D&D (2024) Why is Ritual Caster gated?

[Seramus]

I don't think these can both be true.

You don't need to be a spellcaster to take Ritual Caster. You DO need either Int, Wis, or Cha at 13+.

 

[mellored]

You don't need to be a spellcaster to take Ritual Caster. You DO need either Int, Wis, or Cha at 13+.

And level 4, yes.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You don't need to be a spellcaster to take Ritual Caster. You DO need either Int, Wis, or Cha at 13+.

Thank you, that's helpful. I think that's still a silly restriction because an actual caster doesn't have that requirement, and virtually no ritual spells involve a check involving a stat, but that's better than actually requiring levels.

 

[MarkB]

Thank you, that's helpful. I think that's still a silly restriction because an actual caster doesn't have that requirement, and virtually no ritual spells involve a check involving a stat, but that's better than actually requiring levels.

Yeah, the downside is that since the feat both requires and boosts a mental stat, it has limited utility to non-casters, since you really want to be boosting a primary ability score with your feats. Monks are probably the only non-caster class that would gain a decent benefit from it stat-wise.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yeah, the downside is that since the feat both requires and boosts a mental stat, it has limited utility to non-casters, since you really want to be boosting a primary ability score with your feats. Monks are probably the only non-caster class that would gain a decent benefit from it stat-wise.

That is true but I could maybe see a martial with 16 STR or DEX and an uneven WIS or CHA (Ranger, Paladin, Rogue, probably) maybe going for it, assuming standard array or rolled stats (probably not going to happen on point buy). Unfortunately a Fighter is less likely - most Ritual Casters I've seen have been Fighters.

(This is presuming you could be a +2 to stat at L8, but if you can get a +2 to stat at L4 this is going to be a lot rarer!)

 

[Seramus]

I honestly prefer the 5.0 version. The main draw of Ritual Caster for me has always been the higher level rituals like Silence, Magic Mouth, Phantom Steed, Tiny Hut, and eventually Telepathic Bond.

 

[Xeviat]

(The Tomelock gets cantrips and any two level-1 rituals each time the book is summoned; and so fewer rits available at any time, but a broader range available if you can plan your day. But still no upper-level rituals.)

Oooh, I hadn't thought of what taking Pact Initiate for the tome would give you. 2 cantrips and 2 rituals that you can swap out, that's huge.

 

[SkidAce]

You are correct, it's a change I was not aware of:

Ritual: If you have a spell prepared that has the Ritual tag, you can cast that spell as a Ritual. The Ritual version of a spell takes 10 minutes longer to cast than normal. It also doesn’t expend a spell slot, which means the ritual version of a spell can’t be cast at a higher level.

So yes, this does grab the ability to a non-caster to cast those ritual spells.

Help me understand this...

A non-caster doesn't prepare spells. So how do they fulfill that requirement to cast the spell as a ritual?

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The 2024 Ritual Caster feat is gated to level 4 and requires spell casting or pact magic to take it.

Because for every step forward WotC makes on giving nice things to non-casters, they must necessarily take a step back somewhere else.

How would an origin feat version of this need to be adjusted? I think there's space for a similar feat to tell the story of the not-quite caster who always has to have all of the accoutrements and time in order to get the spell to work just right.

Gating behind a minimum score seems to be obvious. What other limitations are needed?

Given how few rituals there are, I struggle to think of terribly many limitations that are good and warranted. Maybe class-restrict it, since (from what I can tell) the 5.5e version has no class-specific limit? That would still let people pick Wizard spells, but with the Proficiency bonus limit and only being able to select level 1 spells, it's not like you're going to be casting tons of rituals to begin with...

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Help me understand this...

A non-caster doesn't prepare spells. So how do they fulfill that requirement to cast the spell as a ritual?

...why would you assume the feat doesn't let you prepare ritual spells? Like...seriously. Why would it not do that? Isn't that literally the point of it, to let people use ritual spells despite not being a "proper" spellcaster?