might need to come up with alternate restrictions for those rituals you don't want used at the drop of a hat, like Raise Dead for example).

However, having hedgemage Bob cast Sending just so that Farmer Joe can find out how his sister in Waterdeep is doing doesn't fit the PoL default setting. The component cost discourages the use of rituals for trivial or mundane matters.

Honestly, since magic items are significantly less powerful in 4e than previous editions (with the exception of the enhancement three), it doesn't seem like a big deal if a character is spending his gold on rituals or ale instead of magic items.

 

[Falling Icicle]

Looking over most of the rituals, I don't understand why so many of them have a cost beyond time. You shouldn't have to split resources between encounter-based conflicts and non-encounter conflicts, imho. Furthermore, during an adventure, there are time-critical tasks that need to be accomplished. For instance, picking a lock in a dungeon is usually not something you care toss 10 minutes around for (wandering monsters, sentries, etc). If it is something you can spend 10 minutes on, then it doesn't really matter if the rogue tries a few times or the ritual caster uses a ritual. For many other ritual effects, the time component is also a sufficient impediment (such as Arcane Lock).

For other rituals, of course, I think other restrictions are better than a gold piece cost. Drawmij's Instant Summons, for instance, has a built-in restriction that only allows it to be in effect on one item at a time (for one person). That's a sufficient restriction in my mind, given the time requirement. Other abilities, such as consulting Oracles and the like, are better handled by other time-related or other limits that prevent you from spamming the few problematic rituals that are left.

Thoughts?

I agree with you. I can understand why they put a cost on rituals, since there is not a daily limit on how often one can use them, but I think the other restrictions (time and the often enormous cost of aquiring/mastering the ritual) is enough of a balancing factor for most of them. The rituals I think should have a component cost are those with permanent effects, like Arcane Lock, Eye of Alarm, Raise Dead, Enchant Item, etc. But things like Tenser's Floating Disc, who really cares if you can have one at all times?

I can see why they don't want people teleporting around frivolously, but the non-epic teleportation rituals can only go to specific destinations and require knowledge of that specific location's sigil sequence. That's more than enough of a balancing factor. As for epic characters, well who cares if they teleport around, they're EPIC for crying out loud. When "once per day, when you die" abilities and slaying archfiends and gods is part of every day life, I don't get why teleportation is considered to be such a big deal.

And I am particularly baffled by the ridiculous cost of the scrying rituals, especially how they only let you observe the location/creature for up to 5 rounds! WTH? I am going to pay thousands of gold and spend an hour on a ritual to be able to spy on someone for 30 seconds at most? I appreciate that they have tried to balance some of the spells that were plot-breakers in previous editions, but I think in some cases they went too far.

I'd much rather have a limit on how many rituals I can cast per day than have to pay money for them. My Wizard in 3e that could cast Tenser's Floating Disc each day for free didn't break the game then, it wouldn't break the game now.