Rituals

[djdaidouji]

No, they're actually flavorful.

I can see your points, though I'm still not crazy about it. Sure, there are hundreds of kinds of sand, herbs, salves, so forth, but in practice, there are four components and a wild card. When I make my game, I want player's inventories to say "Prince Ran's Warmace" or "Egyrian Health Potion," rather then "+1 Stick" and "10HP Pot." When I reveal that there there is a leather bag at the bottom of the pit with a number of vials of colourful dust, I don't want my players to list "Arc Ritual x200gp"

But I digress. No amount of argument is going to change this. I'll just have to sit and brainstorm a way to make it work for me. The rest of 4e is worth it.

 

[Saeviomagy]

3) Friends don't let friends perform Cure Disease rituals with a skill penalty. "Viruses die in acid, right? I just need to fill him up with this flask of acid, and he will be cured!"

Hey - everyone (well, my players anyway) knows that a flask of acid is the cure to being filled with demonic wasps, not disease!

 

[RigaMortus2]

I just have a problem with a few of the spells turned ritual. For example, Knock. No longer can you make a quick get-away during combat if you come across a locked door during your escape route. That kind of sucks. Not that Knock saw all that much use in my campaigns, but the option was at least there.

I hope there are some rituals which are less than 10 or 5 minutes. I can't see standing in the middle of a dungeon wating around for 10 minutes each time you want to use a ritual.

 

[Family]

They look like a very useful tool...much as I do.

 

[Lurker37]

He posted a correction? I never even heard of that. Do you have a quote? I am curious about what he said.

Either way, the lack of a good change to the system is disappointing.

It was in the same thread, as I recall. The gist was that 'destiny' was a word he used to describe it - not an actual term from the rules.

 

[djdaidouji]

They look like a very useful tool...much as I do.

I lol'd.

I just have a problem with a few of the spells turned ritual. For example, Knock. No longer can you make a quick get-away during combat if you come across a locked door during your escape route. That kind of sucks. Not that Knock saw all that much use in my campaigns, but the option was at least there.

I hope there are some rituals which are less than 10 or 5 minutes. I can't see standing in the middle of a dungeon wating around for 10 minutes each time you want to use a ritual.

I agree with this somewhat, but like they said, it is much better to have the rogue in your party picking the locks himself. Though if my players were using knock often,and knock was 10 minutes long, I might have some monsters wander in after 9 and a half minutes. If the PCs can hold off the monsters for 5 rounds, the ritual can go off, and they can make their escape just as dramatically. :3

 

[Ten]

I can see your points, though I'm still not crazy about it. Sure, there are hundreds of kinds of sand, herbs, salves, so forth, but in practice, there are four components and a wild card. When I make my game, I want player's inventories to say "Prince Ran's Warmace" or "Egyrian Health Potion," rather then "+1 Stick" and "10HP Pot." When I reveal that there there is a leather bag at the bottom of the pit with a number of vials of colourful dust, I don't want my players to list "Arc Ritual x200gp"

But I digress. No amount of argument is going to change this. I'll just have to sit and brainstorm a way to make it work for me. The rest of 4e is worth it.

Just piping in that I disagree vehemently as a player. It definitely FEELS better that way, but nothing is more frustrating then looking at what my character has and not having any idea what any of it does. I want as concise a list of stuff I have, with as much mechanical information in as small a space as possible. The character sheet is for me, the player, not my character. It's already constricted as it is. Having to write "6 wyrm livers, 2 bear galbladders, 3 cobra venom glands, an ounce of pixie dust..." etc. is confusing, space-consuming, and a pain in the neck to keep track of.

 

[AZRogue]

Just piping in that I disagree vehemently as a player. It definitely FEELS better that way, but nothing is more frustrating then looking at what my character has and not having any idea what any of it does. I want as concise a list of stuff I have, with as much mechanical information in as small a space as possible. The character sheet is for me, the player, not my character. It's already constricted as it is. Having to write "6 wyrm livers, 2 bear galbladders, 3 cobra venom glands, an ounce of pixie dust..." etc. is confusing, space-consuming, and a pain in the neck to keep track of.

As a DM and player, I would agree. It's one of those things that sound great in theory but in practice ends up being too much trouble for the small amount of flavor gained. Of course, there's nothing to stop the DM from adding some more specific components for more exotic, or more tightly controlled, Rituals, but for the majority I think ease of use trumps the slight gain in verisimilitude.

 

[Rechan]

Here's something from the PHb:

Rituals can be interrupted. Doing so doesn't ruin the components (they go away when the ritual is finished). The flaw is that you can't continue a ritual: you have to restart it.

 

[djdaidouji]

Just piping in that I disagree vehemently as a player. It definitely FEELS better that way, but nothing is more frustrating then looking at what my character has and not having any idea what any of it does. I want as concise a list of stuff I have, with as much mechanical information in as small a space as possible. The character sheet is for me, the player, not my character. It's already constricted as it is. Having to write "6 wyrm livers, 2 bear galbladders, 3 cobra venom glands, an ounce of pixie dust..." etc. is confusing, space-consuming, and a pain in the neck to keep track of.

I know this is true, but I don't want to believe it *sob*. I could argue that it depends on play style, ymilemv, but I guess I need to concede. Having a clean sheet will make playing faster, and most likely more entertaining because of it.

To my players, at least try not to say "I use 300 gp of herbs for this ritual." Please?