Communal magic

[Skrum]

Are there any mechanical options for communal or circle magic? I'm thinking about how to make a coven of witches PC group, and would love a way to represent group casting or something like it.

[Greywander]

I don't think group casting is represented in 5e, so as far as official options go, you're out of luck. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist in the lore (IIRC, group casting is one way to achieve 10th+ level spells), but it's not in the mechanics of 5e (yet). If you want to consider homebrewing something, then here are a few things you might consider.

Who can help cast?
In this case, I'd generally divide people into three groups:

Those who can cast that spell.
Those who can't cast that spell, but are spellcasters.
Those who aren't spellcasters.

What I'd probably do is start with a casting time for the ritual, and assign each contributor a "score" according to which category they fall in. The higher the score, the more they reduce the casting time. For example, if you and another person cast the spell, and you both can cast it, it halves the time. But if the other person is only a spellcaster but can't cast that spell, it only reduces the casting time by a quarter. If they're not even a spellcaster, it only reduces the casting time by an eighth.

Alternatively, perhaps non-casters can't even assist, or maybe only those who can cast the spell can assist. It might vary from spell to spell. You might also split this up into more categories, such as casters who have the spell on their list, but don't have it known/prepared. Or casters who can eventually learn this spell, but aren't high enough level to yet. Or casters who can't learn this spell, and also aren't high enough level to learn it even if they could.

Minimum requirements?
You might need a minimum number of people to even attempt to cast the spell. Maybe you need a certain number who can cast the spell, but beyond that any caster or even non-caster can assist. Alternatively, maybe having more than a certain number of people helping cast the spell has no effect, or the spell can't be cast at all if too many people are partaking in the ritual.

Other factors?
I feel like the ritual/casting system is a bit underdeveloped. Which is crazy considering how much design space magic takes up. But there are tons of other elements you could introduce to spellcasting. Such as:

The spell can only be cast at certain times. At night, under a full moon, while the planets are in alignment, on Thursdays, whatever.
The spell can only be cast at certain places. Liminal spaces between planes, holy sites, the intersection of ley lines, the location where a powerful creature died, etc.
The spell can only be cast by a certain person. Others might know the spell and be able to assist, and the designated caster might not even be the spell's creator, but only they can initiate the ritual. Alternatively, maybe they're not a caster, but a material component for the spell. Hope it isn't consumed. :smallwink:
The spell can only be cast under the right circumstances. When you're about to die, when the Great Evil has been unsealed, when you've eaten cheese that morning, etc.
The spell requires a sacrifice. One of the casters has to give up their life, and perhaps even their soul, in order to power the spell. Less dramatically, perhaps it only requires giving up a finger, a year of their lifespan, or a personal item.

There's a lot of interesting stuff you could do with spells and rituals. It's kind of a shame that they didn't explore these options more.

[Willowhelm]

There are no official player mechanics for this but there are examples of npcs doing something similar.

Eg. Hags have different abilities when they’re in a group. Many cultists are performing rituals as a group with their concentration shared among them etc.

Pretty sure what you’re looking for is just up to you to create. Personally I wouldn’t diverge too far from the standard rules just to avoid the time and effort and complexity. Eg. I’d allow the concentration of a ritual caring to be shared so it couldn’t be interrupted so easily. I’d allow players to share spell slots or offer up a spell slot to upcast another player’s spell. I’d allow for higher level spells to be available if certain conditions are met. “Small” changes like that rather than pages of home brew for an entirely new mechanic.

[dafrca]

I wonder if there would be a way to combine the Help Action with the casting circle. Maybe one person is the caster and the other MUs use the help action first and after each adds their help the caster casts the spell with some sort of additional advantages beyond die roll bonus....

Interesting thoughts you have brought up here. :smallbiggrin:

[Willowhelm]

I wonder if there would be a way to combine the Help Action with the casting circle. Maybe one person is the caster and the other MUs use the help action first and after each adds their help the caster casts the spell with some sort of additional advantages beyond die roll bonus....

Interesting thoughts you have brought up here. :smallbiggrin:

Buff spells. Guidance. Inspiration etc exist and can also do this depending on the party. Just switch out the mechanic where they add to the check role to be a bonus to the effect of the spell. Just stacking the help action is a little abusable probably as there’s no real resource cost.

At the risk of bringing them up, Matt Mercer uses some group magic mechanics for his resurrection rules. Each character contributes, skill checks are involved, and it alters the final DC. That can work pretty well and there are rules already for skill challenges iirc but it doesn’t map onto the existing spell casting system so you’re still homebrewing the spells and their abilities.

[Lokishade]

I have been thinking on doing exactly that.

So far, I've considered:

-A ritual caster who knows the spell in an out. He's the designated "conductor" and guides everyone else
-A minimum requirement of people participating
-Components. Could be: Materials, a minimum of participants that have a particular trait (race, age, gender, character class, or anything rare that strikes your fancy)
-A special place could be needed to conduct the ritual
-The ritual can only work (or is empowered) during a special window of time for the conducting of the ritual (such and such stars must be aligned, must wait for spring, etc)
-A precise spell to be cast during the ritual (or multiple different spells)
-A sacrifice involved (could be precious gems, gold, blood (loss of HP), temporary or permanent stat loss of the volunteer/victim or his life)

The more powerful/advanced the effects of the ritual would require a more complex setup.

I thought of this because I wanted Elves to be more powerfully magical as a society without making them all spellcaster gestalts. Also to give a credible way for Dwarves to craft magical weapons while still stereotypically shunning arcane spellcasters.

Also, it could codify the dark rituals those nasty dark cults perform all the time and give dramatic timing to the whole affair, as well as concrete ways to creatively shut down or repurpose the whole thing.

I'll eventually craft rituals with those guidelines and tweak existing spells to empower them.

[Seekergeek]

The college of spirits bard has something sort of like this.

“ Spirit Session
At 6th level, spirits provide you with supernatural insights. You can conduct an hour-long ritual channeling spirits (which can be done during a short or long rest) using your Spiritual Focus. You can conduct the ritual with a number of willing creatures equal to your proficiency bonus (including yourself). At the end of the ritual, you temporarily learn one spell of your choice from any class.

The spell you choose must be of a level equal to the number of creatures that conducted the ritual or less, the spell must of a level you can cast, and it must be in the school of Divination or Necromancy. The chosen spell counts as a bard spell for you but doesn’t count against the number of bard spells you know.

Once you perform the ritual, you can’t do so again until you start a long rest, and you know the chosen spell until you start a long rest.”

I’d be tempted to somehow use that concept as a template.

[Greywander]

Once you perform the ritual, you can’t do so again until you start a long rest, and you know the chosen spell until you start a long rest.”
Hold up, how did we get here? I thought we had this discussion over the Dream druid's Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow feature. You don't start rests, you finish them.

As written, you can "start" a long rest, then immediately abandon it to do the ritual again, any time, as many times as you like. This is functionally identical to performing the ritual as part of a short rest. Why not just do that? Or, why not make the trigger finishing a long rest? Or just say, "At the end of a long rest, or as a one hour ritual any time after you finish a long rest..."

Stuff like this really makes me question the validity of RAW. Like, I know I've made some pretty egregious mistakes in my own homebrew, but my excuse is that it is, in fact, homebrew. And I've learned a lot about what to do or not do in the process. Official rules should be written better than this, and certainly shouldn't be getting worse.

Sorry for getting sidetracked there, I just was stupefied at display of the level of competence from WotC's writers.