Wizard's School of Ritual

[LichMan13]

Originally wanted to make an entire class based around ritual casting but went with a wizard subclass instead. I'll take any feedback. So you guys think it's underpowered? Overpowered?

Wizard’s School of Ritual

Purveyor
Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, you can learn any spell with a ritual tag on it. The time and gold it takes to copy a ritual spell is halved. You may learn one additional ritual spell alongside the spells you normally learn per level.

Master of Rituals
At 2nd level you gain the ability to cast any spell you know without the ritual tag out of combat as a ritual spell by adding 5 minutes of concentration to the casting requirements.

Blood Talismans
At 6th you are able to make paper talismans that you can inscribe with your blood, spending 1 health point plus one minute of concentration to then proceeding to cast the spell as you would normally to be stored onto a talisman for later use without expending any spell slots. You are limited to 12 talismans which are usable inside and outside of combat. The damage for stored spells has your intelligence modifier added in additional damage. With your willingness others may expend the spell in your place. You must use a long rest to restore uses of talismans.

Circle Casting
At 10th level you can create a magical circle by tracing out a circle on the ground surrounding you. The circle creates an impassable barrier that can absorb a fair amount of damage. Inside the circle you can roll advantage against enemy spells 3 times, force disadvantage on foe with a spell once, and add your intelligence modifier in bonus damage to your spells until it dissipates after 3 rounds. The circle can be made with a bonus action and has 5 uses before a long rest.

Sacrificial Magic
At 14th level you can expend the life of a living creature to substitute one ingredient needed for any spell.

[JNAProductions]

Originally wanted to make an entire class based around ritual casting but went with a wizard subclass instead. I'll take any feedback. So you guys think it's underpowered? Overpowered?

Wizard’s School of Ritual

Purveyor
Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, you can learn any spell with a ritual tag on it. The time and gold it takes to copy a ritual spell is halved. You may learn one additional ritual spell alongside the spells you normally learn per level.

Master of Rituals
At 2nd level you gain the ability to cast any spell you know without the ritual tag out of combat as a ritual spell by adding 5 minutes of concentration to the casting requirements.

Blood Talismans
At 6th you are able to make paper talismans that you can inscribe with your blood, spending 1 health point plus one minute of concentration to then proceeding to cast the spell as you would normally to be stored onto a talisman for later use without expending any spell slots. You are limited to 12 talismans which are usable inside and outside of combat. The damage for stored spells has your intelligence modifier added in additional damage. With your willingness others may expend the spell in your place. You must use a long rest to restore uses of talismans.

Circle Casting
At 10th level you can create a magical circle by tracing out a circle on the ground surrounding you. The circle creates an impassable barrier that can absorb a fair amount of damage. Inside the circle you can roll advantage against enemy spells 3 times, force disadvantage on foe with a spell once, and add your intelligence modifier in bonus damage to your spells until it dissipates after 3 rounds. The circle can be made with a bonus action and has 5 uses before a long rest.

Sacrificial Magic
At 14th level you can expend the life of a living creature to substitute one ingredient needed for any spell.

Purveyor
Fine, I think. I don't believe there's any rituals outside the Wizard list that'll break the game.

Master Of Rituals
This, though-that breaks things HARD. That basically says that "Out of combat, you have unlimited spell slots."

Blood Talismans
Why 12? The feature itself isn't bad in terms of balance, but allowing for 12 of the things makes it pretty broken.

Circle Casting
Is poorly written. Needs to be MUCH better defined.

Sacrificial Magic
Feels more like fluff than crunch. Should probably be replaced by a more commonly impactful feature.

[Grey Watcher]

Master Of Rituals
This, though-that breaks things HARD. That basically says that "Out of combat, you have unlimited spell slots."

One possibility (more on the ribbon side of things, but still has niche uses) is that you halve the amount of time it takes to do a ritual. So a ritual adds 5 minutes to the casting time instead of the typical 10.

If you're set on being able to use non-ritual spells as rituals, I'd suggest some combination of:

pick one or two that you can do this with (maybe you can swap out on a long rest, maybe it's an irreversible decision).
the spell gains a material component equal in value to (some amount of money) x level of the spell.
you can only do this X number of times before taking a short rest.
some caveats on what spells can be cast this way (eg nothing that deals damage or nothing that requires a saving throw or something).
some maximum level of spell this works with (eg nothing higher than 3)

[LichMan13]

Well that was a rough draft. Would've replied server but it kept saying server was too busy. Second part of Surveyor could be changed to one additional ritual per new level of spell from any class. Meaning when 1 at 2nd level, then another when you're able to 2nd level spells and so on up to when 9th level spells are possible. Master of rituals could be changed to limit of 10 selected spells that can be used as ritual spells up 6 times per day. Blood Talismans carry a blood price and take time to prepare, so at a price you can gain stored and empowered spell up to a certain number. Changing the blood price to one health point and minute per level of spell, up to a limit of 8 prepared at any time, that may be more appropriate.

Now here's how Circle Casting works, you can draw a glowing circle around you on the ground, when activated it creates a barrier which shields you from a reasonable amount of damage, when that amount has been depleted the circle vanishes. While inside of it you can gain advantage on saving throws, force disadvantage on enemies when hitting them with your spells, or add damage to a spell up to a limited number of times. I did a poor job for the description before. It meant to give you benefits when casting spells and some small protection so you have breathing room in a fight. Since Blood Talismans is going to leave you with less health this would be useful. Could modify it to where you have advantage on saving throws when the circle. You can add bonus damage and apply disadvantage 3 times while inside it. If you leave the circle it vanishes, making it costs one action. Should make it more manageable.

Now when you get Sacrificial Magic at 14th, using a living sacrifice to substitute a spell ingredient is pretty powerful, it's a cheat ability. High level spells can have some pretty pricey and hard to find ingredients in order to cast. This makes dealing with higher level spells somewhat easier. Kill a chicken or crush an insect in your hand to cast fireball if you don't have any guano. Finish off a nearly dead human to cast stop time. Kill a restrained target to cast meteor or wish. Requires some effort to pull off, but it's a fitting choice for a ritual caster. Could make a requirement that a certain quality of sacrifice is needed for a certain level of spell. Turning it a debuff that you can put on a select target and when they die you can use the expended life to substitute the ingredient the next spell you cast. Could limit it to 4 uses a day. Tell me what you guys think?

[JNAProductions]

Well that was a rough draft. Would've replied server but it kept saying server was too busy. Second part of Surveyor could be changed to one additional ritual per new level of spell from any class. Meaning when 1 at 2nd level, then another when you're able to 2nd level spells and so on up to when 9th level spells are possible. Master of rituals could be changed to limit of 10 selected spells that can be used as ritual spells up 6 times per day. Blood Talismans carry a blood price and take time to prepare, so at a price you can gain stored and empowered spell up to a certain number. Changing the blood price to one health point and minute per level of spell, up to a limit of 8 prepared at any time, that may be more appropriate.

Now here's how Circle Casting works, you can draw a glowing circle around you on the ground, when activated it creates a barrier which shields you from a reasonable amount of damage, when that amount has been depleted the circle vanishes. While inside of it you can gain advantage on saving throws, force disadvantage on enemies when hitting them with your spells, or add damage to a spell up to a limited number of times. I did a poor job for the description before. It meant to give you benefits when casting spells and some small protection so you have breathing room in a fight. Since Blood Talismans is going to leave you with less health this would be useful. Could modify it to where you have advantage on saving throws when the circle. You can add bonus damage and apply disadvantage 3 times while inside it. If you leave the circle it vanishes, making it costs one action. Should make it more manageable.

Now when you get Sacrificial Magic at 14th, using a living sacrifice to substitute a spell ingredient is pretty powerful, it's a cheat ability. High level spells can have some pretty pricey and hard to find ingredients in order to cast. This makes dealing with higher level spells somewhat easier. Kill a chicken or crush an insect in your hand to cast fireball if you don't have any guano. Finish off a nearly dead human to cast stop time. Kill a restrained target to cast meteor or wish. Requires some effort to pull off, but it's a fitting choice for a ritual caster. Could make a requirement that a certain quality of sacrifice is needed for a certain level of spell. Turning it a debuff that you can put on a select target and when they die you can use the expended life to substitute the ingredient the next spell you cast. Could limit it to 4 uses a day. Tell me what you guys think?

Master of Rituals is still broken-even with just six ritual spells per day, that's 24 Zombies at no cost (from Animate Dead).

Blood Talisman's "price" is so minor, even at 1 HP/Level, as to be basically irrelevant. At the level you get it, you have at least 26 HP. More likely, you've got 32 or 38. The real limit WOULD be spell slots, except it doesn't cost any. So you can fill nearly all your Talismans with Fireball on a single day of rest, and have an extra 8/12 castings of your highest level spell throughout the day.

Circle Casting is still not clear.

Sacrificial Magic is still basically a ribbon. What else are you spending money on? Except apparently you can use ANYTHING that's alive, so using a bug is valid, which makes it kinda ridiculous even as a ribbon.

[moonfly7]

Love this concept a lot, I really like it, but it needs a little polishing. The only major issue I see is honestly blood talismans, you need to take that down to 3 at least. It's like free spell scrolls with the current HP cost. I'd suggest 3 as a maximum and the damage is a roll of your hit dice.
As for the ritual casting everything, I second the idea to limiting it to like, 2 you can swap out.
As for clearness, the circle makes sense to me. It's not yet in polished up unloopholable dnd speak, but that comes last normally. Great work so far.

[JNAProductions]

Love this concept a lot, I really like it, but it needs a little polishing. The only major issue I see is honestly blood talismans, you need to take that down to 3 at least. It's like free spell scrolls with the current HP cost. I'd suggest 3 as a maximum and the damage is a roll of your hit dice.
As for the ritual casting everything, I second the idea to limiting it to like, 2 you can swap out.
As for clearness, the circle makes sense to me. It's not yet in polished up unloopholable dnd speak, but that comes last normally. Great work so far.

How much damage can the circle take? Does it eat all damage, or just some of the damage you'd take? Does it occupy your space, or is it bigger?

It REALLY needs clarity. If you can find that in what's currently written, please let me know.

[sandmote]

Circle Casting
At 10th level you can create a magical circle by tracing out a circle on the ground surrounding you. The circle creates an impassable barrier that can absorb a fair amount of damage. Inside the circle you can roll advantage against enemy spells 3 times, force disadvantage on foe with a spell once, and add your intelligence modifier in bonus damage to your spells until it dissipates after 3 rounds. The circle can be made with a bonus action and has 5 uses before a long rest.


I'm hoping to suggest a slightly more concrete suggestion for how to clarify this feature:


Circle Casting
At 10th level, you can trace a magical circle around your space as a bonus action, which forms a cylinder 10 feet tall and 5 feet wide. The circle lasts for 1 minute, absorbing the first 30 damage to hit it, including weapon attacks and spells aimed at targets within the circle as well as from area effects, such as the explosion of a fireball. You can step out of the circle, and other creatures can step in without hindrance. Creatures attacking from inside the circle have advantage on their attack rolls and the targets of creatures inside it have disadvantage on their saving throws; this benefit does not apply when both creatures are inside the circle.

You can create such a circle a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier (minimum of once) and regain all uses at the end of a long rest.

I've quantified the "fair amount of damage," specified who gets advantage/disadvantage, and tied it to typical limit on how often you can use a feature. I've removed the bonus damage, as I've removed the limit on how many times it gives advantage/disadvantage.

[Greywander]

Originally wanted to make an entire class based around ritual casting but went with a wizard subclass instead. I'll take any feedback. So you guys think it's underpowered? Overpowered?
This makes a lot of sense, as wizards already get the best ritual casting by not needing to have the spell prepared. Let's take a look.


Purveyor
Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, you can learn any spell with a ritual tag on it. The time and gold it takes to copy a ritual spell is halved. You may learn one additional ritual spell alongside the spells you normally learn per level.
It's fine, though I think it could be worded better. I'd do something like the following:

Purveyor
Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, the gold and time it takes you to copy a ritual spell into your spellbook is halved. In addition, any spell with the ritual tag is considered a wizard spell for you.


Master of Rituals
At 2nd level you gain the ability to cast any spell you know without the ritual tag out of combat as a ritual spell by adding 5 minutes of concentration to the casting requirements.
Gonna agree with JNA here. Either make this 1/long rest (possibly gaining more as you level, up to 3), or we can tweak it to raise the cost and lower the power. Something like this:

Master of Rituals
Starting at 2nd level, you learn how to cast any spell recorded in your spellbook as a ritual. To do so, you must spend additional time conducting the ritual, as well as provide additional material components that are consumed by the spell. For 1st and 2nd level spells, the casting time is increased by 10 minutes. For 3rd through 5th level spells, the casting time increases by 1 hour. For spells 6th level and up, the casting time increases by 8 hours. The spell also requires additional material components suitable for that spell with a gold value equal to 10 * the spell's level squared, which are consumed by the spell. (For reference, this would be 10, 40, 90, 160, 250, 360, 490, 640, and 810 gp, for 1st through 9th, respectively.)
When you cast a spell as a ritual, you can wait to complete the ritual until the right moment. If you don't cast the spell immediately at the end of the ritual, you may finish the ritual later as an action, provided you are close enough to the location where the material components are laid out. Holding a ritual this way requires your concentration.


Blood Talismans
At 6th you are able to make paper talismans that you can inscribe with your blood, spending 1 health point plus one minute of concentration to then proceeding to cast the spell as you would normally to be stored onto a talisman for later use without expending any spell slots. You are limited to 12 talismans which are usable inside and outside of combat. The damage for stored spells has your intelligence modifier added in additional damage. With your willingness others may expend the spell in your place. You must use a long rest to restore uses of talismans.
Interesting idea, let me see what I can do here.

Blood Talismans
Beginning at 6th level, you are able to inscribe paper talismans with your own blood, allowing you to to store a spell inside the talisman. To do so, cast the spell normally and spend a number of hit dice equal to that spell's level. The spell is then sealed inside the talisman, allowing you or another creature to cast the spell later without expending a spell slot.
The talismans are linked to your life force, preventing you from regaining the hit dice spent to create that talisman as long as it exists. When you finish a long rest, you can choose to sever the link between your life force and any talismans of your choice that you've created, immediately rendering those talismans inert.

Letting your party members use them makes the ability more interesting. This also lets you give your party members the spotlight instead of hogging it for yourself.


Circle Casting
At 10th level you can create a magical circle by tracing out a circle on the ground surrounding you. The circle creates an impassable barrier that can absorb a fair amount of damage. Inside the circle you can roll advantage against enemy spells 3 times, force disadvantage on foe with a spell once, and add your intelligence modifier in bonus damage to your spells until it dissipates after 3 rounds. The circle can be made with a bonus action and has 5 uses before a long rest.
I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to do here, so let me see if I can come up with something with a similar theme.

Circle Casting
Starting at 10th level, you are able to draw magic circles that can offer several different benefits. Each circle requires 1 minute to create, and covers a circle with a radius of 5 feet. Each circle lasts for up to 10 minutes, which can be extended by spending a spell slot when you create the circle, adding a number of hours equal to the spell slot's level. When you create the circle, you may choose one of the following types of circles:

Barrier. An invisible barrier projects out from the circle to a height of up to 10 feet. The top and bottom are uncovered. Creatures cannot enter or leave the circle once it is completed. Attacks against creatures on the other side of the barrier have disadvantage, and creatures have advantage on saving throws against any effect that originates from the other side of the barrier. You can break the circle as a bonus action, immediately dropping the barrier.
Focus. When you cast a spell that requires concentration from inside the circle, or on a target inside the circle, that spell does not require concentration. The spell ends immediately if you (or your target) leave the circle, or if the circle is broken.
Empowerment. When you cast a spell from inside the circle, or on a target inside the circle, you may add your Intelligence modifier to any damage or healing rolls for that spell.
Perpetuity. When you cast a spell with a duration of at least 1 minute from inside the circle, or on a target inside the circle, the duration becomes permanent. The spell ends immediately if you (or your target) leave the circle, or if the circle is broken.


Honestly, though, this might be too strong. But it was fun to design. Keep in mind the 1 minute creation time means you can't make them during combat, and since the circles require either you or your target to stay in the circle, your mobility will be limited. So maybe it's not all that strong.


Sacrificial Magic
At 14th level you can expend the life of a living creature to substitute one ingredient needed for any spell.
Again, I agree with JNA, this seems like a ribbon. Maybe build off of the magic circles ability?

Greater Circles
Beginning at 14th level, when you create a magic circle using your Circle Casting feature, you may spend 1 hour instead of 1 minute to make the circle permanent (until dispelled). You can also create circles of different sizes. Creating a smaller circle requires the same amount of time, but fits within a small space. To create a larger circle, double the time spent creating it for every additional 5 feet of radius.

Honestly, this could make some really broken stuff. A permanent circle of perpetuity is basically spell permanence, though it has to be in a fixed location (unless you want to hang out inside that circle forever).