Rituals for Mythical Journeys

Niche Protection? Bah

I have decided to try out ritual casting on a trial basis in my home game. Ritual casting has become a mature and streamlined mechanic in 5e, but I chose to go back to the 4e version to base my ritual casting on. 

Yes, 4e. Sue me.

Here is the description of how it should work in my game. This is a totally rough draft. It will be tweaked or even discarded after we try it out for a while.

Ritual Magic

A Ritual is a complex ceremony that creates a magic effect. You must read it from a book or scroll containing it.

Magic-User and Elf rituals can be made from the spellbook spells they are based on. The time and is the same as making a scroll: one day per spell level, but the cost is one-tenth that of a normal spell scroll: 10 x spell level x spell level in GP. This ritual instruction is inscribed into a ritual book like a normal spell is inscribed into a normal spellbook. 

Anyone can use a ritual book to perform a ritual it contains. They must have the appropriate material components and those components are expended. It takes one Turn per spell level of the original spell to perform a ritual, or at least 10 minutes.

Some rituals require extra preparation from the normal spall, like candles or the inscription of mystic tubes on a hard surface. These are determined on a case-by-case basis. Not every spell may be ritual cast. This will also be determined as we go along.

A Ritual Book: Like a spellbook, a ritual book is the repository of the information needed to perform a ritual. It costs 50 gp. It weighs 50 cn. It has 128 pages. Each ritual instruction takes up a number of pages equal to the spell’s level. Ritual books may be found as treasure. Roll the spell rituals inscribed as you would for spells on a found spell scroll. Ignore protection spells and cursed scrolls.

You may create a new ritual book by copying an old one. It takes one day per page and an INT check for each ritual (or WIS check for Clerical rituals.) A missed check means a ruined ritual and messed up pages in your book. You can’t re-use those pages.

Learning a Ritual: It takes at least 8 uninterrupted hours to learn how to perform a Ritual. At the end of that time you make an INT or WIS check to see if you have learned it. A failed check means you have to spend 8 more hours learning it. Spending time with an appropriate Magic-User or Cleric teacher mans you don’t need to make the INT or WIS check.

In this way a Fighter can cast Cure Light Wounds or Detect Magic if he needs it. Combat spells don’t work as well because they take so long to cast.