Author Topic: New Feat: Ritualist  (Read 1799 times)

Grendlykins, Simp of Azalin Rex

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New Feat: Ritualist
« on: September 24, 2018, 08:24:25 AM »
Type of Feat: General (Metamagic)
Prerequisite: Ability to cast 2nd-level Arcane or Divine spells, 4 ranks in Spellcraft

Specifics: The character has become acquainted with the intricacies of basic ritual spells and the preparation of symbols, circles and associated preparations and may inscribe such a ritual symbol on the ground once per rest; the circle in question does not fade after resting however. For every 4 ranks in Spellcraft the character becomes more adept at preparing these ritual circles and may inscribe more complicated symbols upon the ground.


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So; a feat that grants absolutely no mechanical benefits but a whole slew of roleplay options.

As above, once per rest the PC can once per rest set down a placeable magical circle with a modifiable name/description not unlike player-made signs from carpentry. As the circles do not disappear after resting, that means that players can spend multiple hours preparing particularly complex arrays of multiple ritual symbols and circles.

Every four ranks, give more symbols, magic circles and similar options available to the PC in question. Depending on the amount of assets available, maybe only give 1-2 per four ranks and as the PC scales up give them successively more showy placeables to reward their efforts; ideally if sufficient assets are available it would be preferable to give one each of a good/evil/neutral appearance placeable magic symbol and/or circle.

Some design concerns I can see are that players should be allowed to pick up and move their circles for fine adjustments, but that could lead to circumvention of the resting/drawing system above. As a solution to that, having the produced circle remain on the ground after resting but only allowing the most recent circle to be moved would perhaps be an option, while any retained instances in the inventory are deleted forcibly on rest. In addition, I would consider only permitting the feat to be taken by the base classes Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric and Druid as Paladins and Rangers seem unfitting thematically for performing in-depth rituals, though the cross-class skill point cost might be a severe enough cost to prohibit them in the first place from going deeply into this feat.

Being that we've had quite a long time to see how the community uses it's access to placeable objects through both merchant sold items like carpets and cookpots, readily available campfires and investiture-heavy trade rewards from carpentry I believe that the community at large would benefit from such an addition without being a detriment, provides a valid feat option for people wanting to pursue more roleplay oriented goals without concern for mechanical gains and feels like something we largely lack at current.

Thoughts, critiques, suggestions, etc.

Silas Rotleaf

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2018, 11:24:48 AM »
Um, how to minimize the imprint so it doesn't lag up the server by creating multiple placeables, maybe?
Other than that... I got nothing. Seems pretty solid.

ladylena

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #2 on: September 24, 2018, 12:00:29 PM »
I do like the idea, and it would make for some great rp. I have a voodan cleric who i would love to be able to place down patterns and describe them as the intricate patterns of the loa. I would however, also grant it to druids.  Druids would make use of a lot of nature rituals, and may only need one or two patterns to represent that.

Clerics also could benefit from access to it, a means to inscribe their gods symbol on the ground and maybe cast alarm on the ground so it appears like it's a warding symbol  or something.

I don't think rangers, rogues, paladins, fighters or barbarians should have access to it since it seems rather out there for them, but it could also encourage cross-classing and it would be very fitting for the hallowed witch PrC
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Grendlykins, Simp of Azalin Rex

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2018, 12:54:36 PM »
Um, how to minimize the imprint so it doesn't lag up the server by creating multiple placeables, maybe?
Other than that... I got nothing. Seems pretty solid.
Placeables don't cause all that much lag to the best of my knowledge. Players have had access to placeables for quite a while now and the performance hit is negligible as near as I can tell.

I do like the idea, and it would make for some great rp. I have a voodan cleric who i would love to be able to place down patterns and describe them as the intricate patterns of the loa. I would however, also grant it to druids.  Druids would make use of a lot of nature rituals, and may only need one or two patterns to represent that.

Clerics also could benefit from access to it, a means to inscribe their gods symbol on the ground and maybe cast alarm on the ground so it appears like it's a warding symbol  or something.

I don't think rangers, rogues, paladins, fighters or barbarians should have access to it since it seems rather out there for them, but it could also encourage cross-classing and it would be very fitting for the hallowed witch PrC

I included all caster classes with the exception of Paladins and Rangers due to thematic inconsistency, hence the requirement for 2nd level arcane/divine spellcasting.

Nemesis 24

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2018, 01:02:55 PM »
I like the dedication by making it a feat.  But it may be possible as a buyable item from certain merchants (the tower mages for example) to place it down (a kit of certain and specific components) but as a feat, it does have its appeal in acting as a limiter - however, as folks have been trusted, making it something to purchase (or a learnable craft, 'Arcana') could probably be simpler to implement.  Why make it a feat?  I'm more curious as to understand the reasoning, really.

Grendlykins, Simp of Azalin Rex

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #5 on: September 24, 2018, 01:09:39 PM »
I like the dedication by making it a feat.  But it may be possible as a buyable item from certain merchants (the tower mages for example) to place it down (a kit of certain and specific components) but as a feat, it does have its appeal in acting as a limiter - however, as folks have been trusted, making it something to purchase (or a learnable craft, 'Arcana') could probably be simpler to implement.  Why make it a feat?  I'm more curious as to understand the reasoning, really.

Making it a purchasable item has been suggested before, by me in fact and it got little to no traction. I suspect there was hesitance in adding such a thing for people to throw about willy nilly, since even though our playerbase is full of responsible people, some are afraid of walking outside and seeing the area littered with magic circles. It would be far simpler to implement as a placeable freely available to everyone, I agree, but making it a feat means that people are devoting a sacrifice of mechanical capability for roleplay benefits.

In addition, I would like to see more feats along a similar design ethic added; things that have little to no tangible purpose other than roleplay, whether it comes in the form of a feat or other design choice. On this one specifically however I admit my bias and that I enjoy playing various forms of magic-users and would like to see something that promotes more esoteric pursuits as well as frees up DMs so they don't quite need to spend their time constructing magic circles for folks wanting to do a roleplay scene.

InMyDarkestHours

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2018, 05:55:15 PM »
I like the idea. I'd expand the feat a little to justify and further favour the pick over something more mechanical by possibly including other useful things relating to rituals,

e.g.

- creating candles
- minor + to lore and/or spellcraft while standing in circle
- different varieties of "circle" placeables

Silas Rotleaf

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2018, 07:52:47 PM »
Ah so that means the people giving me a hard time about using placeables may have been overreacting a bit...
« Last Edit: January 01, 2019, 04:05:52 PM by Silas Rotleaf »

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2018, 08:28:48 PM »
Placeables don't cause all that much lag to the best of my knowledge. Players have had access to placeables for quite a while now and the performance hit is negligible as near as I can tell.

Placeables are actually a significant cause of lag in NwN; that's why we spawn and despawn all non-static placeables upon area reset on POTM and why we don't let players use the placeable tools DMs have to generate lairs.

Grendlykins, Simp of Azalin Rex

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2018, 03:09:05 AM »
Placeables are actually a significant cause of lag in NwN; that's why we spawn and despawn all non-static placeables upon area reset on POTM and why we don't let players use the placeable tools DMs have to generate lairs.

I was talking in the sense of the current server implementation which does indeed delete unnecessary placeables on area reset. I imagine if people filled a single area with hundreds of placeables and it had constant traffic it would certainly have a noticeable performance drop as a result. If a single person putting down a couple placeables was actually a significant detractor from performance, it likely wouldn't be permitted for players.

Silas Rotleaf

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2018, 04:55:47 AM »
Well, not to delineate too much but what would you guys consider a reasonable number of placeables for a player to set down as props/furniture for say a typical outdoor scene?

ladylena

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2018, 04:45:39 PM »
Would making the circles removable afterwards make a difference in server lag?
Also silas you can do that with the carpenters kit.
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MAB77

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Re: New Feat: Ritualist
« Reply #12 on: September 25, 2018, 06:33:07 PM »
To answer Silas' question, there is no set amount of placeables that can be given. You also have to consider all the placeables already loaded in the module. Every little things accross the server counts and adds up to lag, including everything dropped on the ground until the area resets.

I can only always advise the following:
- Keep your placeables to a minimum.
- Remove them after use, that goes both for carpentry items and campfires.
- Never drop anything on the ground. Use trash barrels or npc corpses.
- Crafters: clean your working stations. You're not helping when you leave 20 pages of crafted items in your stations.
- Similarly, if you buy a crafting tool and discard it after use, put it in the trash can, don't drop it thinking someone else will take it.

These are the little things we can all collectively do to avoid lag as much as possible.

Ladylena, obviously they would be made removable should they ever be implemented. But it would still be another layer of things susceptible to affect lag that would be added. Considering the influx of new players EE brought and the already occuring lag issues we'll have to seriously evaluate any possible impacts before thinking of adding those.
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