Rituals Via Spellpoints?

[DreamChaser]

Here are my current ritual house rules, which eliminate the monetary cost of rituals. I haven't found them to be unbalanced. In fact, despite the ease of casting, my wizard has only cast one ritual since the campaign started (three adventures).

So the proof of not imbalanced is disuse? That doesn't make for much evidence. That just indicates that the ritualist has not had / perceived any opportunity to use the rituals she / he possesses during those three adventures.


I think a better fix would simply be to use the existing rules but cut the cost in half. (third, quarter, ymmv). This reduces the load on party / individual treasure without making rituals easy or automatic.

DC

 

[CapnZapp]

Rituals are meant to be the filler for the "missing" magic in the 4E system that casters lost when moving to the Combat Only ability model. All of the non-combat magic that really defines a caster. A wizard is not just Magic Missile. The class assumes the use of rituals since Ritual Caster is a Class Feature.

However, ritual casters have to spend a LOT of money to actually USE this class feature. Not only do they have to Pay to learn most of their rituals, they have to pay fairly decent sums of money to USE their class feature. No other class than a ritual user has to pour money into the use of their class features. Why does the use of a utility like Comprehend Languages cost 10g each time it is used when it should be a defining class feature?

From what I have seen of in-game testing, this creates a disparity in the party. Any non-ritual caster sinks their money into the necessary magic items that the system expects them to have to make the math work. A ritual caster (if they want to use their class feature) falls behind on the magical gear they acquire because they have to sink money into their rituals.

If a 1st level ritual caster uses says 4 1st level rituals on an adventure they are automatically 40g behind every other member of their party toward that shiny new item. This gap continues to grow each adventure as the ritual caster uses more and more rituals.

I simply don't see this as balanced from a DMing perspective. This basically encourages ritual casting classes to ignore one of the class features that Should be a major defining factor for them.

Am I the only one?

What I propose isn't completely free access to rituals, but a limited way of allowing SOME free uses of rituals.

1) Allow some form of Ritual Material Focus that replaces the material cost of using some rituals.

OR

2) A feat that allows a certain number of rituals to be cast without a material cost.

OR

3) A spell point system that grants the ritual caster a "pool" of points that can be used to substitute for the material cost of rituals. This is the option I like most personally. This could be granted on a per day basis or a per level basis.

Am I even making myself clear? Writing from work always tends to be more difficult due to distractions.

Simplest fix: let the whole party pool money into their rituals.

How many rituals benefit the cast only? Not many. So why should only the caster pay up?

An alternative way of accomplishing this without even involving the players is:
1) make rituals free (or perhaps better, remove all component costs below 1000 gp)
2) keep notes on ritual usage, and money "saved"
3) deduct this amount from the next time you hand out treasure parcels
(In other words, ritual still cost their listed amounts, only the act of paying is removed.)

 

[Stalker0]

These are the two houserules I am using in my newest game.

Ritual Mastery: Once per day a wizard can cast a ritual that is:
1) 5 levels or more lower than his current level.
2) Has a fixed cost
3) Has arcana as the key skill

with no component cost.

Personal Power Option: Any character that has endurance training can spend two healing surges when casting a ritual that is 5 levels lower than them to reduce the cost by half. This only applies to rituals with fixed costs.

I put the fixed cost in there specifically to prevent abuse with rituals like enchant magic item.

 

[Guyanthalas]

Just thought I'd throw in an interesting take that I saw in Manual of the Planes. This is a planewalking orb (or something) property:

Property:

You gain a +5 item bonus to Arcana checks made

to detect magic when attempting to perceive a portal. You
can use this orb as a focus for the Analyze Portal or Planar​

Portal rituals instead of paying the component cost.
​

I thought it was kind of an interesting way to mitigate a ritual cost. Perhaps houserule some things in individual games to have this effect with more items.

​

 

[Khaalis]

I'm glad to see this thread still getting a little discussion. I apologize for being away but my father-in-law passed away this weekend and was in the hospital for the week prior, so its been a bit crazy here.

My $0.02 worth, from personal play testing is that the ritual costs are simply too high. I am glad that I am not the only one who thinks so, though I know everyone doesn't.

I still say there are 3 basic ways to work this.

1) As seen in the magic item property from Manual of the Planes, this can be done with an item focus. You could allow the use of a new Ritual Material Focus ritual that replaces the material cost of using a set type of ritual or grouping of rituals. For wizards, this could also take the form of 'enchanting' your focus object (staff, orb, etc.)

OR

2) Add a feat that allows a certain number of rituals (that meet a criteria such as non-permanent duration rituals) to be cast without a material cost. An example might be your level in ritual levels.

OR

3) A spell point system that grants anyone with the Ritual Caster feat a "pool" of points that can be used to substitute for the material cost of rituals. For example 10 Spell Points a day at level 1 where 1 Spell Point = 1g of material cost.


The first two options involve a "Cost" to the player, either in money or in a feat slot. The 3rd option is a free adition to all ritual users.

 

[DreamChaser]

OR

4) Simply give additional treasure in the form of ritual components to offset whatever portion of the cost you feel is unfair. Since the party cannot efficiently sell the components to get other things, this is immediately balanced. If as the DM you make it clear that these are designed to be a party resource, it doesn't favor one player / character.

DC