D&D 5E All cantrips can be cast as a Ritual.

[The Game Doctor]

So i was considering going into the Ebberon setting eventually.
I was thinking, all the cantrips can be done as a ritual casting. That way, just like in Ebberon, pretty much everyone is magical in some way.
Any other opinions on this/ideas to complete the Ebberon feel?

 

[Satyrn]

So i was considering going into the Ebberon setting eventually.
I was thinking, all the cantrips can be done as a ritual casting. That way, just like in Ebberon, pretty much everyone is magical in some way.
Any other opinions on this/ideas to complete the Ebberon feel?

Are these special rituals that don't need the ritual casting feature to perform, then? Or are you letting everyone cast rituals automatically, maybe.

 

[machineelf]

I have not played an Eberron campaign very much, but I have read through the 4th ed. campaign guide. I may be wrong, but I don't believe the idea is that everyone knows a little magic, but rather that magic is widespread, though not often very deep. Magic is used for the utility of society.

In other words, it's like there are a lot of "magic workers" out in the world, who don't know a lot of magic, but have learned one particular thing in their chosen industry, like magically raising horses so that they can run faster for longer distances without getting tired, or magically controlling elemental forces to power airships, or using magic to teleport messages from one city to another, thus setting up a mail system.

These magic workers aren't powerful mages or wizards, they just know their one thing, and that's how industry is created in society. It's basically the industrial revolution, but with magic instead of technology. There are powerful wizards and other magic casters out in the world whose knowledge is both deep and wide, but they are much more few and far between. The magic workers know just enough to do their jobs.

But there are still plenty of people who don't know any magic at all. Fighters, thieves, politicians, etc., who just rely on the services of the "magic workers" and the various industries in their day-to-day lives.

So if I understand your question correctly, you don't need to give everyone magical ability in an Eberron world. Also, WOTC released some Eberron playtest material that might help you out: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/unearthed-arcana-eberron

 

[The Game Doctor]

Thanks! I hadn't realized they had done an unearthed arcana for Ebberon.
Now if only they'd make a Krynn setting.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

So i was considering going into the Ebberon setting eventually.
I was thinking, all the cantrips can be done as a ritual casting. That way, just like in Ebberon, pretty much everyone is magical in some way.
Any other opinions on this/ideas to complete the Ebberon feel?

I think as Secondhander said, in Eberron it is not the case that everyone is magical in some way. There are just more NPCs with the Ritual Caster Feat around who can cover minor magical items or magics on a commercial basis.

The idea of allowing cantrips as rituals is a good one though, as a benefit of having a Dragonmark. I run dragonmarks as not just giving the benefits in the UA, but also allowing some spells to be cast as rituals with the correct dragonshard focus.
I also reduce the rarity of many magic items by one step if they have the restriction "requires the correct dragonmark to attune to/use".
In order to allow Dragonmarked PCs, I allowed PCs to exchange their Racial ability score bonuses for a limited list of feats at character creation.

In terms of other stuff to give the Eberron feel, I allow a 'magic item economy' but generally of commercial/utility items rather than adventuring-level items and weapons. The justification for this is that House Cannith shifted production to sell to the upper-middle class of now-civilians after the Last War. They still do make weapons and other items of direct use to adventurers, but generally under exclusive production contracts for national militaries. Even after official hostilities have ended, most nations are stockpiling equipment for their special forces and spies.

 

[Mad_Jack]

In Eberron, being able to use magic is sort of like having a college degree... Not everyone has one, and those who do tend to be specialized in one particular thing. As mentioned above, "Magewrights" are a class of craftsman who use limited amounts of specific low-level magic in conjunction with or to augment their regular crafting skills.
For most purposes, giving an NPC the Magic Initiate feat would definitely work for modelling a Magewright.