I'm Bob, the NPC Sage

Hi,

So there's an old saw about D&D where people point out that the magic-user can cast fireballs, cause earthquakes, summon horrific monsters, but doesn't really have anything like "build a shack", "ensure good crops", "dig a well" or any other spell that a local community would really have a need for. Basically, magic-users are walking bundles of barely contained destructive arcane energies and who really needs that? Clerics have more useful spells in this regard, but they've got a built-in framework to be part of a community. Wizards are better off in towers far away.

I was thinking about Ritual Spells in 4th. ed. Ritual spells are mostly spells of long duration and/or questionable utility. By way of example, one of the ritual spells is "magic mouth". There's been a lot of complaining that Rituals are taking all of the quirky "cool" spells while the magical powers the Wizard can actually use on the fly are all blaster-type spells good only for combat. But frankly, I'm OK with that -- most magic-users simply stock up on attack spells anyway. Are you really going to take Magic Mouth over Magic Missile?

Ritual spells also solve the early problem of a wizard's place in a community. Now a "wizard" can simply be a guy who's got the Ritual Caster feat and has a bunch of Rituals. The Rituals all do useful, community-oriented things. Without delving into dungeons, this guy can hang out a shingle and provide useful services. I think that's pretty neat.

later
Tom

I'm Bob, the NPC Sage

Hi,

So there's an old saw about D&D where people point out that the magic-user can cast fireballs, cause earthquakes, summon horrific monsters, but doesn't really have anything like "build a shack", "ensure good crops", "dig a well" or any other spell that a local community would really have a need for. Basically, magic-users are walking bundles of barely contained destructive arcane energies and who really needs that? Clerics have more useful spells in this regard, but they've got a built-in framework to be part of a community. Wizards are better off in towers far away.

I was thinking about Ritual Spells in 4th. ed. Ritual spells are mostly spells of long duration and/or questionable utility. By way of example, one of the ritual spells is "magic mouth". There's been a lot of complaining that Rituals are taking all of the quirky "cool" spells while the magical powers the Wizard can actually use on the fly are all blaster-type spells good only for combat. But frankly, I'm OK with that -- most magic-users simply stock up on attack spells anyway. Are you really going to take Magic Mouth over Magic Missile?

Ritual spells also solve the early problem of a wizard's place in a community. Now a "wizard" can simply be a guy who's got the Ritual Caster feat and has a bunch of Rituals. The Rituals all do useful, community-oriented things. Without delving into dungeons, this guy can hang out a shingle and provide useful services. I think that's pretty neat.

later
Tom