Rituals for Swords & Wizardry

[robertsconley]

There is one thing I really like about D&D 4th edition is the ritual system. I think it gives an excellent way of raising the magic level of a D&D campaign without ditching the vancian system. The basic innovation is that you spend gold in the form of components and you can cast a spell without memorizing it. Problem spells can be handled by require specific components that are rare and expensive.


Rituals

Any spell in the rule books can be casted as ritual. The casting time is 10 minutes. The component cost is the spell level SQUARED times ten gp. (level^2 * 10 gp). Components can be bought at most magic shops like the Sorcerer’s Supply Shop in the City-State of the Invincible Overlord. As an option the referee may wish to impose specific component requirement on certain spells particularly for those 7th level or higher.

The intent of this system is that most utility spells are cast via ritual in the Majestic Wilderlands. This changes the role of scrolls. For Magic-Users and Thothian Mages, they are mainly created to increase the number of combat spells that can be cast. They are of particular importance to Orders who do not memorize spells.

Enjoy
Rob Conley

[James Maliszewski]

I guess I'm not seeing the purpose of these rituals. What do they do that scrolls don't already do?

[robertsconley]

Jun 8, 2009 6:35:13 GMT -6 James Maliszewski said:

I guess I'm not seeing the purpose of these rituals. What do they do that scrolls don't already do?

They are quicker to use (10 minutes) vs days or weeks for creating scrolls and cheaper depending on which rules you use for scroll creation. (usually 100 gp per spell level)

However they are not quicker to cast so there is a niche that scrolls would fill i.e. combat casting.

Using rituals would effectively raise the magic level of your setting a notch by making utility spells commonly used.

[Deleted]

So basically: a 1st level magic-user can memorize (and cast) "sleep" and in that same day use a ritual to "read magic"? If this is correct I must say I rather like this idea. It prevents the front-loading of a lot of offensive magic spells while simultaneously allowing the magic-user to be more useful to the party. Especially at lower levels of experience.

[robertsconley]

Jun 8, 2009 7:47:02 GMT -6 @dubeers said:

So basically: a 1st level magic-user can memorize (and cast) "sleep" and in that same day use a ritual to "read magic"? If this is correct I must say I rather like this idea. It prevents the front-loading of a lot of offensive magic spells while simultaneously allowing the magic-user to be more useful to the party. Especially at lower levels of experience.

That is exactly the intent. Which is why using it implies that magic is more commonly used in the setting.

In D&D 4th edition they made a big distinction between what is a ritual what is not. To keep things simple for the editions we like I just say that all spells can be cast as rituals. However I think it obvious unless you are trying to recharge a wand or something similar you are not going to be casting fireball through a ritual very often.

Although as a battlefield tactic it may prove useful to cast battle spells through rituals. As long as you don't run out of components you can cast fireballs throughout the battle even if it last the entire dya. Just they are spaced ten minutes apart.

Come to think of it using this house rule will allow Chainmail magic to dovetail nicely into D&D magic. The "turn" in Chainmail is a lot longer than the D&D round allowing the wizards in Chainmail to cast the way they do.

[James Maliszewski]

Jun 8, 2009 7:38:06 GMT -6 robertsconley said:

Using rituals would effectively raise the magic level of your setting a notch by making utility spells commonly used.

Rituals would also seem to eliminate much of the resource management aspect of playing a spellcaster, which isn't something I find congenial to my preferred style of play. MUs having to decide in advance whether to memorize fireball or water breathing is part of what makes playing the class so challenging/rewarding. Rituals, as you describe them here, seem to make that trade-off unnecessary.

[robertsconley]

Jun 8, 2009 9:31:32 GMT -6 James Maliszewski said:

MUs having to decide in advance whether to memorize fireball or water breathing is part of what makes playing the class so challenging/rewarding. Rituals, as you describe them here, seem to make that trade-off unnecessary.

Yes and no. Strictly speaking you are right. But you have to look at what actually happens.

Where resource management has traditionally comes into play is in the dungeon or a wilderness trek. In both circumstances there are spells that just more optimal than others. At some levels is such that you would be crippling your character to memorize another spells before undertaking a trek or go underground.

Another characteristics that the set of optimal spells don't work the same on all monsters. So you still have to manage your mix the best you can at the beginning of the day. For example sleep vs undead is not effective.

As for scrolls there have been D&D groups I DMed with the lightbulb goes off in their head and they spend two month making dozens of scrolls before heading out.

This is based on what I seen players do "Back in the day" continuing on to the present.

So how much is really lost by allowing players to cast Read Magic at well for a cost in gp?

Now there are exploits available by allowing all spells to be cast rituals. The most blatant is healing by cleric. Basically there more of it. At least until they run out of components.

The main benefit from adopting this in a D&D campaign that the people playing magic-users well.. feel more like playing magic-users. The is one of the big difference I see when players switch between D&D and GURPS. Suddenly they are using magic in their daily life and it makes them feel like that playing a true magic-user.

Now resource management is an important part. So unlike GURPS the cost should be larger for this ability. Hence adoption of 4th edition D&D idea that components are needed. To keep it simple they are just rated in gold pieces. However again for powerful spells you can require a rare ingredient.

Finally I think the house rules is highly adjustable. You have the option of allowing only specific spells to be cast as components. The option of requiring specific components for every ritual. You can raise (or lower) the component cost. Increase the casting time. Make the encumberence of carrying components a limiting facto. All to get the exact tradeoff you want.

Again the idea to allow magic users of all level more flexibility without changing how D&D combat works.

But I totally understand if none of this works with your setting.

The reason I developed this rule is that Mages being able to do utility magic as long been a feature of the Majestic Wilderlands. Indeed there are some order of magic who can only cast spells via rituals.

For the rules I am writing I want it to reflect the Majectic Wilderlands as how I envision but I also want to be D&D as well. Not GURPS, Fantasy Hero or the other system I played. This is what I came up with.