In the game of D and D, players acquire a ritual book with two 1st level spells with the ritual tag, which must be on the list of their chosen class. The casting ability for these spells is the same as the chosen class (Charisma for bard, sorcerer, or warlock; Wisdom for cleric or druid; Intelligence for wizard). A ritual spell can be cast following the normal rules for spellcasting or as a ritual. The ritual version of a spell takes 10 minutes longer to cast than normal and doesn’t expend a spell slot.
Some spells have a special tag called ritual, which allows them to be cast as a ritual. This method takes an additional 10 minutes over the spell’s normal casting time. Rituals were introduced in 4e D and D to expand out-of-combat uses for spells. Some spells have a special tag, such as alarm, ceremony, evocation, and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.
For spells marked with the ritual tag, players can add 10 minutes to the listed casting time and not consume a spell slot when casting them. For example, the spell “Find Familiar” is hands-down the best ritual spell.
Not every spell in the game can be cast via ritual casting, and spells that may be cast this way are notably tagged with the ritual tag. Players can choose a number of level 1 spells equal to their Proficiency Bonus that have the ritual tag and always have those spells prepared.
📹 Ritual Spells Guide for Dungeons and Dragons 5e
Most rituals aren’t directly useful in combat, but they can have a big impact on how player characters navigate the world. Instead of …
Can Paladins ritual cast?
It should be noted that Paladins are not ritual casters, as the feat in question requires a full caster class to be able to add rituals. All four paladin rituals are classified as first-level spells within the cleric spell list. It is possible that the issue is related to JavaScript being disabled or blocked by extensions or browsers that do not support cookies.
What spells have the ritual tag?
The spell “SchoolRangeCeremonyEvocationTouchComprehend LanguagesDivinationSelfDetect MagicDivinationSelfDetect Poison and DiseaseDivinationSelf” can be cast as a ritual or following normal spellcasting rules. The ritual version takes 10 minutes longer and doesn’t expend a spell slot, making it unsuitable for higher levels. The spells are categorized into 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th levels. The spells are categorized into D, DG, DC, HB, R, and T.
Who has ritual casting 5e?
In Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition, only five classes can cast Rituals by default: Artificers, Bards, Clerics, Druids, and Wizards. These five can cast any spell they know or have in their spellbook as a Ritual. However, any character, even a non-magical one, can pick up the Ritual Caster Feat, which allows them to choose one of the Ritual Casting classes and learn two level 1 spells from their spell list. These spells can only be cast as Rituals, but a Ritual Caster can copy more spells into their Ritual book as they find them.
Copying a spell takes 2 hours and 50 gold pieces for each level of the spell. For example, a level 6 Barbarian trying to copy a level 3 spell would take 6 hours and cost 150gp. However, the benefits of being able to perform magical effects as a non-caster character are significant. Players can also copy spells directly from their companion’s spellbooks, ensuring a well-organized team is always on hand.
Is Warlock a ritual caster?
Warlocks of the Pact of the Tome have access to the Book of Ancient Secrets Eldritch Invocation, allowing them to be the most versatile and versatile ritual caster in the game. This invocation grants immediate access to first-level rituals from any class’s spell lists and allows them to learn additional rituals they find written down, similar to a Wizard adding spells to their spellbook. Warlocks with the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation can theoretically access rituals from any class’s spell list as long as they can find them in their travels and have the time and resources to add them to their Book of Shadows.
Can you cast cleric spells as rituals?
The text posits that bards and clerics are able to cast any known bard spell as a ritual if it bears the requisite tag, and a cleric spell as a ritual if it is tagged similarly and is prepared.
Is Druid a ritual caster?
This feat grants a ritual book with two 1st-level spells of your choice, chosen from a class such as bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. The spells must have the ritual tag and be from that class. The spellcasting ability for these spells is determined by the chosen class. If a spell is found in written form, it can be added to the ritual book. The process of copying the spell takes 2 hours per level and costs 50 gp per level.
The cost represents the material components and fine inks needed to master the spell. The Intelligence or Wisdom requirement may only be considered if you already have one of those ability scores. However, if you want to ritual cast 13 spells, it’s not too bad of a dip.
How to know if a spell is a ritual spell?
Ritual spells are marked with a big “R” symbol in online sources like D and D beyond. In actual books, they are found after the spell school and spell level at the top of the spell. The list of ritual spells currently on the books divided by level includes alarm, ceremony, comprehending languages, detecting magic, poison and disease, finding familiar, floating disk, identifying, Illusory script, purifying food and drink, speaking with animals, and unseen servant. As more ritual spells are released, there may be more homebrew magic available.
Do ritual spells count as spells known?
It is incumbent upon bards and wizards to be conversant with the spells enumerated in their respective spellbooks, which serve as the definitive compendia of magical knowledge for those who have attained the rank of wizard. The specific rule governing the casting of rituals does not necessitate preparation; however, it does require that the caster be knowledgeable about the spell in question. It should be noted that JavaScript may be disabled or blocked by an extension, and that your browser does not support cookies.
Which classes have ritual casting?
Ritual casting is a method where spells are cast as rituals, increasing their casting time by 10 minutes without consuming a spell slot. This is a useful technique for wizards, bards, druids, clerics, and artificers, as it allows them to cast spells outside of combat. In D and D 5e, certain spells have a “ritual” tag, allowing players to cast them normally or as rituals. When cast as rituals, the casting time increases by 10 minutes and doesn’t consume any spell slots, making ritual spells useful for conserving a character’s spell slots.
For instance, casting Augury as a ritual takes 11 minutes, a minute longer than normal casting and 10 minutes for the ritual. Spell slots are a crucial mechanic in every 5e spellcasting class, as every spell casts expends a spell slot, limiting the number of spells a character can cast in a day.
📹 Five Must-Have Ritual Spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e
Catch new episodes every Thursday! Check out our Find Familiar video here: https://youtu.be/yzn3gHF0Lf0. Watch us play live …
One my my favorite character that I’ve played was a human paladin Warlock that grabbed ritual caster at 1st level so he was so much fun because I would have several things follow him at all time, his owl familiar, an unseen servant in a robe and mask, carrying a torch, to look like another person and a floating disk with his backpack and other gear plus he eventually got find steed and had a giant goat. So it was a human in plate armour, riding an armored goat with an owl resting between its horns being followed by a floating backpack and a cloaked figure.
You’re doing articles on feats, and I know that you’ll eventually get to the Ritual Caster feat, but I figured I’d jump the gun and get my thoughts out. This is a great feat for a failed wizard who is embarking on a different career path. One of my favorite character ideas is a Rogue who started out as a wizard’s assistant, copying out spells – for this I took Comprehend Languages and Unseen Servant, allowing him to read spells he’s unfamiliar with (to avoid copying errors) and double his production as he orders the Unseen Servant to duplicate his pen-strokes. He’s a rogue because he had to walk around quietly so as not to startle the wizard during an experiment and because the wizard constantly lost his keys and didn’t prepare the Knock spell.
Another great episode and with that I’m also coming in with another tip: you guys do explain spells that you mention in articles like these, but one thing that would improve them by just a tiny notch would be to put a spell card on the screen (or even just a passage from the PDF cut out, so we can read it as well). I wouldn’t want the card take up the whole screen, so I would just stick it either to the top left or top right.
I didn’t realize that this could not be used by all classes. I wanted to get the ritual feat for my Monk to have Ceremony, Detect Magic, and Identify. Walking around as a travelling priest makes it easier when you can open your “bible” and cast ceremony. As well as espionage makes it easier with the other two.
i used Bloom to become a rich and famous Wine producer by buying some land and keeping the seeds of all the fruit i ate on the journey then i sacrificed my spell focus to make the bloom spell permanent on my plot of land giving me the best produce year round and then converting it into wine and Brandy that i sold to the crown do to its high quality. i got rich pretty quick after that
Could you guys do a article on Prestidigitation/Minor Illusion cantrips? Those spells are very flavorful to a game and you can use them in very interesting ways. A quick reddit search will show just how creative some wizards can be. My question is how creative would you let your players be without breaking some mechanics? I saw a post that said the party was robbed by a thief and the thief was running away. The quick thinking wizard then use prestidigitation to change his armor color to bright neon green and then use minor illusion to cast a booming voice to the townsfolk that they had just been robbed and to stop that thief!! Now is this acceptable? It’s certainly fun, but is something like this ok? Would love to hear your guys feedback on this. You could probably do an entire article on the do’s and don’ts of those 2 cantrips.
I am a long time DM/GM and have decided to go back to the core books and recap what I … don’t know! YouTube is my go-to. I really like your interaction and warmth without being silly. I look for INFORMATIONAL vids that TEACH with good pace, clear speaking, that get to the point – You nailed it all. There are SO many POTENTIALLY good articles on YT that suffer from poor audio and lighting. YOUR production quality also makes a big difference. Your subject was what I was looking for and your teaching was spot on. I subscribed. Thanks!
variant human sorc here with ritual spellcasting feat at first level. I baked it into my character’s backstory, he’s a slightly mad noble who learned to cast rituals while studying as a child and was told to go on an adventure by his invisible friend who is actually the unseen servant which he casts every night in his sleep and thinks it’s his other worldly friend guiding him through life. He’s a bit odd to play because whenever he does anything good he gives credit to Clive (the unseen servant) and from his point of view he’s following Clive on his adventure, not the other way round. And my DM & I decided not to tell the party this so for the first couple of levels my group thought i was just RPing having an imaginary friend right until i had Clive carry some oil bottles for me & the jig was up when they saw floating oil following me around.
As many have pointed out, access to find familiar on nonwizards is huge. My grievance with the spell was always that it too easily stole thunder from the stealth scout party member (rogue, monk, ranger). But now I get to have it used BY my Ranger to work together and also have a companion on any Ranger subclass
Alarm is what I would like to call an “exploit spell” because of how it interacts with certain class features. It’s an Abjuration spell that can be cast as a ritual and therefore cost no spell slots, Specialist Abjurers can write this spell down and then never memorize it, since it is an abjuration spell he can then use it to recast arcane ward by just adding eleven minutes of cast time to every long rest. It is a minor thing but it will save lives.
Our DM ruled that you could cast Alarm on containers, which isn’t strictly RAW but seems to fit the intent of the spell. My character responded by buying a small box and casting it on it every morning. If we ever needed to give an NPC a way to get ahold of us, or if the party needed to be split for some reason (before we got Sending), the mental ping from the box being opened could serve as a very basic signal.
2:28 Warlock with Pack of the Tome Class Feature and Book of Ancient Secrets Eldritch Invocation can cast rituals as well and don’t need to memorize the spell to cast it: “With your Book of Shadows in hand, you can cast the chosen spells as rituals. You can’t cast the spells except as rituals, unless you’ve learned them by some other means. You can also cast a warlock spell you know as a ritual if it has the ritual tag.” My GM is kind enough to let me cast Phantom Steed after a long rest, Hex it, cause it damage and then take short rest, but that is most likely not legal, he might only let me do it as I have two different Bag of Tricks and could use one of those puff balls instead. The Druid has spent much time saying how they aren’t real animals, nor is his steed, or his familiar, they are really mean to poor Fodel that just wants to be like his friend the Druid, he even pulled off Commune with Nature when the Druid didn’t have it memorized, but he gets no love, guess that’s what happens when you make a deal with the devil. Phantom Steed has no hit points, disappears when takes damage, basically has infinitive hit points so would never go to zero hit points, so I most likely should simply use one of the uses of Bag of Tricks in the future. Rod of the Pact Keeper, this cheat, Pearl of Power, short rest, Cape of the Mountebank … my Warlock feels like a real caster.
In my games people can cast any spell as rituals spells so long as they’re in their spellbook or similarly recorded (like clerical scrolls). But one is limited to ritual casting spells of level 4 or higher. Basically the top 3 tires of spells one has are limited to a set number of Ritual Castings PER DAY equal to the number of slots they have for those spells. So a lvl 20 mage can cast level 1 through six spells as rituals all they want (so long as they take the time to do so and have the materials) whereas their level 7 through 9 spells have slots for combat (direct castings) and can cast them out of combat as rituals an equal number per day. That way peeps can’t spam Wishes and the like, and most spells have practically ZERO out of combat use anyway. My healing and damage system effectively doubles HP… the first half is active endurance that people degrade through taking combat damage (resisting physical damage), Then they hit ZERO hp (unconscious &/or messed up) and they have an EQUAL number of PHYSICAL HP below zero… which is divided into 3 categories, Serious, Critical, and Mortal. Each representing one failed Death Save as well, so a person that takes Serious wounds can fil 3 consecutive then is dead, A person with Critical can fail ony 2, and a person with Mortal gets only one fail. Serious to Mortal wounds will also be OOC healing aside from healing potions & magic. This means lower level battles can sideline a character for weeks to months of slow physical healing.
I also allow clerics to cast rituals like wizards do. They have the same issue in that wizards do… a lot of useful spells are a wasted slot and it just slows everything down and makes players regret their spell choices for the day. Not an issue for higher level campaigns and if we were to start at a higher level I would not run that house rule… but 1-7 ish, I prefer to streamline.
i would point out that much of this is suggestions, however you can run your own game in a variety of ways by utilizing the tools that D&D provides. for instance in a setting you could make it where any non combat spell above a certain level might only be done using a ritual that could take up to several hours. and even some of the combat oriented spells, for instance the party might be tasked with drawing the enemies attention and holding them back while several war casters perform a ritual to summon meteor swarm. you could make it where in order to use teleport circle one or more casters have to take part in a ritual, which would limit traveling too far too fast, giving the ability to still travel long range in a low magic campaign but making it into a much bigger ordeal to show the level of impact of magic and it’s rarity.
I’m not going to lie – both as a player and a DM i never realised things like Magic Circle aren’t rituals – I’ve been using and allowing their use as rituals in my group for as long as we’ve been playing. I’ll have to remember that if I ever get to play AL again, but for those spells like MC and that? I think i’m happy keeping them that way in my games. Might actually make a list of what counts and doesn’t under my roof though, just so i don’t get things mixed up.
I want to run a bronze age oneshot (reskinned 5e with minimal changes, mostly flavor) where players take part in a massive scale ritual casting. The setting: a massive volcano, beginning to erupt. The mechanisms: towers built around the volcano over generations, ready to amplify the ritual. The purpose: to create a powerful, high-level spell that can be used in later games, potentially to change the course of civilizations, and for use in later eras of the world. The catch: if it goes wrong, the local civilization dies. And if it goes right, the player characters might overthrow that civilization and hijack the ritual. I’m not sure how to make it work yet, nor what the challenges will be. Will the spell be an OP homebrew, decided by conversation or vote? Or will it be an existing D&D spell that is currently locked out of the bronze age setting? These and other questions leave me restless.
Bad guy can use Feign Death to access his vault. He can Feign Death himself and make his undead minions to transfer him through some nasty environment, like underwater (if he have no underwater breathing) or caves fill of inhaled poison, or filled with wild undeads attacking anything alive. Or a caster can keep up to 5-6 persons suffering from deadly disease or poison in feign death to transport them to place where they can be cured … it must be old fashioned slow poison or disease. I like feign death, it’s funny.
How does this ritual spell combo sound? Phantom steed and tenser’s floating disk? The caster rides the steed and the disk always stays within range of the caster So just say tie the disk on say a cart or something else for transport And bingo You recreated what is essentially a fantasy themed, magical version of a mad max warboy vehicle
Here’s a “Gritty Add” for controlling the number of Ritual Castings your players can perform WITHOUT hurting the utility of Ritual Casting too much. To cast a Ritual Spell is an ARCANA check that the caster must roll against. The caster gets his Spell Casting Bonuses (the same as for normal casting) and the DC is as follows… Casting in a safe place with few distractions (the caster’s chambers) DC 5. Casting in a place of relative safety with distractions (ie a remote campsite with your company present) DC 10 Casting in a potentially unsafe place that can cause a distraction (ie in a dungeon with enemies nearby) DC 15 or higher (at the DM’s discretion). If the roll fails, the caster MUST take a Short Rest (1 hour) before they may try THAT SPECIFIC SPELL again. They may cast any OTHER Ritual spell without a short rest. The Dm may wish to allow a SAVE verses Wisdom to allow the caster another try upon a failure. I’d still raise the DC by 5 for EACH failure (ie a DC 10 becomes a DC 15). This will place some reasonable limits on Ritual Casting.
If I were to rework D&D… Every spell would start with a training-ritual version, because it can’t be just book learning; a standard cast version; a cantrip type; a specialist-school variant; individual ritual mode (doesn’t waste a slot, or may allow contextual effects ie Full Moon along a merging Ley Line or whatever RPG stuff); group ritual mode for both added spell-slot effect, contextual stuff, as well as training-ritual assist.
Okay, Dungeon Dudes. I got one for you. If my Eldritch Knight picks up Ritual Caster – Wizard. Would they be able to transfer the spells they know how to cast into the book, as long as the spell has the ritual tag? Conversely, would they be able to swap out a spell that they have transferred into the ritual book, like for example Find Familar or Identify, for another Wizard spell and, if they do so, would they be able to still cast the ritual spell by using a spell slot? Or would they be limited to just casting it as a ritual from that point on?
I just started my first campaign as a Druid & I’m so lost on if I know all Druid spells already and can just ritual change them everyday, my DM said it was too OP and I kinda agree, but otherwise my spell list has just become my prepared spell list, & it’s so hard to find a reliable source saying anything about it. Ahh please help
It’s interesting that casting Nystul’s Magic Aura (spelling?) being cast makes it permanent after it is done 30 days in a row. I can see mimics enjoying this being done by the resident wizard for some odd reason. Wizard: I cast detect magic! DM: You sense this chest has a magical aura emenating from the school of healing.😂
Detect Magic? It’s a slotted spell, period. Much more practical than having every single potion, scroll, item, jewelry, clothing, etc. either layered in Nystul’s Magic Aura or behind a sheet of lead. I believe the genuine problem is that certain elements of the game should only be for monsters and NPCs, like Choatic Evil alignments, or say a Ring of 3 Wishes. Certain things I will never introduced for player use, to keep adventures most interesting, practical – fun. Though awesome things like Winged Boots and Weapon of Warning are enjoyable to fantasize about as a player, but as a DM and keeping the adventure fun, it will remain elusive to characters.
Question, say I wanted to create magic scrolls so my players could get some spells without burning out of spell slots so fast, like detect magic. Not necessarily as a loot drop though that can work in a circumstance, is there a mechanic I can use to say create magic scrolls for them with a character. So they could have a few more diverse options or spells that they normally can’t access but would be helpful. Could I do this with none ritual spells as well say a scroll of scying so they can look in on a friend from far away for example. Also yes I am dming this and I don’t get hung up on rules as I want to have fun same as them, but just wanted to ask about it.
Coming to dnd from another system, I can’t help but feel like the tag of “ritual spell” is kind of an arbitrary category placed on spells to get around the slot limit. If I’m going to take Ten or twenty or even sixty minutes to cast a spell why not simply use a spell slot and rest to get back the lower level slot. It hampers higher level slots more since you can’t do a short rest to get the slot back but these slots are already very limited as is. The magic system, imo, seems very limited when it comes to the practicality of applying rules and limitations. Considering rituals need physical materials to be expended when performed there should be a stipulation that with the proper materials the time frame is significantly reduced for rituals or something to make having components versus simply using a focus which is quick and easy. No purchasing materials, keeping track of what’s used etc. Very tedious just to save a spell slot that you could probably short rest to get back.
Hold on! So if I use the magic initiative feat while I am not a class that would normally have no ritual spellcasting, would I be able to get the spell anyways? I am new to DND and I am playing a dragon born fighter first campaign. Well, I still didn’t play the first session so I still have time before I get the feat. I was thinking of going hex(if I can’t ritual. Cast) or talk with animals.(because it is a ritual I can use it more than once if I have the time) essentially making me a better Eldrich knight. I also want to know if I can stack the feat for more spells. If I can get hex, I can have 1d6 every attack. At level 20, it will be 8d6 at maximum, including my normal attack damage. Hex is really op.
This is basically the only reason to pick pact of the tome. Aside from flavor. But seriously, giving up a cool improved familiar or magical slashy stabby just to lug a tome around that you can copy paste every ritual spell in the game into just feels kind of annoying. And this is coming from someone who unironically have rolled wizards with zero damaging spells before. Then again coming up with a cool backstory for a pact of the tome warlock is as easy as pie, just start with some fiend or other wanting to play a cruel trick on your not particularly bright mortal and offer him the deal of power in exchange for his soul with the caveat that he can get out of said deal if he can fill the tome with knowledge of all ritual spells (including at least one homebrew one that will be ridiculously hard to find). Boom! Now you’re set to catch them all.
The lack of concentration requirement for Unseen Servant prompted my DM to rule that my bard could have multiple instances of it active at a time. Fast forward to an instance in which the party needed to sneak a dragon egg through a city. What does my bard do? Ritual casts two servants, then normal casts two more. Has them all conglomerate their shapeless forms around the dragon egg to lift it together, then covers the floating egg in clothes, and then very carefully puppeteers the servants into the clothes to transport the egg through the city, disguised as ‘a rather portly mute gentleman’. We called him Eggbert.
Rituals are my favorite! When I joined an AL campaign with a my first-level nature cleric, everyone else was 2nd or 3rd-level. We started needing to escort someone three days across some woods… * My owl familiar scouted the way. As we setup camp… * I cast animal friendship on a badger and then cast speak with animals to ask him him to bed near the trail for the night. * Cast two alarm spells just outside of the camp. * I collected a number of roots and berries and cast purify food and drink on them. * I cast detect poison and disease and then walked around the area picking up every poisonous mushroom I find. Spend an hour smearing the mushrooms on punji sticks and placing them around the camp. The players were asking how I could cast so many spells… I said “rituals” (Nature cleric with the ritual caster feat). I did it mainly as a roleplaying act to show how serious my character was in the outdoors. Well… the module had an encounter where some brigands where hired to follow us and were to ambush us at night. Between the alarm spells, owl, badger, and sounds of brigands stepping on punji sticks… not the most successful night attack.
Our party was once in a sewer but the point we needed to get out was too high for us to reach. Since we didn’t want to waste a spell slot getting to it our bard ritual cast Leomund’s hut and made it so we couldn’t enter it. This way we could climb on top of the dome and reach the manhole to get us out.
Our party had a bard uses the Tiny Hut to block the second cave entrance during a fight. He was out of the fight, but we had some prisoners we found in the cave stay safe in the hut with him. This meant there was only one way to enter the cave which restricted the number of enemies we had to face at once.
Im in a 5e campaing where my bard started out with the Mage Hand and Prestidigifation cantrips, along wkth Unseen Servant and sleep. Why? Bcause my good boy grew up in and around a tavern (his moms best froend owns the only but very busy tavern in town) and he later worked there i his late teens. He wax the bus-boy / waiter, as well as cook, amd cleanup guy during lull times. Thebability to supnuff candles, reach high places, AND have an unseen helper sweep for you? Priceless
You can cast rituals while moving. You need to spend your action every round and maintain concentration during the casting time, but you are free to use your bonus action, reaction, movement and interaction. This makes it possible to ritual cast Phantom Steed while traveling. You can even cast Phantom Steed for your friends while riding a phantom steed. Since Phantom Steed takes 11 minutes to ritual cast and lasts one hour, you can maintain up to 5 phantom steeds at a time while traveling.
13:41 “Leomund’s Tiny Hut is kind of a nigh impenetrable fortress” DM: The ogre yells angrily at the outside of your hut, unsure of how to get at you. Wizard: I step out and cast… DM: Your hut disappears because you left its area. Different DM: The ogre climbs atop your hut and yells angrily but otherwise does nothing. Someone other than the Wizard: I step out of the hut and… DM: Roll a strength check, he readied his action and is now grappling you with the intention of carrying you off.
Eldritch Knight is looking to be amazing here – “The servant can perform simple tasks that a human servant could do, such as fetching things, cleaning, Mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine”. If it can mend and fold clothes then… “Unseen Servant, tie a knot between the enemy’s boots” “Unseen Servant, snap that bowstring” “Unseen Servant, cut that mage’s spell components bag and retrieve it”
Leomund’s Tiny Hut – My Cleric has it as a custom Domain spell, and he’s made good use of it in an Underdark dungeon. 2 or 3 characters in the dungeon had been in need of a Greater Restoration to reverse an effect, and the DM ruled the NPC that took care of it for us (No 5th level spells yet) put them into a Long Rest state. So, my big boy Cleric sat down in the middle, and started casting Leomund’s Tiny Hut, to make sure everybody was as safe as he could make them in that dungeon, while they slept it off. Rary’s Telepathic Bond – The Kobold Druid I’ve made for a one-shot has the “Spies’ Murmur” magic item from the Ravnica setting, along with their Dwarven Barbarian friend. It just so happens that it’s a heist-type one-shot, so the telepathic communication should be really useful. Sadly, those 2 are the only ones out of 5 to have the item. But in that way, it just feeds into their familial bond that these 2 have. They just look at eachother, give a nod, and they work as a well-oiled machine. Plus I love the mental image of these supposedly ‘best friends’ never saying a word to eachother directly, yet still always knowing what the other is thinking. Waterbreathing – The Tome Warlock in my Cleric’s campaign has this spell in his Book of Shadows/Ancient Secrets. After casting it the first time, they were asked what it costs to do so.” Their answer: “Just a bit of time to cast it, that’s all.” My Cleric’s follow-up question: “So.. Why don’t you cast this every day, since you’re always awake ahead of the rest of us?
I had a Druid/Wizard that would set up Tiny Hut in the front of a dungeon, the rest of the party (through various means) would bait a few enemies at a time out to the hut, and they would dip in and out taking pot shots till they cleared the entire dungeon while I was just sitting, chilling, and throwing out the occasional heal if someone took a big hit before they got back in. I also used it to create a safe pass-through from a narrow but powerful flame trap, so the hut crossed the beam, and everyone entered one end and exited the other unscathed. Sneaky strong spell, especially when you have time to set up and not use a spell slot on top of it.
For Leomund’s Tiny Hut, the caster can not walk out of the hut to (use action) to walk back inside. When the caster leaves the hut, the spell ends. This should have been made clear. However, the caster can use non-magic (bow, crossbow, spear, dagger, etc) from inside the hut to target objects/cteatures outside the hut.
Quick note, while Ritual Caster does allow you to cast rituals without needing to prepare them, you still need to add them to your book to do so. So if you’re a Cleric and grab the feat because you’re tired of having to prepare the rituals, you’ll only get 2 1st level rituals and have to find the others as spell scrolls or in wizard spellbooks before you can cast the others. I believe this applies to Tome Warlocks, too. Wizard has all their spells in their book so it doesn’t matter for them.
Our draconic sorcerer took Ritual Caster (Wizard), starting off with comprehend languages and detect magic. She’s since added alarm, identify, Leomund’s tiny hut and water breathing – all very useful. We’re currently trying to scrape together the cash to buy her a Rary’s telepathic bond scroll to copy into her ritual book!😁
I would love for the main villain of a campaign to be an air elemental, or a demigod who goes insane because whenever a person casts unseen servant it takes that being’s essence to make the servant. When they contact the other plane with a ritual, they ring up the villain who answers their questions with, “It’s your fault!” Could be fun
Per spell text, Leomund’s Tiny Hut disappears when the one who casts it leaves its 10ft range, so others could come and go from it during a battle, but the caster would need to stay in the hut for the duration, rendering them useless, for this to be effective. Also, a good DM would have all creatures outside to ready an action to attack the first creature that emerges from the tent upon sight, which would likely down, and potentially kill, whichever that first creature is (if they are of similar CRs)
So, my character was going through the process of making a homebrew spell, essentially a spell which can boost the next spell casted, and for the creation of the spell, the DM had me practice by casting different spells at higher levels, and so, I thought “what spells can be upleveled while doing the least amount of damage?” I chose Detect Magic, we were at present in an elven town, with a plethora of magic users, and so, I cast Detect Magic, at an 8th level to, for lack of a better term, detect EVERYONE’S magic, and when I rolled to see if it worked…I got a nat 20. I saw… THINGS no mortal should ever see…
19:37 also, the speed of thought thing is important. That is much faster than you actually talking at the table. You might discuss 10 minutes at the table, but in-game that happens in asingle minute, for example With waterbreathing’s 24 hour duration there is no reason to not cast it at the beginning of a day.
I watch your articles quite frequently and I would say this helped me with understanding rituals better. My only thing is that as you said, you need to make sure that you have the Ritual Casting feat, or that your class can ritual cast. That was a little bit of information that confused me when I began to play. 🙂
Arcane trickster tensers floating disk through magic initiate at level 4. Also I love the flavor text you can give unseen servant. I made a bard who had an unseen servant called Theo whom was her bestest and only friend. She would conjure him into a jester onesie costume and he would give a hand in her performances. (The spell lasts an hour she can totally do that) and sometimes she would forget that he was a figment if her imagination, would go to slug him in the arm and then POOF he deflates like the saddest blow up wavy thing that car salespeople use.
Just like you guys said regarding Ghosts of Saltmarsh, the campaign really makes a big difference in terms of what spells should be let in. IMO a number of these spells really have to go if you want to have a lower magic world. This doesn’t just apply to rituals, of course. Spells like Create Food and Water essentially make any story that involves starvation or hunting becomes totally pointless. By contrast, these kinds of spells make a ton of sense in a world like Eberron.
When trying to break into an evil groups heavily reinforced encampment we used Leomunds tiny hat very creatively. The DM literally had written down ‘if they try to break in without stealth or heavy backup, at least one will die’. We created the Attack Toad, a toad on wheels that could be launched over the walls, with leomunds tiny hut cast inside it, so for most of the battle the magic users were inside a toad on wheels running around the battlefield breathing fireballs down on everyone whilst the the melee fighters cleaved their way through enemies.
Thinking of a wierd build from this. Hexblade Tomelok. You still have the melee, standard fimiliar, and three cantrips. Or a Celestial Tomelok, still have fimiliar, sheilleigh with Quarterstaff for CHA based attacks, all the rituals and healing. Also you get nine cantrips before race or feats so Tiefling can take Racial feats and be insane.
Very lateto this, but I want to say the best answers I ever saw given for divination was neverto give an answer, but to give the players a pointer to finding out for themselves. You don’t want to give away the big bad’s location, or name, or weakness, BUT you’re probably going to be more willing to point them in the direction where the big bad has just been so the party can trail them, or direct them to someone who knew the big bad before they weren’t evil for info on them. This lets you break out the info into mini quests of their own so it feels less like divination gives answers, and more like the gods want you to solve your own problems, but they’re willing to give the tools to solve it yourself.
I say that prayer of healing is a must-have ritual, I’ve been in a couple of campaigns with time sensitive quests where the party was low on hp and didn’t have the time for a long rest. This ritual does 2d8 + your spellcasting modifier of healing to up to 6 people including you, potentially topping off the lvl 4 wizard or sorcerer’s hp in a single cast at 2nd lvl. So all one person has to do is cast it multiple times during a short rest, and everyone will be topped off.
One problem I personally have with rituals is that players could potentially spam those. Like that mage who does detect magic in every new room he enters in a dungeon or who takes more than 1,5 hours of in game time to identify item on every single object the party has found in that dungeon. Because that kind of stuff could really slow down the game, I houseruled rituals so you could use every ritual only once per long rest, but in turn some rituals got bumped up like I allow identify item to be cast on multiple items at once. Also Rary’S Telepathic Bond could also work well as a tool for DMs. Like that person who sent the party on a quest could cast that spell and stay in contact with them, giving them additional orders, hints or general directions whenever the party got stuck or the game is looking to slow down too much.
Ok, one remark about Unseen Servant, you say it’s handy in combat, and I totally agree with you points. But you’re talking about rituals in this article, so casting unseen servant as a ritual in a combat, probably takes longer than the combat at all. So Unseen Servant can only be handy in combat, when you know in advance there is going to be a combat within the hour, else you need to have it on your prepared spell list and use a spell slot. I can think of a lot of other spells that are more useful than unseen servant at that point. So I don’t see the benefit of Unseen Servant relative to the Mage Hand cantrip
As a dm I use rituals in a different way. Ex: detect magic: if one of my players use as a ritual I made additional effects for additional components, like a colored smoke that will follow the source of magic, or even follow ae specific magic creature, if you have a pice of hair or nails to use as a component. I like to do that sort of things to reward my players for being creative.
Fantastic article as always, a bunch of fun and unique ways to use alot of these spells that I didn’t think about! There is one thing to note about the Leomund’s Tiny Hut strategy is that the caster must always be inside the hut or else it is dispelled, the strategy still works with allies however, and is still very viable.
Rary’s telepathic bond 1. Telepathic communication 2. Almost unlimited distance 3. Bypasses all language barriers 4. Targets up to 8 creatures 5. Non-concentration for an hour 6. Has a chance of withstanding a dispel magic since it’s a 5th lvl spell. 7. Bypasses mundane methods of restricting magic, like lead lined rooms.
Leomund’s Tiny Hunt says it allows creatures and items that you designate can pass through the barrier. So rangers can fire from an nearly impenetrable fortress without being hit (this lets wizards use their crossbow) and fighters can hit people threw the barrier with advantage because they are unseen.
I’d like to see a article on knowledge gaining spells and ways to use them. Obviously many things are at DM discretion, but some common and useful uses for sells such as Augury, Legend Lore or even how best as a player to be using Scrye would be helpful. I’d like to see a few scenarios for each of the spells like these. And approach them together with someone playing the Player and another Playing the DM, since these are very co-operative meta spells. Thanks for being awesome guys!
Unseen servant saved one my party member’s life. Had a hostage situation and the big bad demanded a one on one with our fighter or the hostage’s die. Fighter was rolling REALLY LOW and was nearing death, in the mean time our Unseen Servant was untieing all the hostages, and once they were free they helped turn the tide of battle at the last second and we were able to help our fighter narrowly avoid a death blow.
Just imagine if you could cast teleportation circle as a ritual. You could have a magical equivalent of Paul Revere’s Ride with some high-level mage whisking from town to town crying a warning across an entire continent. Rary’s Bond is a spell that I’ve looked at with interest in the past, but hearing your description of it made me want to include it in my theoretical build for a mute GOO lorelock. There’s just something about the idea of a normally silent spellcaster who chooses one close friend to speak through suddenly walking down a line of people, clapping them on the shoulder, and joining their limited minds with his awakened one.
You missed 2 very important points on Tiny Hut. 1. The caster needs to stay in it or it dispels. 2. Objects in the tiny hut when it’s cast can pass freely through it. I’m thinking a barrel of arrows so you can get that unseen attack for advantage every time, and if they grow a brain and shoot the arrows back at you (they can pass through freely…) they are at a disadvantage, and you have cover. You did remember to put your big barrel of arrows or sling stones by a rock or other cover, right?
Combine unseen servant (make it carry some water) and an octopus familiar to be a floating lock/trap disarming team. Plus a you get an octopus floating around in an invisible cloud. Bonus points if you’re a pact of the old one Warlock and the octopus is a vessel for a great old one. Extra bonus if the voice is just an evil Kermit.
Ritual Caster feat combined with Arcane Trickster/ Domain of Trickery Cleric. Now you have me thinking. I’m not far away from adding a level in Cleric to my Arcane Trickster. the ability of the Arcane Trickster to gain spells from ANY source, with this feat sounds interesting. The Cleric will add more levels and spell slots to the mix as well. I’m pretty happy with the base stats already so I’ve been thinking about Feats.
Please note that creatures and objects within the dome when you cast the spell can move through it freely, so missile weapons can attack out through it, with advantage. A point could be made that they can come back through the Tiny Hut once they have passed out, but at a minimum, those attacks would be at disadvantage, if they could hit at all. I don’t like Contact Other Plane; going insane doesn’t improve my role-playing experience. Also, don’t forget Commune with Nature. One of the best parts of ritual casting with a Wizard is that they can fill their spellbook with many ritual spells that they don’t need to clutter their spells memorized/chosen/known list with to use; this is especially important with spells like Water Breathing. You will only need it rarely, but if you need it, it is important. The previous comment is doubly important for Warlocks with the Book of Ancient Secrets. There is no real reason why they can’t have all the ritual spells of levels one through five. That is some 31 spells! Warlocks normally only know fifteen pact magic spells and four mystic arcanum spells. That is why the only time I don’t take pact of the tome is if I’m playing a hexblade.
Unseen servant, you said lasts 1 hour. As a bonus action you can make it move 15 feet, and then you say it can only move 60 feet during its duration… How did a round turn into 15 minutes, Dudes? True the range is 60 feet, but that 60 feet isn’t the limit of its movement. It is the limit of how far away from you the unseen servant can move.
Just thought it worth mentioning, Detect Magic will not substitute for the “Identify” spell, so your DM is not obligated to tell you any more than the bare facts that could leave some nasty surprises in store (i.e. a cursed item or level of charges in an item). Also, as should be obvious, if a well concealed trap is just that, ‘concealed’ or camouflaged, detect magic won’t work, unless the concealment was created magically but even then, not what the concealment is obscuring. 🙂
Question for conversation if anyone sees this. For a Warlock, the Pact of the Chain has been spoken about many times as the best Boon because of the familiar, but if you combine the Pact of the Tome with the Book of Secrets you get the Ritual Caster and can use the standard Find Familiar as a ritual, plus another spell, plus any other ritual if you can afford it, plus you get the cantrips from Pact of the Tome. Do the additional Familiar types still push the scale towards Pact of the Chain since that frees up an Invocation?
Fist of all, I love your guy’s articles. As both a player and DM they are so much fun to watch and listen to your reasoning. I do have a question about Unseen Servant that I’ve been wondering. Since it has an AC and hit point value of its own, could they take an arrow or sword strike for me if it is positioned right in front of me? Pretty much using it as a shield. Thoughts? And thank you?
I’m surprised no-one is mentioning that they got Leomund’s Tiny Hut a bit wrong. First but less important is that the 9 creatures who can move through it include yourself and others who huddle around you when the spell finishes casting. But more importantly, the spell ends when you it’s caster leave it’s area. So the best thing you’re going to be able to do is pick up a bow and take pot shots in a fight if you want to do direct damage, although you could perhaps cast beneficial spells on your allies as they dip back into the hut.
Seems like duration is the most common “problem” or “i want more of this” with many ritual spells…. Seems like a good reason for a Sorcerer to take Ritual Caster feat or for classes with ritual spells to take Metamagic Adept feat to be able to add either Extend or Distant metamagic effects to them.
12:20 now this might be a little out there but is it possible to use leamin’s tiny hut to assassinate someone? Like while they’re asleep you cast the spell over them and just make it so that nothing not even air can enter. Essentially if you leave it for eight hours they suffocate. Is that a possible method of using it or not?
Technically, with Leomund’s Tiny Hut, you don’t nominate the creatures who can use it. These creatures must already be within the area when you cast it. Presumably, they would need to be in the area at the very.moment the dome appears. A kind DM might allow creatures who passed through the area at any time during the ritual. Other DMs might require that the party are present for the whole ritual.
Can you see a way to use Rarys telepathic bond to trick a helpful NPC into giving you more info than they meant to. i.e. delving into their thoughts below the surface with perceptablility or intelligence, etc? Possibly finding out that they really hope you dont sneak into their house to find their life savings or that they think one of your adventurers is attractive and will offer a better trade to that party member??
For warlocks: Pact of the Tome feature + Book of Ancient Secrets invocation. Allows you to replicate Pact of the Chain feature + Beast Speech + Eldritch Sight + Eyes of the Rune Keeper invocations. This makes the shadow book the superior choice for warlocks. In addition to 3 more cantrips, access to any ritual spell and, casting those rituals without expending a spell slot. The only downside is having to spend 10 minutes longer to cast those ritual spells. A carefully planned warlock can gain considerable versatility. If all else fails spam Eldritch Blast. I blame poor design for the pact boon imbalance.
Regarding Commune, you “ask up to three questions that can be answered with a yes or no” so I don’t think asking where an item is or where can I find allies would qualify. If I were DMing, I’m not sure if I would have it use up one of the three or not but there certainly wouldn’t be an answer to those kinds of questions as the spell is powerful enough as it is already.
An unseen servant push a small cart with a rat in a cage inside it. Detect dangerous gas, the cart is heavier than 60lbs, but with the wheels it requires less strength to push it and can detect most traps. Or give one a sheet or blanket and have it hold it up vertically, making 1/2 to 3/4ths obstruction.
Necromancer genetic scientists (Jurassic Park…). Illusory underwear. Conjuration elevator (floor 666- nine hells for you, sir?). Abjuration king sized bed with built in banishment spells (dab upon thou, sisters, who pillow-bludgeon me to waking at but 5:30 in the morning on Christmas day!!). Divination ‘Did you wash your hands?’ sensor. Trolls wearing Enchanting-cologne. All these standard dungeon hazards are why Detect Magic is a must have in a dungeon crawl!
I’m torn on Detect Magic. I’m multiclassing Sorcerer and Warlock (Pact of the Chain to 3rd level). Neither gives me rituals, but I could get the invocation of Detect Magic at will. The entire rest of my party could cast Detect Magic as a ritual, but none of them are really interested. I was planning my two invocations to be Agonizing Blazt and Repelling Blast to make the most of Eldritch Blast in battle, but I may need to sacrifice one for Detect Magic at will. In RP, I’m the one player constantly trying to figure out if things are magical.
THE HUT….note to avoid the tactical advantage of the hut you/creatures can hold action triggered by someone exiting the hut at which time you get to “activate” the held action…might work for a few rounds but some creatures are smart and would figure out this tactic. Or am I wrong about how this hold action works? Might have to be a held ranged attack…just a thought.
Concerning Tiny Hut: A 10-foot-radius immobile dome of force springs into existence around and above you and remains stationary for the duration. The spell ends if you leave its area. While the other 8 occupants of the hut can leave and return to the hut freely, the caster can not leave the hut without ending the spell.
I feel that it’s worth pointing out that Leomund’s Tiny Hut might be safe to be inside, but it is NOT subtle. A giant opaque dome will attract attention from local creatures, and if they are intelligent, they can go do a Right Stuff walk, round up a small hoard of friends, wait for the dome to open, and see what kind of candy pops out.
Ok here is an idea for an express transport Have a paladin or someone else who has find steed And then someone who can casts tenser’s floating disk as a ritual Have the floating disk be the node hooked on a wheeled wagon or something with a big capacity, heck a flat piece of sturdy wood or other Material can work And bingo
I disagree with your statements about the Tiny Hut at 13:35 in the article. The spell description clearly states that the spell ends if you, the caster, leaves the area of the effect. This prevents what you are talking about. Having said that, your allies CAN do this, but as the caster, it’s not possible. I’m also surprised you guys didn’t mention out of combat uses for it. An instance I saw on Critical Role came up in a game I played a few months back were a ship I was on was damaged by another ship. My wizard ran downstairs near the hole and began ritual casting the spell while the crew worked on clearing out the water and trying to plug the hole. 20 minutes later, the dome was up, and with the flow of water stopped, the crew was able to not only get rid of all the water, but successfully patch the hole until the ship could dock. This means if there’s a lot of time available due to a slow enough leak, or if there’s one or more people helping to keep things clear, it’s possible to stop something with the Tiny Hut for the duration, or permanently if the right tools and/or people are involved.
EDIT: Nope! I was wrong! Leaving this here as a nice idea for House Rule, but it is not official. I was misreading the rules. Remember: Druids and Clerics can swap out their prepared spells using 1 minute per level of the spell being swapped. If you have time to cast a ritual, you usually have time to swap spells, cast the ritual, then swap back. This places EVERY ritual on the Druid & Cleric Spell list in easy grasp of every Druid and Cleric (respectively). Example: a 10th level Druid can spend 5 minutes to swap Greater Restoration for Commune with Nature, spend 11 minutes casting the ritual in which they learn they are going to face poisonous water demons at the lake that is a few minutes walk away, then spend another 5 minutes to swap Commune with Nature for Conjure Elemental so they can spend 1 more minute to call forth a Fire Elemental that will last for 1 hour (with Concentration). Meanwhile, the Cleric has been doing similar shenanigans. And off the party goes well prepared in 22 minutes for what could have been a very difficult fight.
Going to argue against detect magic not registering invisible creatures. I assume invisibility cloaks the creature. Yes you cannot see the creature, but you can see the cloak with detect magic. This wouldn’t negate disadvantage to attack, and AoE spells can be handled at the DM’s discretion. (you don’t know what it is, you wouldn’t fireball randomly.) However, against critters that go invisible in combat they could simply have advantage to saving throws for any AoE spells. Detecting magic should be an easily available resource. Counters to magic has always been easier to do then to perform the magics. (permanent counters can be expensive though). In 3.5 See Invisibility was a second level spell, while Invisibility was a third level spell. Not sure how it is in the current state, but having counter magic available beforehand makes sense from a societal standpoint (If invisible people are doing bad things, then it’s worth investing into something that let’s you see them and stop them.) Greater invisibility: this could be a perception check to avoid a 3/4 cover on top of disadvantage when it comes to detect magic. I would assume a higher level invisibility would have worked out some of the kinks. On the flip side: It makes absolutely zero sense to ambush a party with invisible creatures without any warning when one of the characters has detect magic up. At least give them the 6 seconds to react to a swarm of magical aura’s coming at them.
Tenser’s Floating Disk, short of extra dimensions bags one of the best ways to carry the treasure horde out. Identify, it great to know something is magic but way more useful to know exactly how. Comprend Language, read anything I can’t say all the times as a player I’ve cast this and irritated my GM because they had this archaic language that would prompt a side quest to find the translator only to have me read it out and bypass all that prep.
Rarys Tele bond is tooooooo good…..I am DM a game with 6 level 11 wizards. It’s awesome, but the greatest challenge I’ve undertaken since “Doom City” years ago…But I am running my party through a dungeon known as Glittergold mountain, and the Glitter Vault…and I had to make this spell banned inside the dungeon….. Sad day for the party. They almost picked up and left. Lmao XD
I’m oddly surprised. Normally your advice and information is very well based and quite helpful, but this one is full of inaccuracies and misconceptions which put this article squarely in the “These are best in my opinion” versus “These are great because of objective reasons”. RE: Leomund’s Tiny Hut – The spell ends when the caster leaves it, so it doesn’t work as your example demonstrates. RE: Commune/Contact Other Plane – The answers received are ‘yes’ or ‘no’, not descriptive. As such, it doesn’t work the way you’ve described. RE: Divination – only works for a specific goal/activity/event that happens in the next 7 days and the answer is specifically cryptic (a rhyme, an omen etc.) Again, your examples show it doesn’t work as you’ve described. RE: Rary’s Telepathic Bond – Recall that the targets have to be within 30′ when cast, so it’s trickier to implement than you imply. Unseen Servant and not Identify. Almost everything US does can be performed by Mage Hand. No other spell does what Identify does and it’s utility is manifold.