Magic Ritual

[VictorianMale]

How do people handle magical rituals in 3.5?

In some game systems, magical rituals are a important (if dangerous) tool in the caster's toolbag. They represent the ability to create unique effects, cast spells that would otherwise be utterly unreachable, and generally accomplish some really cool stuff. They also allow the caster to blow himself right out of existence, if something goes wrong.

But, in my experience, magical rituals are window dressing in 3.5. Mostly, a ritual is something the bad guy is trying to complete before the PCs arrive and wreck his finely tuned evil plan to [insert goal of evil plan here].

So, does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle rituals?

[Cog]

Unearthed Arcana had some thoughts on the subject (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm), though I've never tried them out in play.

[gbprime]

I use them primarily as BBEG plot devices. Rituals out of the BoVD can allow a BBEG who goes unchecked to produce effects that are far beyond his level, yet still be of a level where the PC's can beat on him to resolve the plot. :smallbiggrin:

I also use them to enhance the power of wizard guilds. Cooperative spell effects with permanent or lasting effects, rituals to grant stuff to new members (like access to the system of Teleportation Circles in my campaign world, the ability to open various doors in the guild, access to certain demiplanes, etc), and the power to literally defend the city walls by using chanting circles of lower level wizards.

[thorr-kan]

As said, Incantations: ritual magic for anybody with a little knowledge. There's Unearthed Arcana for 3.5, d20 Modern and Urban Arcana had a bunch, Zombie Sky Press sells a couple of PDFs with theory behind them, and Kobold Quarterly/Open Design utilize them fairly often.

My E6 game would use them and so would my d20 Modern Dresden Files if I ever got a chance to run it.