I'm glad that 5e includes ritual magic, but I'm not terribly pleased with the way that it works as is. I have two issues with the current ritual magic system.
1) It doesn't feel terribly magical to me.
2) There are many spells that I think really should have the ritual tag (plant growth being a notable one given the second effect that's possible with the 8 Hour casting time).
In the interest of being proactive about the situation, I have created the following module for ritual magic in 5e. My intent was to create a system that introduces some risk and instability in rituals while expanding the list of ritual spells and introducing thematic elements that are common in fiction.
Any thoughts, concerns, and constructive ciriticisms would be appreciated.
Ritual Magic Changes
- Every spell that does not restore hit points or allow the caster to duplicate the effects of anoter spell has the ritual tag.
- Casting a ritual spell requires an attribute check against a DC equal to 8 + double the level of the spell; if you have a feat or class feature that lets you cast ritual spells then you may add your proficiency bonus to this check. If you fail the check by five or more, you gain one level of exhaustion. Alternately, your DM may require you to roll on the Wild Magic Surge table.
- If you fail your concentration Constitution save while casting a ritual spell by five or more, you gain one level of exhaustion. Alternately, your DM may require you to roll on the Wild Magic Surge table.
- Rituals require a simple yet prepared space; this is an area that is cleared of debris, usually with some candles, a magic circle drawn upon the ground, or an altar upon which to perform the ritual. Preparing the space is part of the casting time of the ritual.
- All ritual spells have a casting time of 10 minutes per spell level; a 9th level spell would take 90 minutes to cast.
- Ritual enhancements provide kickers, special points, can be spent to increase the power, range, duration, and/or area of effect of ritual spells (see below).
Ritual Enhancements
Additional Casters: The spell requires more than one caster and has specific roles for each caster. Each caster must succeed at the ability check to cast the ritual for the ritual to be cast successfully. Each additional caster reduces the chance of successfully casting the ritual, so each additional caster grants one kicker.
Performance: The ritual requires some kind of performance on the part of the caster. Common ritual performances include dances, songs, and ritual re-enactments. The performance generates no kickers unless the caster must roll a check to complete it successfully. A DC 15 check provides one kicker while a DC 20 check provides two kickers.
Additional Time: The ritual takes an extended amount of time, nine hours or more. Casting a lengthy ritual is similar to engaging in a forced march: you must make a Constitution save against a DC of 10 + 1 per hour beyond the eighth or else suffer one level of exhaustion. Each hour beyond eight that you must spend casting the ritual provides one kicker.
Complex: The ritual is very involved and requires keeping track of several parts of the ritual, or the number of times different parts are repeated, and imposes disadvantage on the caster's ability check to cast the ritual. A complex ritual provides three kickers.
Components: The ritual requires one or more special components that are rare: a component is rare if it can only be acquired by questing for it, spending a great deal of time and/or resources to acquire it through a broker, or if you must get it from an unusual or dangerous creature. If a ritual requires more than one special component, the components are almost always different from each other: a ritual is much more likely to require a dragon tongue and a unicorn horn than it is to require two dragon tongues or two unicorn horns. Each special component provides a number of kickers as determined by the DM, with a minimum of one kicker each. For example: a unicorn horn may provide between one and three kickers while the crystallized tear of a deity may provide as many as 20 or 30 kickers (perhaps more).
Special Times: Some rituals can only be performed at certain times. For a time requirement to provide kickers it must occur less often than once a fortnight. A spell that can only be performed on a full moon (or once a month) grants one kicker. A spell that can only be performed once a season (on solstices and equinoxes) provides three kickers. A spell that can only be performed once a year (on a specific day, a specific solstice or equinox, on the first full moon of the year, and so on) provides five kickers. A spell that can only be performed during truly rare times (while Haley's Comet is visible, or in the darkness of a total eclipse) provides at least 10 kickers.
Sacrifice: The spell requires the sacrifice of a living animal or person. Normal animals provide no kickers unless they are pure/unblemished, in which case they provide one kicker. Humanoid sacrifice provides three kickers, five if the creature is chaste or virginal.
Blood-letting: The caster can shed her own blood to enhance the ritual. Instead of taking damage from the cut, she decides how many HDs to spend on this blood loss. Every HD that is spent in this way deals damage to the caster and generates one kicker.
Ritual Preparation: The caster must prepare herself before attempting the ritual. This can include basic preparations such as ritual purification, meditation, prayer, sacrifice, and so on. As long as this basic preparation lasts 8 hours or less, no kickers are granted. If the basic preparation must occur for an extended period of time, you get 1 kicker for three days, 2 kickers for a week, or a amximum of 3 kickers for a month or longer.
If the caster must undergo extraordinary preparation, you gain kickers dependent upon the nature of the preparation. Extraordinary preparation can include such things as drinking the blood of a creature (who may be unwilling to give it up), performing an act of evil so heinous that it scars your soul, slaying a creature with blade that will be used in the ritual, and so on. The DM will determine the number of kickers provided based on how onerous the preparations are. Each preparation that is difficult to accomplish grants one kicker. Each preparation that requires tremendous sacrifice or hardship by the caster grants three kickers.
Multiple Locations: The ritual must be cast at mutliple locations to take effect. The caster must succeed at the ritual casting check at each location. Each location after the first adds 1 kicker. Some rituals must be cast at multiple locations at the same time. In this case, each ritual caster must separately succeed at their ritual casting check. Each location after the first adds two kickers, this already includes kickers to account for the primary caster at each additional location.
If you wish to combine this requirement with the Additional Casters requirement, you can do so by requiring additional casters at the primary ritual site, or by requiring additional casters at all the locations.
Spending Kickers
- Spell affects an additional target: 1 kicker.
- Spell imposes disadvantage on saves against its effects: 1 kicker
- Spell's duration increases by one step, see duration below: 1 kicker
- Spell's area of effect increases by 100%: 1 kicker
- Spell is cast as if from a slot one level higher: 1 kicker
- The spell's damage die type increases by one step (d6s to d8s, and so on): 1 kicker
- Remove the concentration requirement from the spell: 1 kicker
- Spell's range increases by 100%: 1 kicker
- Targets automatically fail saves against the spell: 3 kickers
Duration Steps
1 round, 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 10 years, 1 century (or permanent).
The DC of 8 plus spell level is a bit low, especially since you only have a wild surge if you fail at your check by a margin of 5 or more. At level 1, a wizard would typically have a +5 bonus to his check and would cast rituals that have a DC 9. You can't miss by a margin of 5 so you have no consequence for messsing up. At level 20, you have a +11 modifier with a maximum DC of 17. You only really fail on a 1. I think 8 plus twice the spell's level would work better. And 1s always fail.
You might want to rework your consequence for failure too. For example, you could imagine requiring to have a spell slot available and on a failed check, you lose the spell slot. It's a bit anticlimatic if your wizard dies trying to cast comprehend language 
. You'll also need a small penalty for failing like the spell slot loss if you don't want to have a nearly unlimited amount of Cure Wounds.
Just my opinion. I really like these kinds of systems though.
Can anyone cast rituals in your system?
Gnarl wrote:
If it helps, I did an analysis of the Wild Magic Surge table, and found that of the 50 possible results,
44% were positive;
16% were negative;
40% were either neutral, or potentially positive or negative depending on the circumstances.
Just some statistics to keep in mind when making use of that table's effects( which I love, by the way. There are so many times when I just want something weird and magical to happen, like when a magic item malfunctions or even as a built-in effect of a magic item( Rod of Wonder, ahoy!)).
MechaPilot wrote:
Adding the ritual tag to every spell *massively* increases the power of magic. A lot of the spells that "feel" like they should have the ritual tag but don't, don't for a very good reason. A spell that is merely useful if you can cast it twice a day can be unstoppable if you can cast it six times an hour.
I'd be more inclined to make rituals completely independent of the actual spell list. Teleporting and casting meteor swarms is a spell. Awakening the Sleeping God G'thwag'n is a ritual.
Gnarl wrote:
"double spell level" is a much simpler and less complicated transformation than "the class level needed to access that level of spell".
And it comes out nearly the same (8 + double spell level would be identical to 9 + required class level).
ankiyavon wrote:
I like the overall idea, and think I would use something like this in a world where anyone can attempt magic through rituals.
Just quickly browsing through the proposal and thread, I miss two potential enhancements:
- Multiple locations: having several casters performing parts of the ritual at distinctly separate locations. The kicker could increase with the separation.
- Preparation or build-up: the caster performs a build-up to the actual ritual for an extended time before the ritual. Examples include ritual slaughter every thursday, painting symbols in the homes of the targets every day, etc. Something that clearly shows the game is afoot, so to speak.
- Vargtass
Regin_Vargtass wrote:
Have you heard of the variant rules for introducing incantations into a 3.5e campaign? They're similar to what you're doing, and might have good ideas you can steal for your own use.
Fralex wrote:
Edited the OP to include the ritual preparation suggestion, the multiple location suggestion, and to make rolling on the wold surge table a DM option.