Ritual Spells Guide for Dungeons and Dragons 5e 

My favorite ritual that I do every game is yell angrily at my D20. It's more of a tradition than a ritual I guess.

One my my favorite character that I've played was a human paladin Warlock that grabbed ritual caster at 1st level so he was so much fun because I would have several things follow him at all time, his owl familiar, an unseen servant in a robe and mask, carrying a torch, to look like another person and a floating disk with his backpack and other gear plus he eventually got find steed and had a giant goat. So it was a human in plate armour, riding an armored goat with an owl resting between its horns being followed by a floating backpack and a cloaked figure.

My knowledge domain cleric set up a stall in a city and used augury as a ritual to read peoples fortunes for some gold.

No talking about Find Familiar? It one of the strongest 1st level spells in the game.

You're doing videos on feats, and I know that you'll eventually get to the Ritual Caster feat, but I figured I'd jump the gun and get my thoughts out. This is a great feat for a failed wizard who is embarking on a different career path. One of my favorite character ideas is a Rogue who started out as a wizard's assistant, copying out spells - for this I took Comprehend Languages and Unseen Servant, allowing him to read spells he's unfamiliar with (to avoid copying errors) and double his production as he orders the Unseen Servant to duplicate his pen-strokes. He's a rogue because he had to walk around quietly so as not to startle the wizard during an experiment and because the wizard constantly lost his keys and didn't prepare the Knock spell.

This is an awesome addition to the game. Detect Magic especially. Such a needed spell and yet such a giant waste of a spell slot. Just loving on ritual spells.

You guys left out a level 1 ritual spell that has some of the most varied and potent uses: Find Familiar. A clever player can find good uses for a familiar in nearly any type of play. I'd choose that as a feat over just about any other, unless my class gave it to me for free.

Arcane domain cleric with ritual casting feat (wizard) became really respected in our party for what he brought to the table.

Another great episode and with that I'm also coming in with another tip: you guys do explain spells that you mention in videos like these, but one thing that would improve them by just a tiny notch would be to put a spell card on the screen (or even just a passage from the PDF cut out, so we can read it as well). I wouldn't want the card take up the whole screen, so I would just stick it either to the top left or top right.

Thanks guys. The Player's Handbook was a little obscure, for me, as to how it went about discussing exactly how Ritual rules work. You guys explained it perfectly and dispelled (pun intended) all confusion I had on it. Definitely going to look into the rest of your videos. :D

Ah... ritual casting. One of the reason why wizard is very popular. Ritual casting without even having to prepare it. This basically mean that you have more spell in your hand that you can effectively use than any other class. The great utility class lol.

I had a Rune Knight Fighter take ritual casting. She had her bag of runes, instead of a book, that she used to cast her rituals. While it certainly wasn’t an optimal build, fighters get enough feats that I was able to fit it in without to much trouble and it added a lot of flavor and fun.

I didn't realize that this could not be used by all classes. I wanted to get the ritual feat for my Monk to have Ceremony, Detect Magic, and Identify. Walking around as a travelling priest makes it easier when you can open your "bible" and cast ceremony. As well as espionage makes it easier with the other two.

I am a long time DM/GM and have decided to go back to the core books and recap what I ... don't know! RU-vid is my go-to. I really like your interaction and warmth without being silly. I look for INFORMATIONAL vids that TEACH with good pace, clear speaking, that get to the point - You nailed it all. There are SO many POTENTIALLY good videos on YT that suffer from poor audio and lighting. YOUR production quality also makes a big difference. Your subject was what I was looking for and your teaching was spot on. I subscribed. Thanks!

waterbreathing as a ritual every morning when you wake up. lasts for 8 hours. To get around detect magic just have everything in the area be magical. so they get blinded when they look

My two favorites have to be find familiar and unseen servant. Got so much use outta both.

Always nice listening to Dungeon Dudes. Canada has contributed to the world with Wayne Gretzky, The Hart family and the Dungeon Dudes.

The masking ritual and communicating in battle are very good points I totally over looked. Also I'll need to show this to certain people who forget about hauling heir rituals! And awesome shirts

Could you guys do a video on Prestidigitation/Minor Illusion cantrips? Those spells are very flavorful to a game and you can use them in very interesting ways. A quick reddit search will show just how creative some wizards can be. My question is how creative would you let your players be without breaking some mechanics? I saw a post that said the party was robbed by a thief and the thief was running away. The quick thinking wizard then use prestidigitation to change his armor color to bright neon green and then use minor illusion to cast a booming voice to the townsfolk that they had just been robbed and to stop that thief!! Now is this acceptable? It's certainly fun, but is something like this ok? Would love to hear your guys feedback on this. You could probably do an entire video on the do's and don'ts of those 2 cantrips.

Great Video, never had a good grasp on the ins-and-outs of ritual spells before this, it seems way simple now.

"Do you even crit?" I need one of those kkkkk great episode as always. You, guys, deserve many more subs!

Great video guys been watching you for a while now. Thought I was subscribed but I wasn't, I am now.

variant human sorc here with ritual spellcasting feat at first level. I baked it into my character's backstory, he's a slightly mad noble who learned to cast rituals while studying as a child and was told to go on an adventure by his invisible friend who is actually the unseen servant which he casts every night in his sleep and thinks it's his other worldly friend guiding him through life. He's a bit odd to play because whenever he does anything good he gives credit to Clive (the unseen servant) and from his point of view he's following Clive on his adventure, not the other way round. And my DM & I decided not to tell the party this so for the first couple of levels my group thought i was just RPing having an imaginary friend right until i had Clive carry some oil bottles for me & the jig was up when they saw floating oil following me around.

Just looking back you guys have come so far.

Thank you for your videos.

Great video guys - really enjoying your channel

Another double thumbs up video...yeah, I LOVE to play the wizard! As much as I THOUGHT I knew, there's always things in here that needed to reinforce.

As many have pointed out, access to find familiar on nonwizards is huge. My grievance with the spell was always that it too easily stole thunder from the stealth scout party member (rogue, monk, ranger). But now I get to have it used BY my Ranger to work together and also have a companion on any Ranger subclass

I am kinda glad they added the ritual option, offers a partial solution for low lever spellcasters and their lack of slots per day :P Good stuff, Dudes!

You guys, your minis all look so good! Any chance of a segment just showing them and talking about them a bit? Not as a how to paint video but just as a general discussion.

Celestial tome pact warlock here. My most used spells are Augury, Divination, Commune, and Commune with Nature because of the book of ancient secrets invocation. I love it!!!!

Speak with Animals is a ritual. I play a dwarf druid (it's funny) and the second thing my character did in session 1 was ritual cast speak with Animals to ask a swift where goblin raiders ran off to.

Yeah. One of spells that really trips me up is Prayer of Healing as well. 2nd level cleric spell. It takes 10 minutes to cast, but is not a ritual. But me and a lot of people I play with make that mistake. We see “Prayer” and we’re like “oh it’s probs a ritual”

Great perspective.

The scout sees monsters in a room. Wizard starts casting a ritual spell 99 rounds before rushing in.

Alarm is what I would like to call an "exploit spell" because of how it interacts with certain class features. It's an Abjuration spell that can be cast as a ritual and therefore cost no spell slots, Specialist Abjurers can write this spell down and then never memorize it, since it is an abjuration spell he can then use it to recast arcane ward by just adding eleven minutes of cast time to every long rest. It is a minor thing but it will save lives.

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Our DM ruled that you could cast Alarm on containers, which isn’t strictly RAW but seems to fit the intent of the spell. My character responded by buying a small box and casting it on it every morning. If we ever needed to give an NPC a way to get ahold of us, or if the party needed to be split for some reason (before we got Sending), the mental ping from the box being opened could serve as a very basic signal.

i used Bloom to become a rich and famous Wine producer by buying some land and keeping the seeds of all the fruit i ate on the journey then i sacrificed my spell focus to make the bloom spell permanent on my plot of land giving me the best produce year round and then converting it into wine and Brandy that i sold to the crown do to its high quality. i got rich pretty quick after that

Why doesn't this channel have 100k subscribers? I'm 297

Splitting the party. Sounds like something you should do if some of the party has other stuff to do. So you have 2 go off and do one thing, and the 3 other come together maybe some other time to do whatever they where supposed to do during that time.

Keep up the great vids! Please do an ep on the arcane trickster! #drakkenforce

So my dm had the bbeg minions work on a ritual spell that was the 9th level meteor swarm but to use it would launch it on the circle. My pact of tome warlock was able to get it but never got to cast it

So, if you pick Ritual caster (druid) and need/want to add Druid rituals... Is there such a thing as Druid scrolls to coppy them from? Or Cleric scrolls if you picked Cleric ritual caster?

underated channel

If a rogue takes the ritual caster feat, will that allow them to cast ritual spells? And if so what level?

Does anyone know if a class like Cleric or Druid who must prepare a spell to cast as a ritual, takes the ritual spell caster feat, if they can transcribe all of their ritual spells into their book (spending the required gold/time etc) to have access to those rituals without having to prepare them?

If you up cast tiny hut can it be larger?

Do ritual spells count towards the total amount of spells a wizard can know? I'm trying to determine how many ritual spells my level 6 Wizard can have. (I'm a new DM and so far i haven't found anything on that...)

So as a bard can i get any spell as a ritual as long as it has the tag or just bard spells

I Like that you guys are adding B Roll now but I feel like it would have a better impact if it was relevant to the conversation

Right on gentlemen. You both look super comfortable on camera

Please explain how a warlock with the pact of the Tome is supposed to use 10+ minute Ritual Casting during combat????

Can a Tome Warlock cast the sixth level ritual spells ?

You can make a ritual if the group is searching in a room .. (time rule states that this take 10 mins) and even my DM doesn't allow me to walk while casting a ritual I know that the rules doesn't state you can't .. so you may walk while making the ritual

Question, say I wanted to create magic scrolls so my players could get some spells without burning out of spell slots so fast, like detect magic. Not necessarily as a loot drop though that can work in a circumstance, is there a mechanic I can use to say create magic scrolls for them with a character. So they could have a few more diverse options or spells that they normally can't access but would be helpful. Could I do this with none ritual spells as well say a scroll of scying so they can look in on a friend from far away for example. Also yes I am dming this and I don't get hung up on rules as I want to have fun same as them, but just wanted to ask about it.

Had my Paladin ritual casting,.. Realised after the session that he couldn't so had to retcon and burn most of my spell slots for the next adventure

I'm taking Ritual Casting on my bard to conserve Spells Known... Also Makes sense story wise.

Ritual Caster Feat (phb169) seems a useful thing to mention.

Dear dungeon dude, I actually completely forgot about ritual spells so thanks for the reminder!

i would point out that much of this is suggestions, however you can run your own game in a variety of ways by utilizing the tools that D&D provides. for instance in a setting you could make it where any non combat spell above a certain level might only be done using a ritual that could take up to several hours. and even some of the combat oriented spells, for instance the party might be tasked with drawing the enemies attention and holding them back while several war casters perform a ritual to summon meteor swarm. you could make it where in order to use teleport circle one or more casters have to take part in a ritual, which would limit traveling too far too fast, giving the ability to still travel long range in a low magic campaign but making it into a much bigger ordeal to show the level of impact of magic and it's rarity.

Also artificers! They are so cool!

2:28 Warlock with Pack of the Tome Class Feature and Book of Ancient Secrets Eldritch Invocation can cast rituals as well and don't need to memorize the spell to cast it: "With your Book of Shadows in hand, you can cast the chosen spells as rituals. You can't cast the spells except as rituals, unless you've learned them by some other means. You can also cast a warlock spell you know as a ritual if it has the ritual tag." My GM is kind enough to let me cast Phantom Steed after a long rest, Hex it, cause it damage and then take short rest, but that is most likely not legal, he might only let me do it as I have two different Bag of Tricks and could use one of those puff balls instead. The Druid has spent much time saying how they aren't real animals, nor is his steed, or his familiar, they are really mean to poor Fodel that just wants to be like his friend the Druid, he even pulled off Commune with Nature when the Druid didn't have it memorized, but he gets no love, guess that's what happens when you make a deal with the devil. Phantom Steed has no hit points, disappears when takes damage, basically has infinitive hit points so would never go to zero hit points, so I most likely should simply use one of the uses of Bag of Tricks in the future. Rod of the Pact Keeper, this cheat, Pearl of Power, short rest, Cape of the Mountebank ... my Warlock feels like a real caster.

Okay, Dungeon Dudes. I got one for you. If my Eldritch Knight picks up Ritual Caster - Wizard. Would they be able to transfer the spells they know how to cast into the book, as long as the spell has the ritual tag? Conversely, would they be able to swap out a spell that they have transferred into the ritual book, like for example Find Familar or Identify, for another Wizard spell and, if they do so, would they be able to still cast the ritual spell by using a spell slot? Or would they be limited to just casting it as a ritual from that point on?

*I D E N T I F Y*

But is there any clarification from a trusthworthy source about if it's possible to walk while casting?

sick tee Kelly.

I love Kelly's Shirt.

I also allow clerics to cast rituals like wizards do. They have the same issue in that wizards do... a lot of useful spells are a wasted slot and it just slows everything down and makes players regret their spell choices for the day. Not an issue for higher level campaigns and if we were to start at a higher level I would not run that house rule... but 1-7 ish, I prefer to streamline.

I have been thinking hard about having my AL Legal barbarian get Ritual Caster. The notable spells he would want are Telepathic Bond, Tiny Hut, Alarm, Phantom Steed, Detect Magic, Comprehend Languages, and Find Familiar. He's currently 17th level, so I would have to wait until 19th level.

You made a video about Ritual Casting and didn't mention Find Familiar. That's so weird that I kind of think it was done on purpose. :D

Hey guys! I have a hard time with tools/tool proficiencies and how to properly use them. Especially thieves and artisan's tools. What ability modifier do I add? Can you guys do a video?

Woo 40k :D

In my games people can cast any spell as rituals spells so long as they're in their spellbook or similarly recorded (like clerical scrolls). But one is limited to ritual casting spells of level 4 or higher. Basically the top 3 tires of spells one has are limited to a set number of Ritual Castings PER DAY equal to the number of slots they have for those spells. So a lvl 20 mage can cast level 1 through six spells as rituals all they want (so long as they take the time to do so and have the materials) whereas their level 7 through 9 spells have slots for combat (direct castings) and can cast them out of combat as rituals an equal number per day. That way peeps can't spam Wishes and the like, and most spells have practically ZERO out of combat use anyway. My healing and damage system effectively doubles HP... the first half is active endurance that people degrade through taking combat damage (resisting physical damage), Then they hit ZERO hp (unconscious &/or messed up) and they have an EQUAL number of PHYSICAL HP below zero... which is divided into 3 categories, Serious, Critical, and Mortal. Each representing one failed Death Save as well, so a person that takes Serious wounds can fil 3 consecutive then is dead, A person with Critical can fail ony 2, and a person with Mortal gets only one fail. Serious to Mortal wounds will also be OOC healing aside from healing potions & magic. This means lower level battles can sideline a character for weeks to months of slow physical healing. And though higher level players have more HP, they also have greater access to magic and resources to heal them... so it all balances out. It also makes Clerics remain more mindful as to what their actual role is (as well as other players)... play SMART to Prevent Damage from getting into the negative (Physical)... and use your more limited COMBAT healing more wisely. And the use of Healing/Herbalism kits (as well as other stuff, like medical aid/attending the wounded) becomes way more meaningful. Especially since Herbalism kits have 12 uses and can only heal Serious or lesser wounds, whereas Healer's kits have 10 uses and can be used to treat even Mortal wounds. Mortal Wound natural healing is 1 Hit Dice per week/ 2 if assisted... whereas Critical wounds are the same per 24 hour day. And Serious Wounds are limited to no more than HALF of one's HD per 24 hours if assisted, one quarter if unassisted. And the Natural Healing of Serious to Mortal wounds will almost assuredly involve temporary to permanent scars... as well as CRIPPLING. Hvaing your linbs hacked and bones crushed kinda has that effect, so where ya want to use your magic and potions? To keep you IN the fight, or to Prevent extended downtime &/or posible (even likely) crippling??? Good thing that mid to higher level clerics can Ritual Cast their healing spells, LOL. but they have to rest and heal too... so better make good use of your time (and protect your healers, Cleric or otherwise). And I use the spell points system instead of slots... because the slot system was too restrictive... and my healing/health + Ritual Casting rules (the only aspect that considers spell slots for the times per day thing) really balances out the lot. And yes... natural healing of Physical wounds is SLOW... whereas recovering Active Endurance (+HP) is easier. But I use a PER HOUR resting system for all that. 1 to 3 hours is a Short Rest, 4 to 6 is a Moderate Rest, and 7 to 9+ hours is a Long Rest. And people can recover HP using Hit Dice based on their HOURS RESTED... so no getting it all back on their Long Rest. Because their TOTAL Hit Dice to recover from NON-PHYSICAL wounds is limited to PER DAY (24 hours)... not per Long Rest. The caveat... people recover their Spell Points, Metamagic, Battle Dice, Ki Points, etc. HOURLY as well... completely restocking them after most 8 to 9 hour Long Rests. So twice per 24 hour MAXIMUM. This makes Resting MORE tactical... and allows DM's a standard by which they can PUSH a more difficult overall narrative (simply decrease available rest periods or increase the frequency of battles) without players WHINING about it. And it makes for a much more engrossing RISK/REWARD system. Incase anyone wondered... yes, I prefer Gritty Realism in RPG's... but my little changes are a good compromise from the (everything gets fixed on a Long Rest) or more Dire systems of play. It improves flexibility without allowing anyone to be OP, and it enables better IMMERSION because the stakes of death/living are somewhat more exacting. And after a session or two, its all very simple to get the hang of. It's not geometry or calculus... just a smidge of additional BASIC MATH. And it actually eases the gameplay mechanic (overall). HuGGz

Is there a limit on many ritual spells can be done by a spellcaster say per short/long rest? else its like a longer cantrip and the wizard can spam detect magic or whatever all day long

I'm not going to lie - both as a player and a DM i never realised things like Magic Circle aren't rituals - I've been using and allowing their use as rituals in my group for as long as we've been playing. I'll have to remember that if I ever get to play AL again, but for those spells like MC and that? I think i'm happy keeping them that way in my games. Might actually make a list of what counts and doesn't under my roof though, just so i don't get things mixed up.

I just started my first campaign as a Druid & I’m so lost on if I know all Druid spells already and can just ritual change them everyday, my DM said it was too OP and I kinda agree, but otherwise my spell list has just become my prepared spell list, & it’s so hard to find a reliable source saying anything about it. Ahh please help

I want to run a bronze age oneshot (reskinned 5e with minimal changes, mostly flavor) where players take part in a massive scale ritual casting. The setting: a massive volcano, beginning to erupt. The mechanisms: towers built around the volcano over generations, ready to amplify the ritual. The purpose: to create a powerful, high-level spell that can be used in later games, potentially to change the course of civilizations, and for use in later eras of the world. The catch: if it goes wrong, the local civilization dies. And if it goes right, the player characters might overthrow that civilization and hijack the ritual. I’m not sure how to make it work yet, nor what the challenges will be. Will the spell be an OP homebrew, decided by conversation or vote? Or will it be an existing D&D spell that is currently locked out of the bronze age setting? These and other questions leave me restless.

How does this ritual spell combo sound? Phantom steed and tenser's floating disk? The caster rides the steed and the disk always stays within range of the caster So just say tie the disk on say a cart or something else for transport And bingo You recreated what is essentially a fantasy themed, magical version of a mad max warboy vehicle

Find Familiar is very handy and the players manual I like says Cat and a panther, for example, is a Cat a large cat but a Cat!

Kelly’s shirt make me think of akira

BOBA FETT AKIRA SHIRT is DOPE

I would do the dungeon bros catchphrase b4 the intro. Feels outof place afterwards IMO.

I created a druid that had ritual caster, but it was said I could only wrote mage ritual in my ritual book. Could I used druid ritual spells with this feat too ?

This may not be cannon, but I make casters roll investigate or perception to see magical auras emanating from otherwise hidden sources, as if solid matter blocked magical sight.

Its soo op

I kinda wish Goodberry was a ritual sometimes... it would make getting food that much more trivial lol

Hold on! So if I use the magic initiative feat while I am not a class that would normally have no ritual spellcasting, would I be able to get the spell anyways? I am new to DND and I am playing a dragon born fighter first campaign. Well, I still didn't play the first session so I still have time before I get the feat. I was thinking of going hex(if I can't ritual. Cast) or talk with animals.(because it is a ritual I can use it more than once if I have the time) essentially making me a better Eldrich knight. I also want to know if I can stack the feat for more spells. If I can get hex, I can have 1d6 every attack. At level 20, it will be 8d6 at maximum, including my normal attack damage. Hex is really op.

It's interesting that casting Nystul's Magic Aura (spelling?) being cast makes it permanent after it is done 30 days in a row. I can see mimics enjoying this being done by the resident wizard for some odd reason. Wizard: I cast detect magic! DM: You sense this chest has a magical aura emenating from the school of healing.😂

so as a complete noob player and my dm asked me "are you SURE you want use a spell slot to cast Identify" without explaining ritual spells, he was both giving me advice and messing with me, lol

Bad guy can use Feign Death to access his vault. He can Feign Death himself and make his undead minions to transfer him through some nasty environment, like underwater (if he have no underwater breathing) or caves fill of inhaled poison, or filled with wild undeads attacking anything alive. Or a caster can keep up to 5-6 persons suffering from deadly disease or poison in feign death to transport them to place where they can be cured ... it must be old fashioned slow poison or disease. I like feign death, it's funny.

I had a GM many years ago that would let you cast spells from your spell book, they took like one round/ten minutes of the of the spell duration or ten turns, whichever was greater. There was a risk, roll over a five on a d20+ Int mod, or lose the spell from your book.

there are exactly 34 ritual spells in DnD 5E at this moment for those who are wondering.

If I were to rework D&D... Every spell would start with a training-ritual version, because it can't be just book learning; a standard cast version; a cantrip type; a specialist-school variant; individual ritual mode (doesn't waste a slot, or may allow contextual effects ie Full Moon along a merging Ley Line or whatever RPG stuff); group ritual mode for both added spell-slot effect, contextual stuff, as well as training-ritual assist.

Basically, If you wanted to be able to use it in previous editions (3.0) but healing spells and whack-a-mole spells were too useful... It's now a ritual spell... LOL

Weapon bond ritual ?

My dm gave me a curse to where I can use contact other plane but when I die some demon dude takes my soul and makes me a slave. I literally only signed the contract because two party members were trying to kill each other to be able to sign the contract, and I wanted them to shut up

Speaking of Glyph of warding, while not a ritual, when the explosive glyphs go off I want them to make the woody the woodpecker laugh

Here's a "Gritty Add" for controlling the number of Ritual Castings your players can perform WITHOUT hurting the utility of Ritual Casting too much. To cast a Ritual Spell is an ARCANA check that the caster must roll against. The caster gets his Spell Casting Bonuses (the same as for normal casting) and the DC is as follows... Casting in a safe place with few distractions (the caster's chambers) DC 5. Casting in a place of relative safety with distractions (ie a remote campsite with your company present) DC 10 Casting in a potentially unsafe place that can cause a distraction (ie in a dungeon with enemies nearby) DC 15 or higher (at the DM's discretion). If the roll fails, the caster MUST take a Short Rest (1 hour) before they may try THAT SPECIFIC SPELL again. They may cast any OTHER Ritual spell without a short rest. The Dm may wish to allow a SAVE verses Wisdom to allow the caster another try upon a failure. I'd still raise the DC by 5 for EACH failure (ie a DC 10 becomes a DC 15). This will place some reasonable limits on Ritual Casting.

Why would the seeming-rituals not be?