Redsun Rising:
Holy smokes, I talk a lot. Bear with me on this, though, and hopefully the journey will be worth it.
It was!
Redsun Rising:
Can't have a mystery when one can just ask the dead man, "Who killed you?" Unless he was killed from behind, anyways...
Right. That seems like a problem that's been around long enough to have been solved, though. But that's for another thread.
Redsun Rising:
A Ritual would likely be used during a rest of one kind or another, unless the situation demanded otherwise. And the problem with that is most such ideas would be handled as a Skill Challenge, to try and stay focused on the Ritual, and it does tend to remove the ritualist from the battle, As Written, anyhow.
Yes, and that also quashes interesting uses of rituals by enemies. The "stop the ritual" type of encounter can't generally involve an
actual ritual very easily, though 10 minutes casting time is enough for about two fights and two short rests.
Redsun Rising:
Some rituals are highly specialized, with a specific "just in case" viewpoint. Wizard's Escape requires 150gp in components, something you are not likely to have on you while you are imprisoned...unless you can get someone to smuggle it to you. Still handy to know, however, just in case.
Yes, that would seem to require a combination of a couple of rituals, one to give you access to the components and then the ritual itself.
Redsun Rising:
Mostly rituals seem to be designed to have adventures made around them. Linked Portal means a lot more when the ritualists know of cities which have a teleportation circle they can access. The GM would need to make sure the party can get the rituals they need as part of treasure drops (and hope they don't sell them or something absurd like that), and the GM would also need to pay attention to the rituals his players are wanting to buy. A PC with Speak With Dead or Hand of Fate is someone who shouldn't be getting flak: build the adventure around them having these things, if they have used them to sequence break past adventures.
Exactly. I want to get to where rituals aren't strictly necessary but would make things
much easier for the characters. To where one or more of them is thinking seriously about investing a feat in ritual casting. I think the trouble there is figuring out how to balance things so that the game is still fun without the rituals, but that more options get opened up.
One option that springs to mind is that the PCs learn about an item or a piece of information that would make a certain type of enemy easier to fight. Well, their local town doesn't have it, but there's one X days travel away that probably does. Here's the sigil sequence for it, if they want to just jump over there....
Redsun Rising:
On an aside, I rather like the idea of a player using a ritual to bypass a skill challenge. After all, that ritual just cost them resources, and they had to prepare in advance for it. Perhaps a bit of old-school nostalgia coming in, but I can respect that forethought and willingness to sacrifice resources for expediency and safety immensely.
I think I lack that same sort of nostalgia. I tended to prefer a challenge, not something that was just an oddly shaped lock with an expensive key. As a GM, my issue with this is that I don't want to spend time creating something that's likely to be either ignored or short circuited, even if it does cost the players resources. If I had a better grasp of available rituals, I'd want to put something in that gives certain rituals a specific mechanical benefit for a particular challenge, such as several free successes, or a lasting bonus. Failing that, I'd want the ritual to be a way for the players to change the basis of the challenge from something that's not in their wheelhouse to something that is. They're not good at or interesting in rolling checks related to a mystery, so they ritual the mystery away and the real challenge is running through the city to stop the next murder, or something.
Redsun Rising:
The best way to provide a cost for returning to town is a time limit.
I about smacked my head when I read that. Of course. I've recommended that a number of times in other situations (mostly as a way to deal with the 5 minute workday), but it completely slipped my mind.
Redsun Rising:
Sure, you can leave and go back: but in three days, if the Draconian bandit king Reswob's demands for the hand of the princess are not met, his warlock will finish a ritual and turn the region into solid stone, and go to work on everyone thus afflicted with sledgehammers. Travel time is tight, and retreat is not an option once the journey begins.
Yes, the trick is being willing to set up consequences and follow through with them, which I suppose isn't 4th Edition specific.
Redsun Rising:
In addition, if you leave, he might simply send reinforcements to the area the party just fought at, making their work for naught.
A classic response, the main downside being repetitious combat encounters.
Redsun Rising:
Insight checks at a low value are every GM's friend. Roll it for them, behind a screen, and fudge the results if needed.
Oh, I'll just tell them. Assuming they didn't help me create the consequences themselves.
Redsun Rising:
Alchemical formulas are less effective, as they use flat attack values for most of the interesting things they can do.
I'm okay with that, and while it's a bit odd it seems like a great way to make such items accessible to everyone, rather than only those with good throwing arms and aim.
Apart from the items with combat application, it seems like there's another opportunity for helping out with skill challenges. Like "If players make use of
heartflow, they DC for all Bluff checks in this skill challenge are decreased by 5." Administering the item itself might be a skill challenge.
Thanks for the insights!