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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lurks-no-More" data-source="post: 4213874" data-attributes="member: 8226">As I see it, the rituals have the following purposes.a) Clear up the stat blocks. No more mariliths with animate dead in their loooong list of spell-like abilities... because against a party that stands a chance to beat the demon herself, the undead are going to be a speedbump at most. And what if you wanted your demoness to be able to do something outside her list of SLA's? Great, she knows the Unspeakable Communion ritual and uses it to turn the captured peasants into slavering beasts.b) Eliminate some cheese. The problems with divinations and Teleport are well known. Making long-distance travel magic a ritual, for example, helps curb this sort of a thing, and forces the characters to approach combats with more care, since you can't just teleport back to safety if things are starting to go wrong.c) Give people a reason to use this stuff. Hands up: how many people prepare Ghost Sound, Phantom Steed, Gentle Repose or any number of other, narrowly useful utility spells except when they know beforehand they're going to use those? Damn few, I'm sure. (Sorcerers were even worse; with their few spells known, it was doubly important to focus on the most powerful, widely applicable tricks, and ignore all the amusing, less often seen spells.)</blockquote>