Do your PCs use Rituals regularly?

[Hereticus]

My PC's don't. We've been playing 4e for almost a year now, but they've only used Remove Disease (twice), Remove Affliction (once) and Raise Dead.

I've suggested that they use them, especially now that they're 11th level and are capable of using some of the divination ones.

I play the party Wizard, and I cast many rituals each game. The Cleric and the Warlock who also have the feat, but they have cast less than ten rituals between them in total.

Comprehend Languages
Create Campsite
Fastidiousness
Make Whole (common)
Tenser's Floating Disk (common)

Endure Elements (common during winter)
Eye of Alarm
Water Walk

Arcane Lock (common)
Enchant Magic Item
Hand of Fate
Traveler's Feast (common)

Hallucinatory Item
Magic Circle

Commune with Nature
Excavation
Phantom Steed
Sending
Speak With Dead

Linked Portal (common)
Water Breathing
Wizard’s Sight

Conceal Object
Detect Object

But I hadn't started casting rituals until I hit the upper levels of the heroic tier, around eighth level. They are too costly, and take too long to cast. Component cost is split by the party.

At low levels they didn't. Once my party's wizard hit around 9th he used them pretty frequently.

Yeah... available gold was often the limiting factor.

 

[OchreJelly]

Frequently.

Our group makes heavy use of Phantom Steed. It helps if the players feel that the casting pays off in some direct way, like using Phantom Steed to get somewhere quick when the plot requires it, or use of Endure Elements / Trailblaze to make a wilderness skill challenge easier. Beyond that they use Comprehend Languages frequently, usually to learn more about a new dungeon area (where no one knows what's written on the walls, for example).

Enchant / Transfer Enchantment comes up often as well. As of late Linked Portal has come in very handy.

Just make the benefits transparent enough and players will start to use them. Also this group pays for components out of party treasure. When everyone pitches in, the hit isn't so bad.

 

[malraux]

In my Ravenloft game, the party has made use of undead ward a good bit. The rolls are strong enough to make it almost impossible for most attackers to penetrate the circle. An uninterrupted night is a valuable thing.

 

[OchreJelly]

I also forgot to mention the Earthen Rampart and Magic Circle are great rituals if you know you have to defend an area and have time to prepare.

 

[Nymrohd]

I have a rather large group and 4 ritual users, a Wizard for Arcana and Religion, a Druid for Nature, a Cleric for Heal and a Bard for bardic rituals. They all make liberal use of rituals. On a straight dungeon crawl it feels that rituals are mainly used to overcome obstacles or gain knowledge but when outside the dungeon, they seem to shine. A party that has the extra cash to use on rituals (and I confess I give them more than I should per parcel system as far as gold and ritual reagents are concerned) can really prepare a battlefield to their advantage, improve travelling conditions, overcome skill challenges better and scout more effectively.

 

[Morrus]

I've never yet seen a PC use a ritual.

 

[AllisterH]

Unless you hand out reagents as treasure, you won't see much use of rituals at levels 1-6...

Once you hit level 7, not only do players feel they can afford them but the rituals get better as the players ritual roll (religion, arcana or nature) is high enough to get a decent result

 

[Piratecat]

My 3rd-4th lvl PCs use them fairly often, and I encourage this. One group has used rituals to lower water, fix boats, and (almost) waterwalk; the other group is fond of affect normal fires, create campsite and a bard ritual or two.

I'll note that I give out ritual ingredients as treasure. I love the things, and think they're good for our game.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I love rituals, but my characters ignore them. A lot of them are kind of new, and there's only one ritual caster, so I might have to nudge him, but they generally balk at the cost.

 

[karlindel]

My PCs use them fairly frequently. They've used them to create watchful eyes, for mounts, Tenser's to carry things, and water walk when they expected to cross or travel on rivers.

I'm a huge fan of rituals and sometimes hand out ritual components as part of the gp treasure.