Some people don't want to play classes with spellcasting ability. When I play a rogue, it's because I'm looking to play a different sort of character than when I'm playing a wizard. I want to use skills, not spells.
It seems to me that giving everyone spells worsens the sense of "all characters are alike," rather than helping it.
That said, everyone can have spellcasting ability, if they want it. Anyone can get the Ritual Caster feat, after all.
OK, that's fine. You don't want to play a spell caster, but some of us do.
That is purely personal preference on your part.
Have you read any of the comments that detail why the 4.0 ritual system is broken?
I'm not going to spend loads of time on it, but you can make a party entirely out of clerics and they'll be better at your average D&D adventure than 90% of "balanced" parties - the problem gets worse and worse as you get higher level and clerics start to get blasting spells comparable to wizards, and the horrible buff system means that clerics can buff themselves to be better fighters than fighters.
I played a fighter in 3.0 and 3.5 who went from level 3 to level 20 over the course of about three years realtime - by the higher levels he himself was simply a template for cleric and wizard buffs, and was a mere shadow of himself without at least a dozen spells from those classes running on him.
I am glad that that's gone at least. Keeping track of all those effects just got very tiresome.
Keeping track of all those effects just got very tiresome.
Rituals are too expensive to cast, and they take way too long to cast. Most of the great utility spells from 3.5E will never be used in a stress situation because of the casting time.
Rituals aren't the only way to cast non-damage dealing spells. Utility powers like Fly, Expeditious Retreat, and Dispel Magic aren't rituals. I can easily see converting some of the rituals into utility powers. Comprehend Languages comes to mind. The ritual takes only 10 minutes, but I can picture situations where being able to cast it in six seconds would be necessary.Rituals are too expensive to cast, and they take way too long to cast. Most of the great utility spells from 3.5E will never be used in a stress situation because of the casting time.
In my opinion, what needs to happen is to in some way merge rituals into cantrips, with perhaps a cost involved.
Rituals aren't the only way to cast non-damage dealing spells. Utility powers like Fly, Expeditious Retreat, and Dispel Magic aren't rituals. I can easily see converting some of the rituals into utility powers. Comprehend Languages comes to mind. The ritual takes only 10 minutes, but I can picture situations where being able to cast it in six seconds would be necessary.
"Umm, guys, the Illithid is saying something I don't understand. I might be deep speech."Yeah, my issue with rituals is that there are those like Comprehend Languages that are, imo, ridiculous taking 10 minutes to cast.
Yeah, my issue with rituals is that there are those like Comprehend Languages that are, imo, ridiculous taking 10 minutes to cast.