Ritual Casting: thinking of giving for free

[WizarDru]

I am seriously considering offering Ritual Casting as a free Feat to all players...or perhaps Ritual Casting to magical characters and something like Expertise to martial characters.

Is there a particular reason to avoid this?

 

[Mengu]

If by "Expertise" you mean "Practiced Study" then sure, go for it.

 

[Riastlin]

The main reason is that some classes are balanced in part on the idea that they do get ritual casting for free (such as the Bard or Invoker). Now, if none of your players are playing a class that gets ritual casting for free, then there's really not an issue. But those who are will in essence be getting short-changed when you hand it out to other classes. In other words, Bards no doubt did not get some other ability, feature, etc. because they DID get ritual casting.

 

[moxcamel]

As Riastlin says, some classes get this feat as part of their build. So if you're going to allow everyone to have it, you might consider giving those classes who automatically get it some other kind of boon.

 

[Abstruse]

The main reason is that some classes are balanced in part on the idea that they do get ritual casting for free (such as the Bard or Invoker). Now, if none of your players are playing a class that gets ritual casting for free, then there's really not an issue. But those who are will in essence be getting short-changed when you hand it out to other classes. In other words, Bards no doubt did not get some other ability, feature, etc. because they DID get ritual casting.

Not even counting Wizards, whose only real advantage over the Mage build these days is free Ritual Casting and a few free rituals at various levels. Otherwise, the Mage wins with an extra at-will and better class feature bonuses.

 

[OnlineDM]

I'm fine with this as a house rule, though I agree that just doing this alone would short-change characters of classes that already get Ritual Caster as a free bonus feat. I'd suggest giving those classes yet another feat as a bonus (probably of the DM's choice, something that you expect to have a similar effect on the game as Ritual Caster).

 

[Nightson]

I implemented this in my game and I really liked the effect it produced, rituals seemed more natural and were used more. Ritual Caster got changed for anybody who had it already or wanted to get it into:

Ritual Caster:
Prereq: Arcana, Religion or Nature trained.
You can learn and cast rituals of up to your level plus three.
You receive a +3 bonus on ritual skill checks.
Component cost of rituals decreased by ten percent.
You may cast one ritual of your level minus three once per day without paying the component cost, if a focus or healing surge is required then it still is required. Brew Potion, Make Whole, Fool's Gold, Enchant Magic Item, Raise Dead, and Create Teleportation Circle are all exempt from this. (This list is old an probably needs to be updated)

 

[WizarDru]

My motivation for giving Ritual Casting is to promote it. For those who might be taking a loss, we'd decide whether or not an additional boon might be in order, such as enhancing their Ritual Casting.

My experience so far has been that rituals get underutilized...and since they tend to evoke pre-4E spell systems, I'd like to encourage their use. Obviously, this would be a campaign-specific house rule.

 

[Riastlin]

My motivation for giving Ritual Casting is to promote it. For those who might be taking a loss, we'd decide whether or not an additional boon might be in order, such as enhancing their Ritual Casting.

My experience so far has been that rituals get underutilized...and since they tend to evoke pre-4E spell systems, I'd like to encourage their use. Obviously, this would be a campaign-specific house rule.

Aye, by all means talk it over with your players. Just make sure that everyone is happy with it is all.

I also agree that rituals are often under-utilized. In part, I think this often is a result of campaign design. Its one thing to give out rituals to players, its an entirely different matter though to make them useful. Sure, teleportation rituals are great for instance, but if the party never has to leave town, then they don't do much good (as an obviously extreme example).

 

[Mapache]

I give it out for free and don't bother tracking the cost of rituals, and they still only get used occasionally. My feeling is that there's very little difference between one PC having Ritual Casting and all PCs having Ritual Casting, and if no PCs have Ritual Casting, it's not fair to the one PC that takes one for the team and gives up another feat for it. Rituals are cool. I want more of them. I like giving my PCs a toolbox of highly specific solutions and then watching them apply them to completely unexpected and inappropriate problems.