Thoughts on rituals

[Raith5]

The whole purpose of having ritual spells is that they are not for use in combat. They are expressly intended for the other pillars of the game. Clairvoyance being a ritual means you can use it to gain information before heading into the dungeon, Plant growth as a ritual increases a crop yield over a season, A guards and wards spell reduces the chances that your house gets ransacked while you are gone.

This is why they don't take up space in your memory, not to be free use spells while in combat or while barricaded in a room trying to hold off a swarm of dung beetles.

Perhaps some more robust rules in the spell casting section could reduce the confusion.

Personally I think 10 minutes is far too short a casting time. maybe ten minutes per level might be better, or maybe an hour/ lvl, they are rituals after all.

Fair point, I just like the option of rituals being able to be cast in tactically relevant time frame so that a ritual could parallel a combat or some other time sensitive context. I like the see the pillars overlap a bit - ie allow efforts to parley in a combat encounter or using exploratory skills to navigate a terrain in a combat.

With reference to rituals, really 10 minutes or 1 hour - either time period is so long in tactical terms it doesnt really matter.

 

[GX.Sigma]

With reference to rituals, really 10 minutes or 1 hour - either time period is so long in tactical terms it doesnt really matter.

Not when there's a 1 in 6 chance of wandering monsters every 20 minutes.

 

[Li Shenron]

I am with [MENTION=18333]Neechen[/MENTION] and [MENTION=55225]tlantl[/MENTION].

What sense does it make to decrease the casting time of rituals? Do that, and you get regular spells, maybe with a slightly longer casting time, but just spells. And then you'll get people complaining that 2-round casting time is boring and dangerous and should be decreased to 1... if you don't want to prepare your spells ahead, then play a Sorcerer.

Rituals are already a thrown bone at players who are afraid about "wasting" a slot or two, and feel on average unable to plan ahead well enough. I think their casting time of 10 minutes is even too generous, 1 hour casting time is better, it still makes the occasional "needed only every now and then" spell available without wasting a slot, but it puts a better overall limit on how many rituals you can cast in a day.

At the current iteration, 5e rituals are essentially like 3e scrolls but with crafting time and casting time merged together. It's a bit like being allowed to scribe a scroll on the fly if you then use it immediately.

 

[Lwaxy]

2 rounds is way to slow, still. Rituals need, in my eyes, at least 10 min and can take up to several hours.