Getting people to use Rituals

[kitsune9]

My group has problems with using rituals. The problem is two-fold.

So how do I encourage players to use rituals of their own accord? They reach for their skills readily enough, so they aren't just hack n' slash goons, but they don't seem to want to use rituals unless a plot barrier arises that only a ritual can solve, even if there is no cost.

How do I encourage my DM to hand out more ritual-based treasure without nagging about it? He'll give me some ritual treasure if I ask, but he always forgets by the time we play next month.

For 1), if your party is low enough level and don't have a lot of magical means then making the rituals the only option gets it working. Such as the knock ritual. Make the door solid iron so that any kind of strength check or attack will fail. If the PC's should know that to continue on with their quest, they must get past that door. They can choose the easy way such as looking for through their character sheets and finding the stuff to cast the ritual or the hard and expensive way such as hiring a dwarven team of sappers.

To reinforce #1, you should make the alternative means more expensive than the ritual. Your players will eventually learn through their actions that being efficient pays its own dividends.

To reinforce #1 another way is to send an email to your players stating that you're going to be providing challenges in which the solution is not so obvious and that they should look at all their treasure, resources, etc. to determine if they can overcome that challenge. A written email is always a good thing because it has the to tendency to reinforce the idea.

Lastly, your players are only as good as the effort they are truly willing to put into the game. If your players haven't really read the PH and are "coasting" in the game, then you have a bigger issue going on.

For #2, talk to you DM. Let him know that he's overlooking the parcel system or that the treasure your party is supposed to get is lower than what you should be getting. But ultimately realize that it's a style issue of play (just like yours is) and if he doesn't want to relent, then you'll have to move on with his decision. It's kind of player expectations and DM expectations. As example would be is how much magic should be in a campaign? If a DM says "little to none" and the players want "oodles and oodles", then that's a style conflict. Talk to your DM to get that worked out.

Happy Gaming!

 

[fba827]

My group enjoys rituals. (and when I dm, i give out components as well as the occasional ritual scroll as rewards). But we are not a dungeon-crawl heavy group. I would think if a group is dungeon-crawling they wouldn't want to think about it due to time requirements to cast.

If the group isn't interested in them, then don't force it.
If you're a player that wants to use rituals but the rest of your group isn't interested, then they'll consider it "your thing" to worry about paying for and might get annoyed if it "takes time"

 

[level1gamer]

I think the problem with rituals is that there are too many barriers to use them. First you have to buy a scroll or a book to even have a ritual. Then, it takes time to cast one, so you couldn't use one in very time constrained situations. Then, it costs money every single time to use many of them because you have to buy reagents.

I understand the first two, but why do I have to pay every time I cast a ritual? It seems to actively discourage using them.

 

[Roger]

Hmmm. I suppose you could try running rituals more like skill challenges, instead the monolithic black boxes they're like now. The players might bite on that.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[Alan Shutko]

I understand the first two, but why do I have to pay every time I cast a ritual? It seems to actively discourage using them.

It's not so bad that it costs, but that it doesn't cost money. We had serious problems when we started the campaign because we had hardly any reagents, and when we tried to buy any, it cost 2gp for 1gp of reagents, and could only get about 30gp of reagents total. That priced rituals out of our availability.

We talked to the DM about it and between periodic reagent drops in our treasure and access to disenchant magic item, now have enough to use reagents more often. We're still working on the exact balance.

 

[tuxgeo]

I think the problem with rituals is that there are too many barriers to use them. First you have to buy a scroll or a book to even have a ritual. Then, it takes time to cast one, so you couldn't use one in very time constrained situations. Then, it costs money every single time to use many of them because you have to buy reagents.

I understand the first two, but why do I have to pay every time I cast a ritual? It seems to actively discourage using them.

It looks to me like version continuity from 3.5E: Compare these Spells:
Arcane Lock: Gold dust worth 25 gp.
Astral Projection: A jacinth worth at least 1,000 gp, plus a silver bar. . . .
Augury: Incense worth at least 25 gp.
Bless Water: 5 pounds of powdered silver (worth 25 gp).
Hallow: [components] worth at least 1,000 gp, plus 1,000 gp per level. . . .
Identify: A pearl of at least 100 gp value, . . .
Instant Summons: A sapphire worth at least 1,000 gp.

Those 3.5E component costs were partly to keep the party from using the spells over and over. It just carried over to 4E as Rituals instead of Spells.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

This would head further into gamist territory, but having a ritual points budget, not unlike the 3.5E Unearthed Arcana or Artificer craft points, where every level the party gets a certain amount of gold to spend on rituals and components(item and potion creation excluded) and if it isn't spent by the next level its lost.

Something like that could work.

 

[Derren]

"Not enough bang for the buck"
Why should the party use money on something they either can do with a skill check or is not really important to the quest (as I don't assume you make situations where the party has to use a ritual or they can't continue)?

 

[Kunimatyu]

If the players are dumb and don't use rituals, that's their problem - make their lives harder until they get the hint.

In our recently concluded 4e game, we used rituals all the frickin' time. They're really useful. Then again, we were all experienced PnP RPGers who thought about more than just combat optimization.

A group that's migrating in from videogames might need a gentle introduction to rituals - perhaps an NPC sage that uses rituals on the PC's behalf, and is eager to teach them to willing students.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I have an idea that I might try out in an upcoming campaign. I was thinking about making the reagent cost of rituals the cost of scribing the ritual into a ritual book. Thereafter, each ritual known would become a daily power usable with no further cost. Each ritual using character could cast 1 ritual per day per character level (assuming they knew at least that many rituals). I was also thinking of making rituals take no longer than 1 full round to cast. This would increase thier usefulness somewhat.

With this option, rituals would become secret lore that must be discovered and would not be available for sale. The process of scribing a ritual melds the magic to the user which allows daily use. The scribing erases the ritual from the original source. If the PC's find a ritual book then each ritual could be copied once.

This combined with custom magical gear and no magic shops means that ridiculous amounts of treasure doesn't have to be lying all over the place and the PC's can spend thier cash on wine, women, or whatever they please without shorting themselves resource wise.