Prerequisite: Intelligence or Wisdom of 13 or higher
You have learned a number of spells that you can cast as rituals. These spells are written in a ritual book, which you must have in hand while casting one of them.
When you choose this feat, you acquire a ritual book holding two 1st-level spells of your choice. Choose one of the following classes: bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. You must choose your spells from that class's spell list, and the spells you choose must have the ritual tag. The class you choose also must have the ritual tag. The class you choose also determines your spellcasting ability for these spells: Charisma for bard, sorcerer, or warlock; Wisdom for cleric or druid; or Intelligence for wizard.
If you come across a spell in written form, such as a magical spell scroll or a wizard's spellbook, you might be able to add it to your ritual book. The spell must be on the spell list for the class you chose, the spell's level can be no higher than half your level (rounded up), and it must have the ritual tag. The process of copying the spell into your ritual book takes 2 hours per level of the spell, and costs 50 gp per level. The cost represents the material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it.
Ritual Caster 5e: Just Follow the Recipe
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Okay, hear me out: It might not be super exciting, but Ritual Caster is kind of cracked. Let me explain.
Ritual spells are a poorly thought through mechanic to me. They feel like class features more than action-based spells. Nobody is particularly pleased to cast something like Detect Poison and Disease with a spell slot, but it can be something you’ll want a character to be able to do still. Instead of just giving druid’s a feature that lets them perform the spell effect, they attach it to a spell you can sometimes cast for free, should time allow.
This feat, then, opens any character up to any first level ritual spells in the game. Now, these feature-like spells aimed at giving specific character archetypes specific tools to engage in the world in various ways are open to anyone who has an Int or Wis score above a 12. It does limit your selection to a selected class, so it's a bit harder outside of a single full caster to get access to multiple classes' rituals, but it does give you exactly the ritual you want. And you know what ritual spell I want? Find Familiar.
Find Familiar on its own, with no other benefits provided, would justify this feat's existence on any number of non-wizard character sheets. Warlocks who don’t care to get a special imp or pseudodragon familiar can even look to take the Pact of the Tome with the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation to get “free” access to a familiar; that is really good.
The full list of 1st level options is Alarm, Ceremony, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Identify, Illusory Script, Purify Food and Drink, Speak with Animals, Floating Disk, and Unseen Servant. Of this list, Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Speak with Animals, and Unseen Servant are all on my personal favorites. This is just the starting list, and already I’d be happy to get access to just any one of these, but wait, there’s more!
Ritual Caster also lets you add more rituals to your book as you go, and lets you pick them up regardless of their level. This means, hypothetically, a 1st level rogue with a spare 300 gold could get Forbiddance, a 6th level ritual, at their disposal. Telepathic Bond, Commune with Nature, Tiny Hut, Meld into Stone, Water Breathing, Phantom Steed, Water Walk, and even Silence all can be at your characters fingertips with a little research and coin. Ultimately your DM will get to pick which of these you get access to (alongside your chosen spell list), but this is all just gravy. Ritual caster is excellent if you’re just getting Detect Magic and Find Familiar or Detect Magic and Speak with Animals.
Want a fun pet you can resummon incredibly cheaply that obeys your commands perfectly? Want to have a cheap way to locate magic and learn about the world around you? Do you feel a need to speak with the local deer about their morning, or have a tiny invisible servant do all of your daily chores for you? If so, Ritual Caster is here for you. This is at its best early, but as you progress it has the opportunity to scale, adding more and more utility options to give any character tools to navigate the world in different ways and bring contributions normally outside their class to the table. This is a feat I highly recommend; try it out on your monks, fighters, and rogues. It’s incredibly helpful.
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