the scenario was thus: the players had reached the end of a corridor undetected and found three doors there. Instead of charging in one of the doors without knowing what was behind it, they decided to wizard lock all three (newbiedm … I know this is where you maybe would send one of the monsters behind the doors out and thereby foil the PC’s plans … but I was rather curious to what they wanted do achieve by this tactic)

The Swordmage in Question had a 20 INT, was lvl 8 and trained in Arcana.
Basically this means that on average he will roll araound 24-25 on his check. Add 5 (read the ritual description if you wonder why) to the difficulty and the enemies in question needed to get more than 30 on their pick-lock or Strength attempt. At the same time the players could open the doors in question at-will … (minor action though) …

What the players achieved: they got a fun way of using a ritual, they decided when the enemies behind the doors could get out, and in effect they controlled the battlefield situation well … even by letting the monsters out one or two at a time …

Not the scenario I had in mind when writing the adventure … but funny anyhow …

… another ritual they used is wizards sight … but this is a more costly ritual and therefore not so often used … but when used it has given them a good edge against the monsters they are facing

@ The Last Rogue
We are about to transition into a game that Ameron ran in 3.5. As I’ve recreated my character for 4e the use of rituals has come up. I’m playing a Bard, and the campaign was already very heavy skills based it seemed like the perfect time to brush up on rituals.

@ wickedmurph
I like the idea of handing out rituals as treasure bundles, especially in low magic campaigns.

@ Geek Ken
Rituals do have the potential to keep DMs on their toes, but I don’t think that they are game breaking. Because the PCs expend resources to gain the effects, DMs should (IMO) be willing to bend when certain parts of the adventure don’t go as planned.

Rituals allow players to do the cool stuff, or trivialize obstacles DMs put in their path. Making that long trek through the desert sucking most the healing surges out of your players? Maybe they decided to stock up on a few rituals to make their rest or travel easier instead. Expect the group to bluff their way past the guards, or scale the wall of an enemy keep? Get ready for a wizard to make a temporary hole in the wall.

I think because rituals take a lot of time to cast (and are expensive), under pressure situations they don’t work well. But if you are running a skill challenge and stressing that hours or even days pass throughout the challenge, rituals have a great use for them. It depends on the DM being flexible.
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They took a gamble and lost.

There are better places to use a ritual than a place crawling with duergar guards.

Both are totally at the discretion of the DM, and how you present them will have a long-term impact on how much they are used.

In your example, the characters spent the resources, and got no benefit, in fact, they were penalized by being attacked. So to them that says that rituals are a big fat waste of time and money.

In my current campaign, I have 3 ritual casters and an alchemist in the party, so it’s critical that I incorporate rituals as treasure, give characters in-game opportunities to learn rituals from others, and make sure that the players who want to use rituals receive concrete benefits from doings so.

And why not? By taking the feat, the players handed me a freebie – they told me “I think rituals sound fun”. So why not run with it?

Since I’m playing in a dark-ages, cash-poor setting, I’m giving some treasure parcels out as ritual components or bound spirits. These items have an equivalent money value, but can’t be used for anything other than rituals or alchemy. Now I can give out lots of money, without having to worry about how they will spend money in bronze-age barter economy. And I encourage them to use rituals.

I’ve also house-ruled ritual creation or “discovery”. If the players want to learn a ritual that they don’t know – make it up, in effect, they pay 3x the listed cost and make an Arcana check at 15+ritual level (about a 50% chance for a lv 1 ritual for a trained arcanist). Fail, and the cash is gone, succeed, and they can thereafter cast that ritual.

Some, I won’t allow them to make up, some I’ve already given in ritual book treasure, or learned from a grateful Orcish Shaman. Rituals are an excellent tool, and a great way of getting the characters to really think about resources, and plan things out of combat.
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