[4E] Ritual Casting Fix/Proposal (PEACH)

Mastering Rituals:

Rituals require 8 hours to learn.

When learning a ritual, a character makes a skill check against a Hard DC of that ritual's level against one of that ritual's key skills (the character's choice). For every 5 points he exceeds the DC by, the time required to learn the ritual decreases by 2 hours to a minimum of 1 hour. For every 5 points he fails the DC by, the time required to learn the ritual increases by 2 hours instead. Once this time has been determined, no subsequent attempts can be made to change it (except via Aid Another or Triviality rules as below).

Aid Another: Rituals can be learned in half the normal time (to a minimum of 1 hour) if the person learning the ritual benefits from a successful Aid Another attempt on the skill check to master that ritual by another creature who has already learned it. On a failure, the ritual takes twice as long to learn as the student is mislead and confused. Only one creature can use Aid Another in this way.

Triviality: Rituals half a character's level or less are considered trivial for that character and can be learned in the duration of a short rest without a check (5 minutes).


Transcribing Rituals/Creating Ritual Books:

Rituals require 8 hours to transcribe, including for scrolls.

The time required to transcribe a ritual can be reduced as per the rules for learning them (this includes the rules pertaining to trivial rituals).


Surge Casting:

Mastered rituals that are half the caster's level or less (rounded down) count as being Memorized and have the following properties:

• Memorized: They don't require a ritual book, spellshard or any other such receptacle to use for the caster.
• Surge Spending: Their component costs can be paid for by losing a healing surge rather than the normally required cost.
• Faster Cast Time: They can be done within the duration of a short rest (or 5 minutes/50 rounds), or half their normal cast time (minimum 1 minute/10 rounds, unless their default cast time is less, in which case it doesn't decrease), whichever is faster.
• Expediting: They can be cast in 5 rounds (expedited) before making any skill check associated with them by losing an additional healing surge, quickening its completion with an investiture of raw life force.

Variable Cost Rituals:

Special rituals with variable costs like Raise Dead are either excepted from being paid for with surges (DM's discretion; they may be expedited), or value healing surges at 5 GP * 5/50/500 per tier (so 25 GP for a heroic character per surge, 250 GP / paragon surge, 2500 GP / epic surge). A character spending surges in lieu of components must equal the component cost with surges spent in this way. The latter option permits use of variable cost rituals with healing surges without allowing for abuse of rituals such as Raise Dead, given the exceedingly high cost of its components.


Focuses and Wealth Creating Rituals:

Focuses, and the component costs of any ritual that creates a permanent item or effect with a defined monetary value (such as Brew Potion or Enchant Magical Item) can _never_ be paid for in this way with healing surges (but they may be expedited). For rituals with a permanent duration paid for with healing surges, you must lose a healing surge to sustain it at the end of each extended rest, or its effects end. A ritual sustained in this way for a year and a day becomes permanent.


Healing Surges Lost to Ritual Casting/Sustaining:

Any creature that loses healing surges to sustain or cast rituals with this rule supplement cannot have more healing surges than their normal allotment of healing surges per day minus any healing surges lost in this way until the end of their next extended rest. Any healing surges above this maximum are immediately lost.


Cooperative Casting:

1. Subtract the number of creatures that unsuccessfully used Aid Another to assist in performing a ritual from those that did so successfully.
   
2. If this difference is positive, divide the casting time by 1 + this difference. Otherwise multiply it by 1 + this difference (as a positive number).

Note that any character using Aid Another in this way will be preoccupied for the full duration of the ritual.

The casting time of a ritual cannot be reduced to less than 5 rounds in this way. These casting time modifiers apply before all others.


Rituals Without Skill Checks:

For rituals with no skill check, you instead make a skill check against a Hard DC of that ritual's associated skill (you choose if there are multiple associated skills) and level. If your check succeeds, you can reduce the casting time of that ritual by 20% of its post-modifier cast time, plus another 20% for every 5 points your check exceeds this DC to a minimum of 5 rounds. Failure by 5 or more points means you take twice as long to perform the ritual instead.


Why?

This allows for the more consistent application and utility of rituals, particularly at the lower levels by making them practical to use and affordable, while simultaneously retaining definitive limits on their frequency of use. It also helps with issues of purchasing insufficient quantities of the needed reagent/component type. In the context of a 'work/adventuring day' it further presents a risk vs reward component, and introduces resource management depth to the game, particularly for casters with smaller healing surge pools (like the Wizard); the healing surges they spend could make all the difference between life and death. Lastly, it makes all rituals benefit from having a high score in their associated skill, rendering ritual casting more consistent and 'fair'.

Overall, this would neatly solve and address the problem of rituals rarely seeing use because of uncertain utility and prohibitive and recurring costs (especially at the lower levels) which are highly unpopular or even truly untenable for most players and campaigns, as well as no check rituals completely failing to reward/penalize high or low skill checks. It also makes them situationally but potentially useful in combat encounters given the 5 round cast time floor, perhaps permitting an interesting scenario where the party wizard struggles to conjure an escape portal while he's defended by his allies.

Yeah. I actually like that, it will allow my players to have more fun with rituals. Totally gonna use this for any 4e game I run.

Yeah, that's the idea. As is, they're just too cumbersome, expensive and prohibitive to use in most games; huge flaw with the design of ritual casting.

Added to the OP:

Finally, for rituals with no skill check, you instead make a skill check against a Hard DC of that ritual's associated skill and level. If your check succeeds, you can reduce the casting time of that ritual by 10%, plus another 10% for every 5 points your check exceeds this DC to a minimum of 1 minute. Failure by 5 or more points means you take twice as long to perform the ritual.

Thoughts? I feel it makes Ritual Casting more symmetrical, consistent and 'fair' in that there's always some form of benefit for a high skill score in a ritual's associated skill.

Added to the OP:

A Ritual whose Component/Focus costs were paid for with a Healing Surge and that has a duration of Permanent instead lasts until the end of each of your Extended Rests unless you choose to sustain it by spending a Healing Surge. A Ritual sustained in this way for a year and a day becomes permanent.

Limiter to prevent the caster from making essentially unlimited permanent effects.

I'm co-opting this for my campaign. I've got a ritual nut who would love this.

Heya Mel. Glad someone will be getting use out of it. :smalltongue:

Added to the OP:

Before making any skill check associated with a memorized ritual, you may spend a additional healing surge to further reduce its casting time to 1 minute, expediting its completion with an investiture of raw life force.

Again, makes Rituals more practical to use in situations with time constraints albeit at an additional cost and without making them viable in combat.


Modified (replaced 'mastered' with 'memorized'; added areas in bold):

Mastered rituals that are half the caster's level or less (rounded down) count as being memorized, don't require a ritual book, spellshard or any other such receptacle to use for the caster, and can be paid for with a healing surge rather than the normally required cost in components. Memorized rituals can be done within the duration of a short rest (or 5 minutes/50 rounds), or half their normal cast time (minimum 1 minute/10 rounds), whichever is faster.

A minor thing, but it helps reduce book keeping for memorized rituals.

I very much like this. Has anyone actually tested it?

I see a lot of boosting up of the rituals, no negative thing. Which is good, I guess, they are not used enough. But even tought rituals by RAW are hard to use, they are very easy to get. Shouldn't this fix be acompained by some control over the amount of rituals someone with the feat has? Perhaps if they were bought with feats instead of money... (vistani and dragonmarks come to mind)

It's normally easy to restrict rituals (as DM you control treasure parcels) with the exception of very few certain classes (like the Wizard) which get to cherry pick them.

That said, the fact that you can only surge power rituals that are half your character level or less, can't create anything permanent without surge upkeep and can't create anything with market value are the primary limiters. I've yet to see anything really abusable given these limits.

If however, you (or anyone else) notice something that needs fixing/addressing, please be sure to post about it!

Added Cooperative Casting to the OP. This is another measure to help make rituals more practical while also involving other members of the party mechanically and narratively:


Cooperative Casting:

Divide the casting time of rituals by one plus the number of creatures that successfully used Aid Another to assist in a ritual performance, then multiply the casting time by one plus the number of creatures that unsuccessfully use Aid Another in this way. The casting time of a ritual cannot be reduced to less than 1 minute in this way. These casting time modifiers apply before all others.

Added a section on mastering rituals. This helps expedite the arduous process of mastering rituals, while potentially getting other party members involved in the process, making it more inclusive and conducive to roleplay/character interaction:

Mastering Rituals:

When learning a ritual, a character makes a skill check against a hard DC of one of that ritual's key skills (the character's choice). For every 5 points he exceeds the hard DC by, the time required to learn the ritual decreases by 1 hour to a minimum of 1 hour.

Rituals can be mastered in half the normal time (normally 4 hours) if the person learning the ritual benefits from a successful Aid Another attempt on the skill check to master that ritual by another character who has already mastered it.

Rituals half a character's level or less are considered trivial for that character and can be learned in the duration of a short rest (5 minutes).


Credit to Emongnome777 for the inspiration/original houserules this is based on.

Added additional clarification. Changed the floor for ritual cast times to 5 rounds. This allows for limited in-combat use of some rituals that can make for interesting situations: defending the party Wizard from waves of enemies as he conjures a portal to escape for example.

hmm..I also interested in it and I've got a ritual nut who would love this.