Rituals are in it would seem

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello Everyone,

It would appear that rituals will be in the core, but not in the playtest according to the latest chat log.

Jeremy Crawford: And I'm Jeremy Crawford, head of editing and development for D&D products.

Mearls: I also pitch in as needed to get work done. For instance, my other open window has the rules text for rituals, though those won't be in the initial playtest.

Jeremy Crawford: I do enjoy trying to get Mike to work as a writer still.
Mearls: I think we're ready for questions.

This is big news (considering there was no mention of rituals in the wizard focus L&L article) as rituals were certainly one of the highlights of 4e for me, but a highlight that never seemed to go as far as it could or should. I look forward to seeing what they do with them.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I wouldn't have expected rituals to be in the initial playtest. Rituals would seem to be heavily influenced by any tweaks they do to basic spells.

I'd have been stunned if rituals were not covered in some form by the time of official 5E launch, though. They are one of the best elements in 4E!

 

[Kzach]

Ugh.

Although I like the INTENTION of rituals, the execution has so far made them annoying and almost pointless.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

That's encouraging. I think there's a place for ritual-type magic for non-combat spellcasting. Implementation hasn't been perfect, but the seeds of success are there.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Ugh.

Although I like the INTENTION of rituals, the execution has so far made them annoying and almost pointless.

For a great many rituals I have to agree. Large powerful world shattering magic should require a ritual to perform.

Some utility magic that didn't need to be a ritual but got stuck as one because of the utterly useless dividing barrier erected between combat and non-combat should return to regular spells.

I hope 5E recognizes the importance of time sensitive action in situations where a fight isn't currently taking place.

 

[Ahnehnois]

In principle, the more you can separate your character's abilities from the rules that actually make the game work, the better. Rituals are in theory a nice way of working outside the constraints of spells. It sounds to me like it was a wasted opportunity in 4e (and the 3e equivalent is just a sketch), but I would hope they'd take another hack at rituals and do better this time.

 

[grimslade]

I think the general vibe is a love the concept or design space for rituals and distinct Bronx cheer on the implementation. Even better I think the developers are on the same page.

Knock is not a ritual. Raise Dead is. Ritual to seal the portal to the Shadow King's pocket plane or to bring Orcus to the Prime Material for a zombie apocalypse, heck yeah ritual.

A ritual should require more than some spell caster and some gold. The ritual should be an event all to itself. Skills, sacrifice, rare and contradictory components and exciting locales should be a minimum. Animating the Dead is not for the faint of heart and neither is purging lycanthropy from innocents.

 

[Ainamacar]

Rituals take two. I think there are three essential elements that a robust 5e ritual system needs.

1. Effects that can scale from the small to the campaign-shaking. Casting a really big ritual can be an encounter, even an adventure, unto itself. I'd love rituals with brief trees for expanding effects and lots of advice for free-forming when necessary.
2. Sane resource management, which probably requires a sane D&D economy (wish us luck). The main thing is to price rituals primarily by effect, regardless of who is casting it. Strong ritual casters slightly enhance a ritual for the otherwise same resource expenditure. Rituals and magic items explore the same space in the game resource-wise, in my opinion.
3. Strong thematic ties with classes/themes/backgrounds that are traditionally magic or should have access to these sorts of effects. For example, letting a wizard perform a ritual beforehand (expending all necessary resources) and filling a slot with that ritual for faster casting. Giving the sorcerer very limited spontaneous or cheap, but not necessarily fast, access to some rituals. Maybe druids can cast some rituals based on environment, etc. Maybe clerics can perform a miracle deserving of the name after saving a temple from orcs. Rituals are a generic system, but they shouldn't feel that way. Providing some unique "interfaces" to the ritual system will go a long way.

 

[ren1999]

Animating the dead is something that would be useful during encounter combat. By making it a time-consuming ritual, that can't happen.

Someone on EN World commented "It is foolish to expect different results from the same people." I am inclined to agree.

Please let me know when the developers are finished taking player and GM suggestions for 5E so that I can spend more of my time playing the existing editions.

 

[Andor]

I, for one, welcome our new ritual casters.