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4 months ago ::
Feb 14, 2013 - 7:57AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jun 16, 2007
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I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but there seems to be a discrepancy in the rules on how rituals work/what the benefits are. According to the "how to play" document the benefit is that you don't have to prepare a spell ahead of time to cast it as a ritual. However, in the the "Classes" document the Wizard class states that you have to have the spell prepared to cast it as a ritual except in the case of the "Scholarly Wizard"
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4 months ago ::
Feb 14, 2013 - 8:06AM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jul 28, 2011
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Hi, Since this doesn't appear to be a playtest session report I'm going to move it to Playtest Packet Discussion.Thanks! Monica
Monica
Wizards of the Coast Online Community Coordinator
A friendly dragon.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 14, 2013 - 4:03PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Mar 11, 2008
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I heard that Mearls posted on Twitter that Rituals are not suppose to cost a spell slot. I don't know if you want to consider that "official" or not.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 14, 2013 - 5:24PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2010
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Rituals do not cost spell slots, only spells costs spell slots.
For a Wizard, it means that I could prepare one spell for my slots, and another for as a ritual. For example. Lets say I am a level 1 wizard. I wake up in the morning and prepare "Thunderwave" and "Comprehend Languages". I can cast "Thunderwave" twice, expending the spell slots I have for this level, and retain "Comprehend Languages" as a ritual (not a spell) for trying to figure out what the dwarf is babbling about. There appears to be no limit to the number of rituals you can cast per day.
However, the error exists, How to Play says a rituals need not be prepared ahead of time. Wizard class says a ritual needs to be prepared. If I was your DM I would say run with the Wizards class wording.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 14, 2013 - 5:33PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Dec 20, 2012
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You're talking about different things. A spell slot is a usage of a spell and Mike did say that rituals do no use them. However, the OP intends spell preparation, not spell slots. It is not a question of using spell slots, it is a question about preparing spells at the beginning of the adventuring day.
So, to use mr_virus' analogy, a level 1 wizard may prepare "Thunderwave" and "Cause fear" and still cast "Comprehend language" as a ritual because it does not need to be prepared to be cast as a ritual (according to the How the play document). According to the wizard spellcasting feature, however, the wizard must prepare "Comprehend language" to cast it as a ritual. That's the problem.
Does a spell have to be prepared in order to be used as a ritual or can it be cast as such without preparation?
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4 months ago ::
Feb 14, 2013 - 7:06PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Mar 11, 2008
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Mearls response about Rituals not taking a spell slot was the explaination of this error. Ignore the How to Play section on Rituals.
Personally, I would rather Rituals require a spell slot, but not have to be prepared (as the How to Play section suggests).
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4 months ago ::
Feb 15, 2013 - 9:58AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Apr 10, 2009
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Mearls response about Rituals not taking a spell slot was the explaination of this error. Ignore the How to Play section on Rituals.
Personally, I would rather Rituals require a spell slot, but not have to be prepared (as the How to Play section suggests).
Elsewhere I suggeted this as a house rule:
Essentially - if you prepare a ritual, it does not require a spell slot. If you wish to use a ritual you do not have prepared, you can do so - but then it does require a spell slot.
In short - rituals require you to either prepare them or to use a daily spell slot to cast them, but not both.
Carl
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4 months ago ::
Feb 15, 2013 - 1:01PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jan 28, 2013
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Maybe I'm reading the packet wrong, but the way I read it was that there is a difference between "preparing ahead of time" and "preparing."
I associate "preparing ahead of time" with a long rest. But when I read a specific requirement for a specific ritual, there is still a short "preparation" period, but it didn't require a long rest. For example, Comprehend Languages says:
Ritual: You can cast this spell as a ritual by spending at least 10 minutes reciting ancient words of forgotten languages while using special material components, including a pouch of salt and a pinch of soot taken from a hearth.
There is a preparation time (10 minutes minimum here), but it didn't have to be during a long rest.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 15, 2013 - 6:20PM
#9
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Personally, I like the idea of a wizard reading a ritual out of his spellbook, or a cleric spending time in meditation and prayer or performing a, well, ritual, before casting a ritual, with no other preparation or spell slot use required. Yes, either of those activities will take a significant amount of time (10 minutes or possibly much more), but they have a nice feel to them.
But, as written, the rules for rituals are vague. Maybe that was the developers' intent in the playtest, to see how groups did it and what they liked by leaving the rules open to interpretation. There are some smart people at WotC, so what looks like an oversight may actually be an intentional test of the rules, because they aren't sure what players would prefer.
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4 months ago ::
Feb 16, 2013 - 7:20AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Aug 18, 2001
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Another thing I find off is that under spellcasting for wizards, it mentions that wizards can cast rituals. Then under scholar it mentions rituals again, but not under the other two. So is rituals for all wizards or only scholars?
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