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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 9026701" data-attributes="member: 58172">Earlier I mentioned separating "rituals" from "spells" as separate design spaces.In the 2014 Players Handbook, the official rituals are seldom worth wasting a spell slot on. But they often have fun flavor that is an important part of the D&D experience − so lean into this. Put them in a separate list. That way, they remain in the game, but no longer require newbies to have game mastery to know which spells are good choices and which spells are terrible to prepare.Let any character try to cast a ritual, by making an ability (skill) check. A Fighter can try to do a ritual too. Some might be good at it. (Compare the "Men of Letters" in Supernatural series.) Normal people sometimes know a ritual.Maybe the class feature or feat "Ritual Caster" allows them to use a spell slot as a short cut, to bypass the lengthy time requirement or costly gp component. Other characters are normally "ritual performers", rather than "casters".The format for a ritual is similar what a spell is. But instead of a spell description that says, for example:ALARM1st-level Abjuration (Ritual)Casting Time: 1 minute...Have it say:ALARMClass level 1 Abjuration (Survival)Ritual Performance: 1 minute...Rituals default a typical "10 minutes" to perform, but can specify a different amount of time for the listed ritual. Some rituals can take an hour to perform. An elaborate or unique ritual might say "see below", such as a ritual that takes a week of activities, or has the requirement to perform while certain planets are in conjunction. Many religious rituals are ... "rituals".Relatedly, it annoys me when when spells have a "costly" component. Magic isnt about spending money − that would make it feel mundane, the opposite of magic. Spell components also significantly interfere with innate spellcasting, and methods of spells that are specific to a class, such as a Bard using an instrument as spellcasting focus.But if rituals are a completely separate design space, and (normally) have nothing to do with spell slots or innate spellcasting, then it feels ok if some rituals require the expense of money, since that would be part of the "whatever" requirements that a particular happens to demand. Moreover, as "rituals" the performance can lean into how to perform the ritual as part of the flavor, without interfering with the flavor of a class that is casting a spell. While the spell descriptions do well to remove "Spell Components: V, S, M", the separate ritual design space probably does well to mention "Ritual Components: V, S, M, G", where G means "gold pieces", a costly component.Treat rituals as magic items, pretty much like Scrolls and Wondrous Items that are "manuals" of instructions.Most of the spells in the Players Handbook that have the ritual tag are unworthy of preparing for a spell slot. So separate these rituals to be a separate list of rituals.If there is a lengthy ritual to Summon Yugoloth, let anyone try to perform it − see what happens! Make the ability (Religion) check and hope for success. (In this case, I would like to see a separate Necromancy skill that handles Undead, Fiend, and Aberration.) A ritual description should also mention what happens if the ritual fails ... or fails horribly.</blockquote>

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