Rituals, lots of them !

[BendBars/LiftGates]

One of the rituals (I forget which) has a 5 minute casting time. I was surprised by this because I, too, am a little bit off-put by the 10 minutes it takes to cast most basic rituals. Is this the first five-minute ritual? Is it an error?


Since I'm so bothered by the casting time, I've been considering ways to overcome it. I considered halving all the casting times, without really knowing what that would do to game balance, since that would place most neatly in the "short rest" category of 5 minutes. Now, with a five-minute ritual, that doesn't really work.


What I would really like to do is insert some kind of True Sorcery style rule whereby you can take a penalty to your skill check to reduce the casting time. An hour to thirty minutes, thirty minutes to ten minutes, ten minutes to five minutes, five minutes to one minute, one minute to one round, one round to one standard action. Something like that, but I'm kind of fuzzy about the actual casting times. I see two problems with it:

1. What about rituals that don't require skill checks? (My solution, in this case, you have to make a skill check at a certain standard DC based on its level)
2. How fast is too fast? My goal is to have fun little magic effects possible everywhere, and so higher-level casters could be very flashy about it by having mastered their low-level rituals. But I don't want the game to suddenly be about complicated rituals going off all the time.

 

[Dausuul]

Wow, there is a lot of rituals for cleaning stuff. Are there a lot of Wizards employed as janitors or maids?

*shrug* My 3.X wizards and sorcerors always learned prestidigitation for the sole purpose of being able to walk through filthy grimy dungeons and stay clean; I expect these rituals will see a lot of use.

And I love the new rituals. Very well-done, covering a lot of useful and interesting ground. Now that non-combat utility magic has been separated out into its own category, maybe we'll see more of it. (3.X had a tendency to scant this area IMO - most of the non-combat magic in 3.X was inherited from 2E.)

The limit on Stasis Shell, that the object can't be moved more than 5 squares per round, is a nice touch. Objects under Stasis Shell have to be carried in a slow, ceremonial fashion.

 

[Keenath]

In order to make it permanent, you need a small crystal model of the door within 5 squares. I was thinking well that sucks, anything passing through would just see it and either destroy it or take it for its value. But I'd forgotten "Conceal Object" from earlier in the list that lets you hide something using your Arcana Check +5 (also Level 10.)

Well, or you could just bury the model under the doorstep, stick it under the floorboards, or put it in a hidden compartment in the bookcase twenty feet away.

I particularly like the idea of putting the model under the flagstone just inside the door.

This seems more like home defense than something you'd set up in a dungeon, at any rate.

I think it'd be interesting to use during a werewolf hunt or any similar situation, warding a special door (to the Mayor's house...?) and then hearing the name of the one that disturbed it, and maybe even an image of the creature in its monstrous form.

I dunno, does the spell know the name of the werewolf in wolf form, or would it report his name as "a werewolf"? I dunno. Probably up to the DM.

Me personally, I'd suppose it would give whatever the creature considers its name. If it's a werewolf in wolf form, he'd have an animalistic mind and probably not have a name for himself any more than a normal animal would, so the spell would just report that.

*shrug* My 3.X wizards and sorcerors always learned prestidigitation for the sole purpose of being able to walk through filthy grimy dungeons and stay clean; I expect these rituals will see a lot of use.

Sure. If nothing else, that's an awesome ritual for the whole "we have to swim through a sewer" bit.

 

[CinnamonPixie]

Wow, there is a lot of rituals for cleaning stuff. Are there a lot of Wizards employed as janitors or maids?

There may as well be. With the reduction in the amount of spells they have now (let's face it the entire "wizards suck now, so we'll make the better and more useful in 4e" crap WotC kept shoveling has been proven to be nothing more than crap!). A first level wiz/sor in 3.x has MORE spells and such than the 4e WIZ/SOR has powers for several levels.

The only difference is now you can select something like Magic Missile as an "at will" "power" and literally blast away at something with it every few seconds all day long until the end of time and NEVER get tired or worn out or run out of arcane ability or what-not... Basically they made wiz/sor's better and more useful by gutting the class of all the truly useful "utility" spells (who the heck wants something like "Knock" as one of their very few "powers" or to have to wait 10 minutes for the wizards ONE "ritual" he can cast that day!?) and making them able to be ultra-cheesy and cast one or two "powers" endlessly...

No real use as an adventuring party member now that they've got no "utility" capability... What's the point of having them along to do anything but prance around in fishnets, heels, and a smocked frilly maid's dress!?

 

[Khuxan]

let's face it the entire "wizards suck now, so we'll make the better and more useful in 4e" crap WotC kept shoveling has been proven to be nothing more than crap!

Where did you hear them say this? I remember them discussing making the wizard less-powerful so he/she doesn't dominate.

A first level wiz/sor in 3.x has MORE spells and such than the 4e WIZ/SOR has powers for several levels.

3E 1st-level spells prepared: prestidigitation, ghost sound, ray of frost; magic missile, sleep.
(5, each 1/day)

4E 1st-level powers available: prestidigitation, ghost sound, light, mage hand; magic missile, ray of frost; burning hands; acid arrow/sleep; comprehend language, magic mouth, tenser's floating disc.
(11, 6 at-will, 1 1/encounter, 1 1/day, and three whenever time and money permit).

 

[doctorhook]

There may as well be. With the reduction in the amount of spells they have now (let's face it the entire "wizards suck now, so we'll make the better and more useful in 4e" crap WotC kept shoveling has been proven to be nothing more than crap!). A first level wiz/sor in 3.x has MORE spells and such than the 4e WIZ/SOR has powers for several levels.

The only difference is now you can select something like Magic Missile as an "at will" "power" and literally blast away at something with it every few seconds all day long until the end of time and NEVER get tired or worn out or run out of arcane ability or what-not... Basically they made wiz/sor's better and more useful by gutting the class of all the truly useful "utility" spells (who the heck wants something like "Knock" as one of their very few "powers" or to have to wait 10 minutes for the wizards ONE "ritual" he can cast that day!?) and making them able to be ultra-cheesy and cast one or two "powers" endlessly...

No real use as an adventuring party member now that they've got no "utility" capability... What's the point of having them along to do anything but prance around in fishnets, heels, and a smocked frilly maid's dress!?

...Nice rant about Wizards. Do you enjoy threadcrapping?

The more I look at some of the rituals, the more pumped I get about seeing them in action! (Earthen Ramparts ftw.)

BTW, if anyone is looking for a compiled list of all the rituals published so far, indexed by level, (similar to the chart on p301 of the Player's Handbook, but including all the Dragon Magazine rituals), check out the link in my sig! I worked hard on it, and I want to share.

- doctorhook

 

[Tellerve]

There may as well be. With the reduction in the amount of spells they have now (let's face it the entire "wizards suck now, so we'll make the better and more useful in 4e" crap WotC kept shoveling has been proven to be nothing more than crap!). A first level wiz/sor in 3.x has MORE spells and such than the 4e WIZ/SOR has powers for several levels.

The only difference is now you can select something like Magic Missile as an "at will" "power" and literally blast away at something with it every few seconds all day long until the end of time and NEVER get tired or worn out or run out of arcane ability or what-not... Basically they made wiz/sor's better and more useful by gutting the class of all the truly useful "utility" spells (who the heck wants something like "Knock" as one of their very few "powers" or to have to wait 10 minutes for the wizards ONE "ritual" he can cast that day!?) and making them able to be ultra-cheesy and cast one or two "powers" endlessly...

No real use as an adventuring party member now that they've got no "utility" capability... What's the point of having them along to do anything but prance around in fishnets, heels, and a smocked frilly maid's dress!?

Wha? Where's it say a wizard can only cast one ritual a day? I guess rants like yours work better when you twist facts to benefit your argument.

Tellerve

 

[Harlekin]

Wha? Where's it say a wizard can only cast one ritual a day? I guess rants like yours work better when you twist facts to benefit your argument.

Tellerve

Please Don't feed him. Just use the report button.

 

[Ahglock]

One of the rituals (I forget which) has a 5 minute casting time. I was surprised by this because I, too, am a little bit off-put by the 10 minutes it takes to cast most basic rituals. Is this the first five-minute ritual? Is it an error?

Yeah I noticed that after my previous post. I'd like to see more rituals in the 5 minute range. I think the duration of a short rest is a better standard to work rituals from. And with this there may even be shorter rituals.

 

[That One Guy]

I think high Arcana/expending healing surges/feats will evolve for making certain rituals work faster. I think it will happen simply because it is a fun idea.

[sblock="Allow me a side rant, please."] When 3.0 D&D first came out I wanted a character who was of draconic blood (a sorc) to pretty much become a half dragon. Essentially, prestige class Dragon Disciple. All my friends laughed about how the company must be spying on me. Slowly, every thing I made up showed up in books. I thought about it more and guessed bluntly that these things came about because they would make D&D more fun. Thus, I am going to house rule quick-cast methods for rituals (not exactly sure how, yet... but the above indicates) until WoTC releases official rules. Furthermore, I'll throw in that I expect to see such rules in an Arcane Source book.[/sblock]