Finding the right ritual for a given situation, challenge or problem – that’s what takes most of the time and effort for ritual use in your games, isn’t it? Whether you’re a player or DM, it can seem like a lot of work to integrate rituals into your game as a clever resource.
Until now! Chris Sims put together a Rituals Index, something I had been looking forward to after taking a shot at something like it myself just months prior in Rituals Re-Organized.
Here’s a brief review of the index plus some of my advice on using it in your game – including the most helpful and important part which starts on page 16: Reference Groupings. These will change the way you think about and use rituals in your game, giving them more stage time and rounding out your D&D campaign and story in creative and memorable ways.
Categories
The first fifteen pages of the Rituals Index simply reviews all the basic and familiar ritual categories, and then gives each one its own unique and handy chart of summarized rituals for quick reference.
The best feature of each ritual category chart is its one-line stat block that includes a one-sentence description of each ritual – this lets you scan a ritual far more quickly for its basic utility compared to the original PHB format. And like any true index, every ritual’s original source is listed along with a page number.
To refresh your memory, here are the ritual categories:
- Alchemical*
- Binding
- Creation
- Deception
- Divination
- Exploration
- Martial Practice*
- Restoration
- Scrying
- Travel
- Warding
Note that alchemical items and martial practices aren’t technically classic rituals, but can certainly be purposed like them, and as such, have their own reference charts in the Rituals Index.
Finally, each ritual category chart include the following pieces of information for each ritual, in this order: Level, Name, Ritual Component Cost, Market Value (price), Key Skill(s), Description (an elegant one-sentence summary for each ritual), and Source.
Reference Groupings
Here’s where the magic of rituals gets really exciting! The final six pages of the Ritual Index put all our underused, forgotten, or otherwise misunderstood rituals into practical categories for in-game integration. What can you actually do with ritual magic in your adventures? What are rituals good for? Here’s what:
- Access Mounts
- Acquire Skill
- Bind a Soul
- Break and Enter
- Change Environment
- Change Objects
- Change Treasure
- Clean
- Communicate
- Copy Text
- Create Consumables
- Create Objects
- Create Security/Alarms
- Create Servants
- Detain/Restrain
- Detect Creatures
- Disguise
- Distribute Healing Surges
- Eavesdrop
- Entertain
- Fake Objects
- Foil Communication
- Foil Defiling
- Foil Eavesdropping
- Foil Illusions
- Foil Invisibility
- Foil Pursuit
- Foil Stealth
- Foil Teleportation
- Hide Information
- Improve Capabilities
- Improve Teamwork
- Influence Beasts
- Influence Monsters
- Influence People
- Interrogate
- Investigate
- Learn
- Light
- Mislead
- Move Longterm
- Navigate
- Overcome Obstacles
- Preserve Corpse
- Preserve Objects
- Protect
- Record Information
- Repair Objects
- Rest
- Resurrect
- Search
- Share Senses
- Shelter
- Sneak
- Strengthen Objects
- Survive
- Teleport
- Track
- Transport Objects
- Trap
- Travel Between Planes
- Treat Lasting Effects
- Weaken Enemies
- Weaken Objects
That’s right: a whopping 64 adventure-friendly reasons to use rituals right now in your game! These 64 applications include a listing of relevant rituals underneath each heading and are basically an expansion of my original six:
- Adventuring Risks
- Magic & Alchemical Items
- Travel & Movement
- Information Gathering & Communication
- Security & Deception
- Personal Aid, Supplies & Illumination
Seeds and Solutions
Now that you know exactly how rituals can help your adventuring party, organized by purpose or application and summarized in handy charts, what’s the next step to adding more and more clever ritual magic into your adventures?
As a player or DM, look for reference grouping-inspired sorts of obstacles and challenges during an adventure. Certain encounters – combat, social or otherwise – might have alternative solutions via ritual that you had never considered before given the massive amount of ritual information to wade through and make sense of.
Entire quests, skill challenges, combats, roleplaying scenes, or whole adventures might encourage or even require you to slyly Detect some missing Objects, Sneak around, Transport those Objects, and finally Detain/Restrain those responsible for the theft until you’re ready to Survive the Travel Between Planes you need to make to receive payment – where Influence People or Investigate ritual magic might help to either pad the reward or find out what’s really going on with those stolen goods.
And if you find the Ritual Index’s 64 reference groupings a bit overwhelming, simply fall back to my original six and start with those. You can always add in more detailed ritual applications later on, whether you’re crafting an encounter or adventure, or you’re looking for a slick advantage as a player character.
The bottom line is: ritual presentation and utility always needed some help and clarity since the original PHB, and I think now more than ever, we’ve finally got it! This means a smoother blend of story and game, that wonderful balance that is essential to a rich D&D experience.
Rituals in Your Game
How much attention do rituals get in your games? Are they common or rare? Has this overview of the Rituals Index helped you think of more ways to use rituals in your game? Do you think the index is more useful to characters or the DM, or about equally to both?
Kilsek
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone actually use a ritual in game. I’ve tried adding some of the rituals to special magic items, granting a free and/or instant use of a certain low level ritual as a daily power or at the expense of healing surges. It catches the players attention when they see items that allow them to be used, but the time sink that most of them are typically dissuades them from bothering. Basically, if it’s not usable in combat, then it’s not worth it to them.
Psynister recently posted..Trial Account Twinking: Professions
Psynister, yes, I’ve also noticed low usage in my games as well, whether I play or DM. They were intentionally seperated from combat-oriented “powers” in 4e and that division can even mean they’re completely ignored. They seem to require a bit more adventure/quest design forethought by the DM than prior D&D edition non-combat magic. And on the player side, you’re usually focused on combat powers or skills to overcome most challenges or encounters.
Your idea of adding them as small freebies or riders to other, more valuable things like magic items, is a great one. It’s basically an extension of a similar ritual-related class bonus like the bard. An ocassional free cast is always appreciated.
I also talk about some alternative ways to encourage more ritual use, including reducing or eliminating costs and giving them daily power-like limits instead in another article in this series, here: Rituals Re-Integrated: Alternative Rules.
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