Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 8419893" data-attributes="member: 5142">Some of the monster design expanded the triggers as well. So for example, the cool monster ability may be triggered once the PCs score a critical hit or the monster become bloodied. Some cool abilities would recharge once bloodied, so GMs were encouraged to use the ability before the monster is bloodied so they can use it later again in the encounter. Matt Colville talks about a fun one where gnolls got a free bite attack when the PC they are fighting becomes bloodied. And the ferocity of monsters could also increase, even if passively. For example, one dragon from the later Threats to the Nentir Vale book would get an improved critical range for their attacks once they became bloodied: 17-20. In some cases the bloodied condition would trigger the monster's temporary disappearance from play. So there were a lot of mechanics you could tie to whether the monster was bloodied, became bloodied, or wasn't bloodied or even the bloodied state of PCs. Yes, but that's a doozy to explain. Maybe later for this one. But you can probably get a big sense for one of the biggest changes to a number of familiar spells via the ritual magic below. In 5e, Rituals can be cast as spells if they are known/prepared or cast without using a spell slot out of combat with the time and material costs. Rituals in 4e were detached completely from spells, and you presumably weren't performing them in combat. Potentially anyone could do Rituals in 4e. It required a bit of work though. You needed either a Ritual Book or a Ritual Scroll. A Ritual Book could be used multiple times while a Ritual Scroll would crumble to dust upon performing the ritual. You needed 8 uinterrupted hours to study the ritual in order to master it. You also needed the Ritual Caster feat, which the Cleric and Wizard got as class features, and your level had to equal or exceed that of the ritual's level. Time to cast a ritual. The standard cost of the components to perform the ritual as well as the market price for buying the book or copying the ritual into your book were provided. Up to four allies could assist you with performing the ritual. They had to be close by and essentially there the whole time, but your willing allies could spending their own healing surges or other resources to help power the ritual in your stead. The PHB also alludes to dark rituals to malevolent gods or demons involving unwilling participants paying those costs. This was fantastic because there are rules for interrupting a ritual and victims' healing surges provide a potential countdown clock for an encounter. Your allies could also help assist you with the skill check needed to succeed at the ritual. That's because each ritual required a skill check to perform. Low results didn't necessarily result in failure, but producing a higher check could scale the results. (Not every ritual had scalable results that varied with skill checks though.) Animal Messenger (for example)Level: 1 Time: 10 minutes Component Cost: 10 gp Market Price: 50 gp Key Skill: Nature <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">19 or lower: 6 hours</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">20-29: 12 hours</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">30-39: 18 hours</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">49 or above: 24 hours</li> </ul>Remove Affliction (for example) Level: 8 Time: 1 hour Component Cost: 250 gp Market Price: 680 gp Key Skill: Heal <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">0 or lower: Death (of the target)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">1-9: Damage equal to the target's maximum number of hit points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">10-19: Damage equal to one-half the target's maximum number of hit points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">20-29: Damage equal to one-quarter the target's maximum number of hit points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">30 or higher: No damage</li> </ul>I loved how 4e moved a lot of utility spells and some magical crafting (e.g., Brew Potion) to Rituals. It meant that the casters couldn't so easily bypass encounters with a quick spell or sleep on the problem and simply churn out the right spell the next morning. (A number of caster players used to earlier editions, didn't like this change though.) Here is the list of rituals from PHB 1 alone: [spoiler]<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Animal Messenger</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Arcane Lock</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Brew Potion</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Commune with Nature</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Comprehend Language</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Consult Mystic Sages</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Consult Oracle</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cure Disease</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Detect Object</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Detect Secret Doors</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Discern Lies</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Discenchant Magic Item</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Drawmij's Instant Summons</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Enchant Magic Items</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Endure Elements</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Eye of Alarm</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Eye of Warning</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Forbiddance</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gentle Repose</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hallucinatory Creature</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hallucinatory Item</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hand of Fate</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Knock</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Leomund's Secret Chest</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Linked Portal</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Loremaster's Bargain</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic Circle</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic Mouth</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make Whole</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Observe Creature</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Passwall</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Phantom Steed</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Planar Portal</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Raise Dead</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Remove Affliction</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Secret Page</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sending</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Shadow Walk</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Silence</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Speak with Dead</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tenser's Floating Disk</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Traveller's Feast</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">True Portal</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">View Location</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">View Object</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Voice of Fate</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Water Breathing</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Water Walk</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wizard's Sight</li> </ul>[/spoiler]<a href="https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Rituals" target="_blank">And this list grew with time.</a> Almost needless to say, there were a number of caster players (i.e., Wizards) who weren't happy that many of their instant cast utility spells were suddenly rituals or even available to non-casting people with the right feat and skill. (And somehow they were angry in 4e about the latter, but okay with it in 5e.) In my experience, Rituals in 5e often get handwaved and glossed over: e.g., "Okay, you have the time and components. Your ritual succeeds." However, this was not generally my experience with rituals in 4e. Again, there were incentive structures to not gloss over performing the ritual: e.g., having allies aid the ritual, the skill check affecting the results, etc. So rituals in 4e, again IME (and I can't speak to anyone else's) had more depth to them, and it felt more like simulating rituals in fiction. Removing a Curse in fiction sometimes feels like a big ordeal in fiction. In 5e, it involves finding a Cleric to cast a 3rd level spell. Big whoop. It also becomes easier to imagine a world in which these rituals are provided as a service. Let's say you take your ally suffering from a curse to a friendly temple. You are not simply asking the clergy there to cast Remove Curse so you can be on your merry way. As seen above with Remove Affliction, there is a risk of harming or killing your ally further too! You are also asking both time and money from them. And as it's 4e, these clergy may not even be clerics. They could simply be ordained ritualists! Raise Dead (level 8), for example, will cost the clergy at the temple 8 hours of their time to perform, and that price increases with the target's character tier! (Unlike 5e there is no Revivify either.)</blockquote>

Verification