Jack99
Adventurer
I have always (well, since 2008) had an ambivalent relationship with rituals in 4e D&D. On one hand, I thought it was fairly smart way to handle some of the non-combat spells that filled up spellbooks in the old editions. On the other hand, I have never been completely happy with how rituals turned out. First and foremost, there is the whole money-drain effect. It works decently at heroic tier, but by paragon the expenditures become insignificant, and by epic, the players can barely notice they are spending money.
Lately I have run a campaign with no rituals at all (except as needed plot-wise), and while that worked fairly okay, I felt something was missing.
Anyway, I sat down and thought about it, and came up with the following.
1) I want rituals in my campaigns
2) I don't want them to cost money to cast
3) I want players to be limited both in the amount of rituals, but also in how many they cast each day
4) I don't want to overpower the classes that get ritual casting for free, nor do I want to make it a must-have feat.
The solution to the above?
Ritual Caster
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Trained in Arcana or Religion
Benefit: You can master and perform rituals of your level or lower. Even though some rituals use the Heal skill or the Nature skill, the Arcana skill or the Religion skill is required to understand how to perform rituals.
You may cast one ritual per tier per day (1 at heroic, 2 at paragon, 3 at paragon) at no cost. You may learn a number of rituals equal to 1+intelligence or wisdom modifier (whichever is higher) per tier.
Casting more than the allowed number of rituals comes at a cost. For every ritual cast beyond the allowed number (1/2/3), roll on the table below. All results stack. All penalties last until after your next extended rest.
d20
1. Unconscious
2. Dazed
3. Vulnerability 5/tier
4. Weakened
5. 1 surge value damage
6. -2 to hit
7. Slowed
8. -2 initiative
9. -2 initiative
10. -2 to all skill checks
11. -2 to all skill checks
12. -1 to all defenses
13. -1 to all defenses
14. -1 to all defenses
15. -1 to all defenses
16. -1 to hit
17. -1 to hit
18. -1 to hit
19. -1 to hit
20. No side effect
Now, I am still struggling with casting time. Considering the limited amount of rituals available in a given day to a character, would it unbalance things to reduce the casting time to a standard action? I could also use some more entries for the table, so that not everything is to hit and defense penalties.
What do you guys think? Is it a ridiculous idea?
Lately I have run a campaign with no rituals at all (except as needed plot-wise), and while that worked fairly okay, I felt something was missing.
Anyway, I sat down and thought about it, and came up with the following.
1) I want rituals in my campaigns
2) I don't want them to cost money to cast
3) I want players to be limited both in the amount of rituals, but also in how many they cast each day
4) I don't want to overpower the classes that get ritual casting for free, nor do I want to make it a must-have feat.
The solution to the above?
Ritual Caster
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Trained in Arcana or Religion
Benefit: You can master and perform rituals of your level or lower. Even though some rituals use the Heal skill or the Nature skill, the Arcana skill or the Religion skill is required to understand how to perform rituals.
You may cast one ritual per tier per day (1 at heroic, 2 at paragon, 3 at paragon) at no cost. You may learn a number of rituals equal to 1+intelligence or wisdom modifier (whichever is higher) per tier.
Casting more than the allowed number of rituals comes at a cost. For every ritual cast beyond the allowed number (1/2/3), roll on the table below. All results stack. All penalties last until after your next extended rest.
d20
1. Unconscious
2. Dazed
3. Vulnerability 5/tier
4. Weakened
5. 1 surge value damage
6. -2 to hit
7. Slowed
8. -2 initiative
9. -2 initiative
10. -2 to all skill checks
11. -2 to all skill checks
12. -1 to all defenses
13. -1 to all defenses
14. -1 to all defenses
15. -1 to all defenses
16. -1 to hit
17. -1 to hit
18. -1 to hit
19. -1 to hit
20. No side effect
Now, I am still struggling with casting time. Considering the limited amount of rituals available in a given day to a character, would it unbalance things to reduce the casting time to a standard action? I could also use some more entries for the table, so that not everything is to hit and defense penalties.
What do you guys think? Is it a ridiculous idea?