Ceremony: For Better or For Worse
Spell Level: 1
School: Evocation (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S, M (a sprinkling of holy water)
You perform one of several religious ceremonies. When you cast the spell, choose one of the following ceremonies, the target of which must be within 10 feet of you throughout the casting.
Atonement. You touch one willing creature whose alignment has changed, and you make a DC 20 Wisdom (Insight) check. On a successful check, you restore the target to its original alignment.
Bless Water. You touch one vial of water and cause it to become holy water.
Coming of Age. You touch one humanoid who is a young adult. For the next 24 hours, whenever the target makes an ability check, it can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the ability check. A creature can benefit from this rite only once.
Dedication. You touch one humanoid who wishes to be dedicated to your god’s service. For the next 24 hours, whenever the target makes a saving throw, it can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the save. A creature can benefit from this rite only once.
Funeral Rite. You touch one corpse, and for the next 7 days, the target can’t become undead by any means short of a Wish spell.
Investiture (UA). You touch one willing humanoid. Choose one 1st-level spell you have prepared and expend a spell slot and any material components as if you were casting that spell. The spell has no effect. Instead, the target can cast this spell once without having to expend a spell slot or use material components. If the target doesn’t cast the spell within 1 hour, the invested spell is lost.
Wedding. You touch adult humanoids willing to be bonded together in marriage. For the next 7 days, each target gains a +2 bonus to AC while they are within 30 feet of each other. A creature can benefit from this rite again only if widowed.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
“Let's all get married!” probably isn’t the go-to objective of most adventuring squads. Turns out though that if you’re in the market to do some power-gaming, it behooves you to get hitched to just about as many people as are willing.
Ceremony does a bunch of different flavorful things. It's a tool to facilitate in-game boons from your cleric, giving life to the process and celebration of growth, love, and harmony. Additionally, it can act as a week-long one time use party wide no concentration Shield of Faith. +2 AC is no joke, especially attached to a 1st level ritual spell. If you’re here for the munchkin min-maxing, I’d recommend getting into a deep and loving commitment with every other player character at the table.
Beyond just the silliness of the benefits of marriage, the other modes here are largely going to be niche and flavorful.
Atonement will come up once in a while where resetting a compelled creature's alignment can alter future events. Seeing as alignment is already rarely considered in this edition, this text is more or less meaningless.
Bless Water is a pretty neat option, and can act as a well of holy waters that are endlessly useful against low tier undead. If you know you’re going to fight hordes of zombies, ritual cast this two or three times each long rest and stockpile the 2d6 radiant damage grenades for when you need them. This is mainly gated by the gold cost, but if you find yourself with buckets of gold coins to spare, having a bag full of holy water is handy in the right environment.
Coming of Age might be usable on a player character or two, but largely will be used to help the NPC youths of the world come into their own. This is basically a ribbon, which is the main point of the spell.
Dedication is interesting; once per player you can basically give them a weeks worth of bonus d4s on saving throws. If you’re going into a one-shot, that can mean everyone always has a bonus d4 on saving throws. In longer games, it can be a nifty tool to have, as once you use it, you can’t ever again on that target. Best pick the right moment!
Funeral Rite feels like it belongs in an older edition where undead are constantly rising from rogue necromancers or desecrated grounds. This kind of guts the utility of Gentle Repose, which already isn’t a great spell at most tables. It being added on here finally puts the effect where it belongs: on a larger list of smaller effects.
All in all, this list is great to have access to. It's a ritual, meaning you won’t ever spend spell slots on this, and its gold cost is fairly low. I think you’ll want it most at tables where you want to really drive home the theme of the devotee to a deity, somebody who goes out and performs services to the public in the name of religion. It does have a home on some power gaming sheets, too, and all in all is a great addition to D&D I think.
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