Arcane Power Excerpt: Rituals

[Fallen Seraph]

For those wanting more Rituals here they are:

Arcane Power Excerpts: Rituals

It isn't shown but I am interested in History Revealed. Does it simply tell, or show, or perhaps change something. So a piece of writing on stone is rubbed away the ritual would show its history and make it readable. Lots of potential goodness for plots with that ritual.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The psion power "psychic history" (or whatever it was called) was one of my favourite powers ever as a DM. It was a brilliant exposition power. It would be great if there were some rituals which would support that too.

 

[Plane Sailing]

A bit sad if "Arcane Power" only manages to add another 18 rituals though.

Lack of rituals is one of the big problems of 4e on release to my mind.

 

[Belphanior]

While I agree Arcane Power doesn't seem to add a ton of new ritual, we already got new ones in Forgotten Realms and PHB2. All in all I think the selection is getting rather decent now.

 

[Jack99]

A bit sad if "Arcane Power" only manages to add another 18 rituals though.

Lack of rituals is one of the big problems of 4e on release to my mind.

You will be happy this fall, then. Goodman Games is releasing a whole book of rituals.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

While I agree Arcane Power doesn't seem to add a ton of new ritual, we already got new ones in Forgotten Realms and PHB2. All in all I think the selection is getting rather decent now.

Yeah as of right now in the Compendium (so not including this month, or last month so far) there is 163 Rituals (and Alchemy).

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

A bit sad if "Arcane Power" only manages to add another 18 rituals though.

Lack of rituals is one of the big problems of 4e on release to my mind.

Aside from a lack of rituals, there are two other major problems with them

1. Lengthy cast times
2. Onerous component cost

Wizards, should have feats to mitigate these two items. We know from the Bard previews that they can cast a bardic ritual once per day without using any material cost. I hope that wizard gets a similar feature for arcane based rituals.

Let's look at Wizard's Curtain
It is a first level ritual that creates a curtains around a room. These curtains block line of sight and impose a perception penalty to those outside of it. It takes 10 minutes to cast it and cost 30g. (Note: to purchase this ritual is 75g, that makes the initial cast of this spell cost 105g).

Wait, with 10 minutes and 30 gold, the caster of this ritual could send the fighter down to the market and buy 4 curtains. With the left over money, the fighter could also buy a nice meal for those who will have the conversation and a guard dog. When the 24 hours are up (the duration of the ritual), the party would still have the 4 curtains and Fido for the next time you wanted a private meeting.

Edit:
One thing I did like from the preview was the ritual that let you use healing surges to continue the effect. I'm hoping for a feat like this in Arcane Power

 

[CubeKnight]

Edit:
One thing I did like from the preview was the ritual that let you use healing surges to continue the effect. I'm hoping for a feat like this in Arcane Power

There are already some rituals like that in the PHB.

 

[Rel]

Aside from a lack of rituals, there are two other major problems with them

1. Lengthy cast times
2. Onerous component cost

Wizards, should have feats to mitigate these two items. We know from the Bard previews that they can cast a bardic ritual once per day without using any material cost. I hope that wizard gets a similar feature for arcane based rituals.

I don't see a problem there. I see an opportunity. This just gives me another method to reward the players with components and even magic items.

I give out ritual ingredients all the time in various forms. Sometimes they are simply the normal Alchemical Reagents or Sanctified Incense, etc. But other times they take other forms that apply to specific Rituals or types of Rituals.

But I think you could also give out some magic items that I'll call "Ritual Foci". If you use such a focus it could lower or negate the cost of a ritual. In your example above maybe there is a "Gossamer Shroud" that negates the cost of the Wizard's Curtain Ritual. That might be a cool thing to find in a treasure trove.

Also you could just as easily design magic items that lower the casting time of a specific Ritual or even whole classes of Rituals. How about a magical hourglass that cuts the time of one Ritual per day by half? That would be a pretty awesome item if you ask me.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

There are already some rituals like that in the PHB.

I'd love to see them, it is very possible that I have overlooked them somewhere. Can you provide a feat name or supplement?

I give out ritual ingredients all the time in various forms. Sometimes they are simply the normal Alchemical Reagents or Sanctified Incense, etc. But other times they take other forms that apply to specific Rituals or types of Rituals.

But I think you could also give out some magic items that I'll call "Ritual Foci". If you use such a focus it could lower or negate the cost of a ritual. In your example above maybe there is a "Gossamer Shroud" that negates the cost of the Wizard's Curtain Ritual. That might be a cool thing to find in a treasure trove.

Also you could just as easily design magic items that lower the casting time of a specific Ritual or even whole classes of Rituals. How about a magical hourglass that cuts the time of one Ritual per day by half? That would be a pretty awesome item if you ask me.

I dislike the ritual foci idea. It just becomes another form of currency in the game.

I do like the idea of magic items or feats that reduce the overall. A DM who wanted to encourage ritual use would be wise to craft a few custom items like this.

As a whole though, current rituals are in a rather laughable state.