D&D 5E what systems in 5th could be explored more ?

[77IM]

Rituals. The ritual system is an anemic afterthought. Too few spells are rituals, and the rules around rituals are annoying and weak.

Here's how I'd have done rituals. You know how some spells say, "At Higher Levels." And then they explain what happens at higher levels. Well, I'd make every spell with the ritual tag say, "As a Ritual." And then explain what happens when it's a ritual. For example,

Identify
As a Ritual. When you cast this spell as a ritual, you don't expend a spell slot, but the casting time increases to 10 minutes.​

- This is the standard ritual, same as what's in the PHB now.

Plant Growth
As a Ritual. When you cast this spell as a ritual, you don't expend a spell slot, but the casting time increases to 8 hours. Instead of the normal effect, you can choose to enrich all plants within a half-mile radius of a point within range, for 1 year. The plants yield twice the normal amount of food when harvested.​

- Plant growth is a weird spell. The secondary use increases the casting time to 8 hours and it really feels like it should be a ritual. In this case "you don't expend a spell slot" is mostly irrelevant since you're casting all day anyway.

Mage Armor
As a Ritual. When you cast this spell as a ritual, you don't expend a spell slot, but the casting time increases to 10 minutes, and the spell requires an additional material component (a pair of mithril bracelets worth 1000 gp each).​

- Sure, why not? 2000 gp for perma-mage-armor sounds reasonable. May be overpowered for abjurers, but may not -- my point is that any spell could be given a ritual function.

Conjure Elemental
As a Ritual. When you cast this spell as a ritual, you don't expend a spell slot, and the duration increases to Concentration, up to 3 days. However, the casting time increases to 1 hour, and the spell requires an additional material component: a precious gem which is consumed by the casting (blue sapphire for air, yellow diamond for earth, ruby for fire, and emerald for water). The value of the gem must be at least 500 gp. You can cast this spell as a ritual at higher levels than 5th, up to the highest level for which you are capable of casting normally, but the cost of the gem doubles for each level higher than 5th.​

- So that one is a bit complicated but I'm trying to show how a ritual could present a slightly different use for a spell. Somebody with a lot of cash and advanced warning (say, the BBEG) can get more milage out of this spell than somebody who's just casting it for typical combat use.


With flexible ritual parameters like this, a LOT more spells in the PHB could be rituals, making the ritual system a lot more interesting and useful.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I agree using the attunement slot for other things than magic items is a great idea.
I agree with using the concentration mechanic for something like stances.
We allow a background to add prof bonus to checks we think naturally fit the background.
We allow custom feats.
We use a custom "Injuries and Setbacks" table (modified from DMG).

 

[neobolts]

I agree, I think the "systems" are more "features" and are developed fairly enough to be applied well to any applicable situation.

Exploration has always been poorly handled in D&D, left mostly up to random rolls of the dice, which for some folks gets dry and repetitive very quickly.
Social systems have likewise been limited largely to charismatic characters, leading to parties needing a "face" and leaving little for other characters to do when the talking starts.

I agree that exploration and social haven't been handled as well as combat. I think part of it is that too quickly mechanics in these areas can intrude on the roleplaying/storytelling aspect of the exploration and social pillars. Rigid combat systems are about fairness and creating agreement about outcome. The other pillars are more likely to be resolvable with simple banter.