Putting Rituals in Essentials

[Narl]

I'm starting new to 4E with Essentials, but I have read the original 4E rules and thought rituals were one of the best things in there.

Any issues with putting rituals back into Essentials? Any considerations?

One concern I had is that it seems to me anyone can cast rituals. Am I missing something? A fighter could take the Skill Training feat to get Arcana or Religion, and then take the Ritual Caster feat. Seems strange that a Fighter could cast Raise Dead.

 

[OnlineDM]

Rituals absolutely still exist in 4th Edition, they're just not published in the Essentials books. None of the classes in Heroes of the Fallen Lands get the Ritual Caster feat by default, but any of them are allowed to take it (they have access to the rest of the 4th Edition content, including feats). Yes, a fighter can learn rituals if he wants to spend a feat on it, but that's always been the case in 4th Edition.

Feel free to house rule to your heart's content. If you want to rule that you can't take Ritual Caster if you use the martial power source, go for it. If you want to rule that the Mage has the option of giving up some class feature in order to get Ritual Caster for free, have at it!

 

[shamsael]

I do not believe there is any reason to exclude rituals from an essentials game (except in the case that you simply don't have access to the rules). For the purposes of essentials, I would not allow players to purchase Alchemical Reagents or the like, but rather have ritual components be given out as treasure. For example, a randomly generated treasure parcel containing a Gold Coin value could have some or all of those coins given in the form of a lesser philosophers stone which can be used to pay the component cost of rituals.

I personally think rituals are best if they drive the undertaking of quests, and the idea that one could just exchange a pile of gold for the ability to raise the dead is stupid.

On your second question, you are correct. Anyone willing to spend a feat and invest gold can learn rituals.

 

[the Jester]

I'm starting new to 4E with Essentials, but I have read the original 4E rules and thought rituals were one of the best things in there.

Any issues with putting rituals back into Essentials? Any considerations?

Rituals are absolutely still around, and Essentials are just new builds and powers. They exist in parallel to the rest of 4e, not independent from it.

One concern I had is that it seems to me anyone can cast rituals. Am I missing something? A fighter could take the Skill Training feat to get Arcana or Religion, and then take the Ritual Caster feat. Seems strange that a Fighter could cast Raise Dead.

That's a lot of the point of them being rituals instead of just class abilities. This way, you don't have to have a cleric in your party if you want to be able to raise dead.

It's rare that a fighter invests in rituals, but I think it's cool that one can.

 

[Klaus]

I'm starting new to 4E with Essentials, but I have read the original 4E rules and thought rituals were one of the best things in there.

Any issues with putting rituals back into Essentials? Any considerations?

One concern I had is that it seems to me anyone can cast rituals. Am I missing something? A fighter could take the Skill Training feat to get Arcana or Religion, and then take the Ritual Caster feat. Seems strange that a Fighter could cast Raise Dead.

Indeed, rituals are only a feat (Ritual Caster) away from Essentials characters.

And a Fighter that trains Arcana and takes Ritual Caster is no longer just a Fighter. He's a warrior trained in the ways of the arcane. He's more like Giles (from Buffy), where the wizard is more like Willow.

Also, Martial characters have their own subset of rituals, called Martial Practices.

 

[GRStrayton]

I've said before that I'm a huge fan of rituals, so I'm biased on this question. We're streamlining our three campaigns to be Essentials-centric, but still allowing anything from any 4th edition book (or the DDi) to be used. I just changed my wizard over to a mage build and spent a feat on Ritual Caster.

In addition, anyone can cast a ritual from a scroll, even without the Ritual Caster feat (making it similar to the Protection scrolls from 1st Edition), so it definitely feels right to me that a fighter could spend some extra time studying the arcane ways of ritual casting under the tutelage of a wizard or other magic-using teacher and from then on be able to cast rituals WITHOUT scrolls (so, training in Arcana plus Ritual Caster).

 

[Jhaelen]

Rituals absolutely still exist in 4th Edition, they're just not published in the Essentials books.

Has this already been confirmed? I thought they might be in the DM's kit.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Has this already been confirmed? I thought they might be in the DM's kit.

going to check compendium...

yes they do...

 

[P1NBACK]

Nvm.

 

[Jhaelen]

going to check compendium...

yes they do...

Hmpf. What I actually meant to ask was:
Has it already been confirmed that no rituals will be published in Essential books?

I know of course that the existing rituals won't go away even if they aren't mentioned in Essentials