About them rituals

[Milambus]

I take it you are going on the fact it says you possess one? I took have you get one but you still need to buy the thing from your starter gold and it didn't just appear before you when you decided you became a wizard. It's a tool of your trade much like a sword is for a fighter and they didn't get that for free. The cost is comparable to a fighter getting his weapons and armor and if you don't need to purchase it, it does seem a bit unfair to the other characters that require higher priced armor/weapons.

Possess means you own one, not that you can buy it. Anyone can buy a spellbook, the wizard gets it for free. I'm not debating whether its fair or not,
the text is pretty clear that the Wizards owns his spellbook and that the Cleric owns a ritual book.

I make my players pay for the spellbook, and I always pay for mine. Otherwise, Wizards start play with 70g unspent while others who've had to pay for everything start play with 5-15g.

Do you also make them pay to buy the rituals themselves? All of the the level 1 rituals in the PHB cost 50-75gp, no way a level 1 character could afford 2-3 of them in addition to other gear.

As for that 70gp the wizard has? Thats what he uses to buy components to cast the rituals.

 

[Rafe]

Yes, but an armor wearing Melee Cleric wouldn't have 70g left over to spend on a ritual book. So you're being a bit unfair to the Cleric here.

True enough. Also, I played around in the D&DI Character Builder and saw that a spellbook comes compliments of the house - no cost.

You could always rule that a Wizard pays the full 50g (3 rituals) for the spellbook whereas the Cleric pays only 33g (2 rituals). 16g5s each, rounded down. Would free up some coin for the class that has to invest in more armor/weapons vs the one that doesn't.