Rituals : What We Know And What We Hope

[helium3]

In the numerous threads where folk are debating the pros and cons of 4E, I've noticed that Rituals come up from time to time. Generally, the context is Rituals as a counter to a 4E-Critic's concerns about the streamlining of the magic system.

The problem is, as near as I can tell, next to nothing has actually be released about Rituals. I believe there's a podcast or an article somewhere that says, "Rituals will be for stuff like Teleport and Contact Other Plane."

Here's the question that I want this thread to be devoted to answering. "How do you think Rituals are going to work in 4E and what are they going to do? What are your minimum level of expectations regarding them?"

Here's my answer.

I think that Rituals are not going to be available to all classes and that they're going to cost money. Characters can hire NPC's that have the correct class to work the ritual if there isn't one in the party. Rituals are going to provide defensive buffs that last longer than a single encounter and powers that presumably would never be used in an encounter.

At a minimum, I expect the DMG to contain rules on how to turn any spell from 3E that doesn't fit into the realm of an at-will, encounter or daily power into a ritual, as well as guidelines on how to estimate what the cost of the ritual should be. If the DMG doesn't have that I'll be very, very disappointed.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Rituals are going to provide defensive buffs that last longer than a single encounter and powers that presumably would never be used in an encounter.

I really doubt you will find many buffs as rituals. One of the main point of rituals is to put all the non-combat spells into a space where you don't have to sort through them while in a fight to find the combat spell you want to cast.

So I suspect they will be role-play centric, money costing events where you don't need to have it on your character sheet as a class that can cast it, because you go through a similar process to what your character does, that is:

You research the ritual you want to cast (look it up in the book)
You buy the necessary items.
You go through the process described. (Bathing in goats blood, drawing pentacles, brewing in big couldrons, etc)
You get the effect.

In this way they can cut down the "spell" list to a managable ammount, while maintaining all the cool things a wizard or cleric could always do.

They say the main limiting factor is cash, so you may find rituals that have either a lower or no level requirement compared to the old version of the spell, just a lot of work for the caster, finding that special ingredient (another way for DM's to controll their use.)

Personally, I love 'em

Fitz

 

[Incenjucar]

Rituals will be things that aren't strictly combat actions, like summoning Phantom Steeds or Faithful Watchhounds or Water Breathing or Conjure Food and Water or Cure Disease.

Some will be long and involved, some will be little more than spells you don't have to memorize, based on the sound of it.

 

[Shroomy]

I believe it has been confirmed (on Critical Hits, I think) that detect magic is now a ritual.

 

[Atlatl Jones]

I believe it has been confirmed (on Critical Hits, I think) that detect magic is now a ritual.

Nope. In an interview on The Tome podcast, Chris Perkins said that detect magic is a function of the arcana skill.

 

[small pumpkin man]

Rituals will be things that aren't strictly combat actions, like summoning Phantom Steeds or Faithful Watchhounds or Water Breathing or Conjure Food and Water or Cure Disease.

Some will be long and involved, some will be little more than spells you don't have to memorize, based on the sound of it.

I would think that several of those would be utility spells, not rituals, water breathing and Phantom Steed could both be quite useful in combat, although they are admittedly quite specific.

Uh, I guess what I'm trying to say is that we really don't know what the split between Utility powers and Rituals will be.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Here is how I would like to see Rituals appear:

Gaining Rituals: Arcane and Divine can gain Rituals through levelling, as well as being taught. Arcane/Divine and non-arcane/divine can also gain Rituals from buying, stealing, copying, trading, etc. the written documents to a Ritual (depending on the document one may need to use Language check to decipher).

Ritual Cost: The cost of a Ritual varies as much as the Ritual itself. Some only require you to draw a sigil with sand and chant, others a assortment of materials, some blood or even a human-sacrifice.

Casting a Ritual: Once you know a Ritual and have the materials. You can begin to cast it. Casting a Ritual is a Skill-Contest.

Skill: Arcana(for Arcane) or Religion (for Divine) + Intelligence or Wisdom score + Level of Arcane/Divine Class

This means that those classes who have knowledge and uses Arcane/Divine magic are more able to cast a Ritual properly then those that are not magically inclined, but they can still try to cast the Ritual.

Success or Failure: A successful Ritual means that you succeed in performing the Ritual and gain whatever benefit it gives.

If you fail, the Ritual may backlash and cause harm to you or the environment around, or even act in a unusual behaviour (this would be determined by what the Ritual Stat Block states for Failure).

Types of Rituals: Rituals can vary greatly; scrying, summoning, long-range teleportation, long-range flying, enchanting a item, cure disease, etc.

 

[Valdrax]

What I find most interesting (and bothersome, actually) is that the capacity to use Rituals is listed on the character sheet of the sample Wizard from DDXP but is missing from the character sheet of the sample Cleric and Warlock.

[Edit: This is incorrect. The Cleric *does* get rituals, as others have noted.]

So then, will resurrection be a ritual or not? Is the ability to cast rituals obtainable via feat, and who can get it if so?

 

[Shroomy]

Nope. In an interview on The Tome podcast, Chris Perkins said that detect magic is a function of the arcana skill.

Hmmm, I found the quote on Critical Hits, but its attributed to an RPGA DM, so I think I'll take Chris Perkin's word on it!

 

[smetzger]

I think it will be like the magic creation rules for 3e; but encompass things besides just creating magic items.

Probably have a monetary value, maybe an xp penalty (although I doubt it), and hopefully some suggested special ingredients that were needed.

Wasn't there something about monster entries having entries about how they could be used for making things? Or am I remembering wrong?