Ritual Casting for 3.5?

[Schadenfreuda]

Ritual Casting in 5e is a nice utility for casters at low levels, where a single fight can leave one spell-less for the day. I was curious how porting 5e's rules to 3.5 would work for game balance, and whether anyone here had tried rituals at their tables. My impression is that it's a major boost that casters probably don't need, all things considered, and should probably be limited to spells of 3rd level or lower, and should probably require a feat or some other investment. What are your thoughts? What spells would be good candidates for ritual casting, and which ones should be avoided at all costs? Looking at the 5e spell list I'm thinking Identify, Alarm, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Mount, and Unseen Servant all seem reasonable to port as-is, as well as maybe Tiny Hut, Water Walk, and Water Breathing. These at least don't seem like they would be game-breaking.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

To be honest, it'd probably be better to give those to any class that isn't a full-caster. Like anyone can do a little bit of magic, and full-casters have honed that ability into something that barely resembles it's original form. Balance-wise, I think it would be fine to give access to all the spells you listed, but make it so only a limited number of rituals can be performed per day. Maybe start it at 1/day, then increase by 1 every 4 levels (in a class that doesn't give/progress full-casting)? And then have feats to unlock new spells you can ritual-cast.

[Malphegor]

You could port that...


Or you can use the great equaliser. The optional rules that makes anyone able to craft reuseable if slow and with risk of backlash rituals! (I really like these)

Incantations! https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm

Essentially via research (literally, by RAW you can only ever find them at random in well stocked libraries, nobody can write or buy and sell them but for your sanity I recommend treating them as if it's a scroll of the equivalent level) you can cast some spells by ritualistic effort without expending any spell slots, just make various skill checks.

By RAW, all DCs are recommended to be a minimum of 20, and should be way more specific than the equivalent spell you imitate.

So for example if you wanted a spell to craft a campfire 'instantly'
you find the closest spell that would give that effect, and think up a ritual that would cause that. So say 'making a miniature campfire from tiny twigs'. Search and Knowledge (Nature) checks base DC + the DC of the spell it: closest to, raised to DC20 if it's lower.

and then bam in perpetuity you can make those skill checks to cast the Create the Blaze of The Summer Camp, a orange fire enamating from enlarged wood that smells of old summer holidays and marshmellow smores

[Shinoskay]

No need to port it, theres already a whole ritual spells system in 3.5.

Its considered secret knowledge though and each ritual usually requires discovery and practice but they can usually be done by anyone.

for starters, theres these http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm

then theres also a lot of actual ritual magics in pathfinder (see runelords, a hand full of the rituals are things like rune lord flavored zombie rituals, pretty powerful creations).

theres probably more, but this should start you in the right direction.

[Paragon]

The Spirit Shaman has a Ritual-equivalent ability too but that's the only one that comes to mind

[RandomPeasant]

And then have feats to unlock new spells you can ritual-cast.

I would tend to shy away from that if I was using rituals to give non-casters a way to get magic. Keep costs low so that people don't feel like they're being forced to choose between extra magic utility and whatever they were planning to do otherwise. After all, if you wanted to spend your resources on magical utility, you'd just be a caster.

[thorr-kan]

I, too, recommend jumping on the Incantations bandwagon. With the added caveat that d20 Modern had additional incantation rules that function perfectly well with D&D 3E.

ETA: If you're willing to go third-party:
1. Zombie Sky Press has a few good supplements on this. They're for PF1:
A. Incantations in Theory and Practice give design theory.
B. Incantations from the Other Side - Spirit Magic gives worked examples and several magical organizations to use them.

2. The Modern Magic series from The Game Mechanics had some more supplemental rules:
A. Modern Magic 1 had ritual magic as "lesser incantations" along with the Ritualist Advanced Class.
B. Modern Magic 2 had Voudon magic, including two Advanced Classes and more incantations.
C. Both were combined in the Modern Magic hard copy. All three appear to be out of print.

3. Kobold Press has some support for incantations in their Midgard campaign setting. An example is in the Tales of the Old Margreve Web Compilation. Also for PF1.

4. Necromancers of the Northwest has a whole series based on PF1's Incantations and Rituals from the Occult series.

[ShurikVch]

Sacrificial Divination [vile] feat (Dragon #336) - depending on the check result, get access to effect of Augury (DC 10), Scrying (15), Divination (20), or Commune (25)

[Miss Disaster]

3. Kobold Press has some support for incantations in their Midgard campaign setting. An example is in the Tales of the Old Margreve Web Compilation. Also for PF1.

Yep, I recently used a number of the incantations in the Midgard: Legends book for PF1.

Incantations definitely get more interesting the more you use 3PP material.

[Paragon]

Recently found Arachnomancer PrC that has some rituals that you could count as casting I guess