New Rituaaaals

[Goumindong]

How about just giving wizards, or a wizard path, a daily power that says basically the same thing?

Better yet, since wizards still "prepare" spells from a pool, add a feat like you presented, but have it be "prepared" in place of a daily spell? If you want to "prepare" the ritual for tomorrow, you need to recast it (at the normal cost). That's basically the same as you were presenting, except the "in place of" bit seems a bit more in keeping with the 4e spirit.

This entire idea is retarded. Rituals are rituals and not powers for a reason.

That reason is

Rituals, when cast in a single action or round, break the game. All of these spells were removed from the wizard repertoire because when only one class has access to them it breaks the game.

You are asking for a mechanic to break the game. Of course it would be really stupidly useful to be able to cast rituals at a moments notice. That is why you cant do it!

As for the utility of it...uhm...you get to use it once, and it costs you 7,000 gold. I'd call a delayed casting of it more of an "In case of emergency" than a "Rogue, stay home, we don't need you".

Right up until the time that 7,000 GP isn't all that much money, which is going to be right around level 20. Now it is "rogue, stay home, we don't need you". Whoops.

but most of the time, you'll want to use it on an unwilling subject, and while you can engineer things to make it possible, it often reaches the point where it's easier to just kill them. ("OK, so we kidnap the prime minister, tie him up for ten minutes while we perform the ritual, and then make him forget he saw us stealing the silverware? And, oh, also, that we kidnapped him?")

You do realize that you indeed just gave mention of a perfect time to use said ritual, right? Because when you do, the prime minister says "welp, i lost the silverware, i wonder what could have happened to them, its so strange that they would disappear." rather than an investigation crew saying "we have a band of murderers on the loose killing government officials, lets find these buggers, round up the militia and run them through."

 

[WhatGravitas]

You are asking for a mechanic to break the game. Of course it would be really stupidly useful to be able to cast rituals at a moments notice. That is why you cant do it!

Also: You could try to cure disease people to death, as it does massive amounts of of damage.

Cheers, LT.

 

[IceFractal]

Some of the rituals are great (Arcane Barrier, for instance), and most are at least useful in the right circumstances, but a few a really hampered by a 10 minute casting time, to the extent of being nearly useless.

Excavate - You know what does this without costing 70gp each time? A shovel. While there are no rules for digging pits, 10 minutes seems adequate to dig a single square pit in earth and loose stone, especially if the rest of the party helps out. And since Craft/Profession skills have been removed, your character is an expert ditchdigger as long as you say they are.

Wizard's Curtain - This one is worse. While it takes 30 gp and 10 minutes to set up a mostly opaque curtain, setting up a tent or actual curtain takes less time, less money, and is actually opaque.

Wizard's Escape is by no means useless, but the 10 minute casting time makes it less an "Escape" and more "Wizard's Sneaky Entry". And how the heck would you escape from jail with it? If the jail is letting people bring Residuum in and perform rituals, they might as well just leave the doors wide open.

Overland Flight is interesting in that it directly lines up with (and is worse than) Cloud Chariot, at almost the same level. I guess this sets a precident that rituals will be weaker than powers of that level.

 

[Lizard]

This entire idea is retarded.

Well, there's a well thought out response. Hard to argue with that. The idea probably sucks, too. And it's lame, as well.

Rituals, when cast in a single action or round, break the game. All of these spells were removed from the wizard repertoire because when only one class has access to them it breaks the game.

Of course, now every class has rituals...

You are asking for a mechanic to break the game. Of course it would be really stupidly useful to be able to cast rituals at a moments notice. That is why you cant do it!

Uhm...how does "Expend time and effort and expense to prepare one ritual ahead of time" equal "being able to cast rituals at a moment's notice"?

Right up until the time that 7,000 GP isn't all that much money, which is going to be right around level 20. Now it is "rogue, stay home, we don't need you". Whoops.

"Rogue, stay home, because we know we'll only need to sneak past one guard...and it's not like there's anything else useful you can do...and we can blow 7 grand on a whim 'cause it doesn't add up...and we might not find a much better use for Seal Memory than confusing one poor mook who got in our way...and besides, it's not like a Rogue is likely to be the one who knows this ritual in the first place..."

IAE, since we're discussing optional rules people might wish to include in their campaigns, and are perfectly free NOT to, I think you're getting a little worked up over nothing.

 

[doctorhook]

I've posted a compilation index of all the rituals (that I could find) in this thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=238591

Enjoy!

 

[Mirtek]

I love Fastidiousness & Preservation

I also wished there would be a mobile version of Banish Vermin that can be cased on a person instead on an area (doesn't need to repel "combat vermin", just ordinary vermin with no real game effect)

 

[Goumindong]

Uhm...how does "Expend time and effort and expense to prepare one ritual ahead of time" equal "being able to cast rituals at a moment's notice"?

Well, in case you didn't notice. When you cast a ritual, it takes roughly 10 minutes. So if you want an effect you have to want it 10 minutes later as well.

During that time, the situation can change.

Now, lets say you can instead prep it and then cast it when you want. Well, now you don't have to want the effect 10 minutes later, you can want the effect at time in the next 24 hours.

And when you want the effect, you can conjure it in 1 full round.

Wow, its almost as if he can get the effect at a moments notice.

Lets take excavation. You can make any sqaures disappear. For 70 GP, you get 3-5 squares of excavation...

There there is wizards curtain. Or "30 GP for a spell better than wall of fog that doesn't require sustaining"

 

[Mistwell]

Explorer's Fire: "You alter one fire of bonfire size or smaller within 5 squares of you. Light cast by the fire cannot be seen from more than 5 squares from the fire. The fire’s light is unchanged within that radius..."

So, if you are in a dark cave, and you use this ritual, are you effectively invisible to creatures outside that radius who do not have darkvision?

 

[Tellerve]

Explorer's Fire: "You alter one fire of bonfire size or smaller within 5 squares of you. Light cast by the fire cannot be seen from more than 5 squares from the fire. The fire’s light is unchanged within that radius..."

So, if you are in a dark cave, and you use this ritual, are you effectively invisible to creatures outside that radius who do not have darkvision?

Yes, exactly.

Icefractal- I agree about excavation a bit, but still think a 5x5x5 hole would take longer than ten minutes to dig up. Even a couple people I think it would take some time...more than 10 minutes. Perhaps your ditchdigging is better than mine, but what little digging I've done makes me think that's not going to equate. Now, granted, for 30 gp or whatever, you could hire plenty of laborers to do a whole lotta holes over the course of a few hours and save yourself money.

I'm not sure what is up with Wizard's Curtain saying nearly opaque and then saying it stops sight lines. I would think they'd wanna just say Heavily Obscured, but the didn't. The -10 to perception is also quite handy as that would allow you to talk freely in the area with a much less chance of being noticed.

Tellerve

 

[Lizard]

Wow, its almost as if he can get the effect at a moments notice.

Lets take excavation. You can make any sqaures disappear. For 70 GP, you get 3-5 squares of excavation...

There there is wizards curtain. Or "30 GP for a spell better than wall of fog that doesn't require sustaining"

Yeah...and if you have to know ahead of time you'll want the effect, and pay the gold for it, and if it turns out you don't want it...oh well.