Somebody Explain Ritual Scrolls to Me

[Kinneus]

Building a level 18 character. With the wacky new magic item rarity rules, I noticed that I'm sitting on a big pile of gold and have literally nothing to spend it on. Got myself 5 potions of vitality, a common head, arms, waist, feet and glove item. Still have an entire astral diamond and 36 platinum burning a hole in my pocket.

All consumables are uncommon, all ammunition is uncommon (what?), all wondrous items and rings are uncommon... what's a guy to do?

And that's when I noticed that ritual scrolls aren't. They aren't common, either; they aren't anything. They're just untyped.

So how do they work? I'm separated from my books at the moment, and the Compendium is no help. Due you need to have Ritual Caster to use a scroll? And, if you were a DM, would you allow ritual scrolls to be bought in your campaign as though they were common items (assuming, of course, that you get to pre-approve every one, of course, so you can stop people from lugging around ten scrolls of Raise Dead or what-have-you)?

 

[Arlough]

Ritual Scrolls are like a consumable ritual that executes faster.
It is a one use that costs money to buy one, and they take half the casting time of a normal ritual.
You don't need the Ritual Caster feat to use one, but you do need to fulfill all the component costs (which is probably why they are neither common nor uncommon). If the ritual is interrupted, the scroll remains intact

As a DM, I am more likely to have Ritual Scrolls available than I am to have the ritual itself be available for purchase since rituals cannot be transcribed off of a Scroll, you have to pay for each scroll you purchase, and you even then have to supply the components and foci.

 

[Aulirophile]

Do what LFR characters do: Save the money and use it to upgrade the good items you got at character creation when the time comes that are Uncommon already.

 

[Kinneus]

Do what LFR characters do: Save the money and use it to upgrade the good items you got at character creation when the time comes that are Uncommon already.

I'm really confused as to what you might mean by this. Clarification?

 

[Aulirophile]

Um. K. The Enchant Magic Item ritual can be used to upgrade a +1 item to a +2 item for the difference in cost between the two. Ditto +2/+3 etc. Regardless of rarity, so long as a higher-level version exists, you can upgrade it for just ritual components equal to value difference.

So: Good Uncommon item you get at character creation (because you get 3 so I'll just assume you have a couple you like). You buy ritual components. Upgrade item when your Ritual Caster is the same level as the next Enhancement bonus of the item.

Upgrading items is part of the reason treasure parcels have the exact amount of cash they do. Rarity only made this better. It is kind of a built-in assumption.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Be sure to buy a RAise Dead ritual scroll in case the dice gods do not like you.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

My understanding is that despite being items, and despite being magical, they are not "magic items." Thus they are not subject to rarity guidelines. They're also not really part of "essentials."

This is something you would have to talk to your DM about. Also you might ask about starting with a limited number of rare and uncommon magic items, since a character who leveled up to 18th naturally would doubtlessly have some.

I'd allow ritual scrolls in my game, but I also don't really pay any attention to the magic rarity guidelines.

 

[Aspeon]

Definitely talk to your DM about being able to start with Uncommon items. Wizards basically said in a recent Rule of Three that there aren't enough Common or Rare items for the rarity system to work.

The one catch to ritual scrolls is that they cost exactly as much as a ritual book, which would allow someone with the Ritual Caster feat to learn the ritual himself and cast it as many times as he or she wants just paying the component costs. So if you aren't worried about taking the full casting time, and your party ritual caster being the only one doing it, you'd be better off buying books for the party.

Because of that, I'd be fine with my players buying scrolls since it's not all that efficient. As a DM, they're interesting treasure, and if I dropped scrolls in treasure I might say that they have the component cost "baked in" so the party doesn't have to spend extra components. I also drop monetary treasure as residuum in places where it'd make sense.

(It occurs to me that Raise Dead and Remove Affliction are the two scrolls that you would want to buy, since those are what you need to save your ritual caster if he gets killed/petrified. Plus, they have a long casting time and the cost of the scroll is nothing compared to the 5,000 gp component cost for Raise Dead at paragon tier.)