"Solvers" is just a catch phrase for everything else. Magic yet again, enfolds everyone else's domain, as well as supernatural stuff that's off limits to the normal guys. So no deal.
Wrong. According to the idea, the "solver" is, specifically, a role in encounters that removes obstacles.
It doesn't tell you what's on the other side of that obstacle.
It doesn't help you out if you fail to overcome that obstacle.
It doesn't prevent your attempt from getting hassled with.
It just removes the obstacle.
So we're back to the current state of rituals. You get to be a jack of all trades, master of none. You trade speed and free for versatility.
Except where magic is supposed to be better, it is, and where it's not supposed to be better, it isn't. Wizards have a role to play. They don't just sit around while everyone else shows off their cool nonmagical skills.
Fly replaces athletics. No dice... you're taking away from mover territory. Speak with dead replaces information gathering. Again, sorry wizards.
You seem to be arguing that magic can never trump skills, but this is one of the problems that the current ritual system has. Wizards need to have a place that they can shine, too. Fly can replace athletics, and Speak With Dead can replace information gathering. But Fly doesn't replace the Rogue's knowledge of what is over that chasm, or the Fighter's ability to barricade the doors so that the ritualist has a few moments to complete their ritual. Speak With Dead doesn't replace the Rogue's ability to identify what the corpse is talking about when they say "The man in the yellow hat," and it doesn't replace the Fighter's ability to keep the undertaker distracted while you work on the corpse.
And if you need to cross the chasm and you can't use Fly for some reason, you can use Athletics (a less reliable way to do it). If you can't Speak With Dead for some reason, you can use Streetwise (a less reliable way to do it).
This is the problem with your system... "solver" is just the guy who beats the adventure. What the casters were in earlier editions, where they were simply better than everyone else.
Solvers remove obstacles. In designing a dungeon, a DM has obstacles that are there to be removed (traps, locked doors, cliffsides, riddles, whatever). Solvers can get rid of those obstacles. They don't complete the dungeon by themselves, though. They don't keep others from interfering. They don't know what lies in wait next. They can't recover from a failure. They can't do everything. All they get to do is "trump card" certain challenges.
That doesn't beat the adventure, it moves the adventure forward, perhaps in new directions. Solvers get you closer to the adventure's solution. Solvers help you advance into the adventure, just like Strikers help you kill enemies faster.
They do in other people's game. You just want the gravy casters get for free to be as good as everyone else skills and powers. If the ritual caster ONLY got rituals, I might agree. Right now, its a third tier of options, and should be treated as such.
No, I want rituals and magic to have a purpose. They don't right now.
wedgeski said:
Was I making an exception when Object Reading a portal showed the creatures that had recently used it, allowing the party to judge who they were up against on the other side?
Or when a Comprehend Language allowed the caster to read a long-lost dialect of minotaur and give the party vital clues to the history of the dungeon they were in?
You were actually giving out information in a way that rewarded the ritual user. Which is great, and encourages ritual use, but a lot of DM's would address this in a binary fashion.
Meaning, in either example, if the party was supposed to find out the information, the DM would have made it possible via an NPC who would tell them or a skill challenge or a skill check they could complete to gain the information. All of these would be free, expedient ways of getting the same information.
For the first example, a single Streetwise check could have perhaps identified witnesses who saw the portal being used. The NPC sending the PC's on the mission in the first place could have told them what they were up against. A skill challenge may have worked it out of a reluctant NPC. If the DM wanted it to be known for their own reasons, they'd find a way to introduce it. None of it would have cost gold, and it would have been either faster, or involving the entire party. And if the DM didn't want the PC's to know, then no ritual would have done them any good.
For the second example, try a History check, an NPC scholar, or an extended skill challenge for reading the documents. No gold, and either faster or involving the party. And if the DM didn't want the PC's to know, then no ritual would have done them any good.
You rewarded the ritual use by not giving out that information in other ways. Which is great, but it is also clever DMing that supports ritual use. By default, there's no reason rituals would have been better in those circumstances than skill checks, skill challenges, or NPC's.
