Non-Ritual Rituals

[xanxosttheslaad]

I’ve been working on some homebrew magic items for my campaign, some of which allowing the user to cast certain spells as rituals. As an example, the Tome of Bedtime Stories can be used to cast Sleep as a ritual, provided the targets are able to hear the caster during the casting. What other non-ritual spells can you think of that could make sense to be cast as rituals, while still being potentially useful?

[iTreeby]

A box with a crank that casts "create food and water" when fed "stuff". The food and water are edible and potable but the quality is definitely dependent on the ingredients. Great for DM's that don't want to track food consumption.

[JackPhoenix]

Eberron does this with magewrights: they get to cast some spells as a ritual, with added consumed material components worth 20 times the spell's level.

Some options present in ERftLW, besides those that already are rituals, are:

Entertainer: Disguise Self
Healer: Lesser Restoration
Lamplighter: Continual Flame
Locksmith: Arcane Lock, Knock
Mediator: Zone of Truth
Medium: Speak with Dead

[EggKookoo]

Eberron does this with magewrights: they get to cast some spells as a ritual, with added consumed material components worth 20 times the spell's level.

Some options present in ERftLW, besides those that already are rituals, are:

Entertainer: Disguise Self
Healer: Lesser Restoration
Lamplighter: Continual Flame
Locksmith: Arcane Lock, Knock
Mediator: Zone of Truth
Medium: Speak with Dead

I'm doing that in my Eberron campaign with a therapist that can cast modify memory as a ritual. He's a "person of interest" to the PCs.

[sambojin]

Not saying these aren't overpowered, just saying that they probably should work (from a druid'ish perspective):

Good Berry: nature provides some food to you. You actually need berries already to use it as a ritual, it doesn't summon them, but it gives you a reason to take herbalism. Maybe 1/day blessing thing, otherwise one druid could feed a town....

Create/Destroy Water: nature makes a small spring spout forth, a rain cloud dumps some water from somewhere, some condensation all of a sudden appears, whatever, for you. Not as good as an alchemy jug, because it doesn't do beer.

Enhance Ability: you really, really bless the bejesus out of someone, nature-like, for like 10mins or so, so they can do a thing more betterer for a while. Like a bear or a cat or an eagle or something. Druidy-like.

Lesser Restoration: you take ages to de-conditionize someone, or if necessary, everyone in the party. Eventually. If they can't make a save in 10mins, you help move the adventure along, because you know all about putting conditions on stuff.

Spike Growth: you ask nature to be spikey and hurty in an area for you, to prepare for a known upcoming fight, or to defend an area for a bit. Or just to mess with traffic. Takes a bit of planning.

Call Lightning: you don't just make a small rain cloud, you make a storm cloud, with attendant zappy lightning. Takes a while to do so though. But this is why small towns don't annoy druids.

Plant Growth: you make plants grow. Sometimes into a jungle, sometimes into a nice harvestable field. It takes a bit of effort. This is why small towns love druids.

Speak with Plants: you take ages zoning out and into how plants see the world, so you can understand them. They tell you stuff and appreciate the concern.

Giant Insect: no-one ever uses it, but you probably would, and even spend time to collect the insects to do so, if it was a ritual.


Lots of these are still hamstrung by concentration, so might not actually be too bad to allow. And some of them aren't exactly high tier spells, but you'd definitely prepare them as a slow backup option if you could ritual cast them. Except Good Berries. Never, ever let a druid do that. They should be casting it too many times a day anyway.