Fun With Rituals!

[Scribble]

I like the term "Empowered".
Has anybody codified this a little further?

It might be reasonable for most nexus of lay lines move about a bit and fluctuate, picture ritual caster wandering about holding staff like a divining rod. So setting up shop on top of one ... might be difficult.
The rarer stable locations would be suitably invaluable to "creation" enchantments.

ie by spending more time .. results in less component cost... resulting in profit.

Yeah I like this idea.

I think in my campaign I will have both. Not sure how to tap into the moving ones. Maybe a ritual in it's own right... You can "stabalize" a ley line (the hgiher your check the better the line?) and keep it stabalized with the usual spend a healing surge idea, plus a year and a day makes it "permanent."

I think the "permanent" ones (which have a chance of not being permanent like volcanos...) should need a "focus" of some type. IE an alter, or a druid stones, or magic circle, or soemthing... Whatever works. Something to focus the power.. So you'd need to either built it or find it or whatever.

 

[Rel]

This thread is made of pure awesome. Subscribe!

 

[Scribble]

I think rituals are made of pure awesome, so I'm back on this.

What I like about them is how much it seems like you can mess with them for cool effects...

Like Tenser's Binding: It lets you bind a helpless creature in mystical chains and lasts as long as you (or anyone else) keeps it going... So you can do cool stuff like the eternal guardian watching over the bound whatever for all time...

But then it says the subject can basically teleport away if it's higher lvel then you are. Which kind of bugged me. How could I do cool stuff like binding a god or soemthing... Most of them are above 30th level, and players max out at 30th... The god could just teleport away...

So then I thought: Ok, a new ritual? Sure that would work, maybe they have to research one specific to binding that particular god?

Power componenets agiain? Maybe they need to find the god's true name as a componenent?

Then I was thinking about Pirates of the caribean, and how they "bound Calypso..." All of the pirate lords (presumably all very hgih level) had to be in on the ritual.

So what if instead of just using the "help another" feature already a part of rituals, you could like have multiple people cast the same ritual, with a skill challenge thrown in there to sort of "combine it" into one... Maybe for everyone who gets a success, a phantom "level" is added to the caster level....

Along with something bad happening maybe if they fail? (Just for dramatic effect.)

Man rituals... They're 10 kinds of awesome in a box. A box made of awesome.

 

[Garthanos]

You do like "Over the top" how about one that creates a new god.... ingredients a thousand ritual casters, one true pure mind and one greater demon lord... and a few other odds and ends.

I like the one I designed which gives an analog to the Eladrin Trance, but tied to an arcana skill check. (but can be as effective as requiring only 2 hours if the check is good enough).

 

[Quickleaf]

I agree, rituals (and artifacts) are some of the best mechanics to come out of 4th edition.

Way back when I played in high school I ran quests where the PCs had to acquire "The breath of one never alive", "clay baked by a sun that never rises", or "a vampire's shadow." I LOVED that kind of stuff, and think it would make for awesome ritual components.

 

[Garthanos]

Rituals, - wow, I can make my game world even more magical.
I am thinking about allowing every class 1 ritual even without having training in ritual magic... for the Barbarian this might be a face paint that his shaman designed 'just for him'

 

[Rel]

Rituals, - wow, I can make my game world even more magical.
I am thinking about allowing every class 1 ritual even without having training in ritual magic... for the Barbarian this might be a face paint that his shaman designed 'just for him'

That is a pretty interesting idea. It also dovetails with something else I'm discovering about the granularity of 4e and the way that I've accidentally fixed what I now perceive as a bit of a problem.

This came up recently in our game because the players are in a foreign country where none of them speak the language. They've gotten by ok with interpreters and some use of the Comprehend Languages ritual. But when they looked at how to learn a new language we bumped up against the rules.

You can't learn A new language.

You can only learn THREE new languages at once by taking the Linguist feat. I'm not in any way arguing that it's not a good feat to take. It just seems a bit weird to me that you can't pick up a single language all by itself. But that's just the granularity of the system. If the feat gave you one language probably nobody would ever want to take it because that's rather underpowered compared to other feats.

My solution to this problem was already there however due to my rule about "Background Skills". That's my house rule that lets players pick some skills outside the basic set to add flavor to their character. This isn't some list they pick from. They just tell me what they used to do for a living and what they like to do as a hobby and those become their background skills. The current crop of PC's have skills ranging from stonecutting to calligraphy and cartography to dyemaking. And every 4 levels (at 4th, 8th, etc) they get to add another similar skill or take Skill Focus in a skill they already took.

So I've basically added a (small, simple) subsystem in the game that operates at a finer level of granularity. People wouldn't take Calligraphy over Diplomacy or Endurance. But as a Background Skill it works fine. And that's where the language thing comes in. You can pick up a single language as a Background Skill.

So I think I may swipe this idea and let people take a single ritual that they have been taught as a Background Skill too. I think it functions on that same level of granularity in being less powerful than a regular skill pick or Feat but not necessarily something I want to give away for "free".

Thanks for the idea!

 

[Garthanos]

The current crop of PC's have skills ranging from stonecutting to calligraphy and cartography to dyemaking. And every 4 levels (at 4th, 8th, etc) they get to add another similar skill or take Skill Focus in a skill they already took.

that advancement bit makes your rule special -- backgrounds are already a particularlly adaptable if fringe part of D&D (Players handbook 2 suggests ... they are wholesome goodness)

So I've basically added a (small, simple) subsystem in the game that operates at a finer level of granularity. People wouldn't take Calligraphy over Diplomacy or Endurance. But as a Background Skill it works fine. And that's where the language thing comes in. You can pick up a single language as a Background Skill.
Thanks for the idea!

I have a set of small cultures - Which I call Auld Worlders, they are rather Eladrin like in most regards though tall agile human with a touch of halfelf in appearance ... My elf like folk are ageless and more tolkeinish.

A feature I want is for members of these cultures to use "convenience" magics in there everyday life everyday craftsman able to do well "cantrips"... they are the ones who make light rods ands flash sticks and are responsible for purchaseable magic items in the world. The magi-tech they use is responsible for their longer life spans as well... though much of the greater ritual healing was lost.

So allowing a cantrip from races with magical backgrounds is on my list as well.