I personally like the idea of characters going through rites and rituals to gain permanent modifiers. It seem to me that such rites are part of the standard "fantasy" literature.
For example, I just finished a series of books where this was part of the magic system (Tales of the King's Blades - I highly recommend them if anyone cares).
However, it doesn't seem to me that other than WISH or MIRACLE there is a good game mechanic for such in D&D. I have my own that I use and like the idea of, but I was wondering what you all used, if you chose to stay away from such enhancements (and why).
I like:
Ritual baths
Knighting ceremonies
Magical Tattoos
Bone Runes (tattooes on the bone -getting those can be a challenge
Blood bonds to outsiders (like blood brother - through a ritual)
Integration of a magical device onto the characters flesh
Anyone else?
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I was thinking there was an accessory book that covered "magic rituals". Maybe I'm just thinking of Magic of Faerun's places of power, or whatever. DMG2 covers bonded magic, and bonding rituals according to the table of contents, so maybe that's what I'm thinking of. Unfortunately, that book is at home so I can't look at it to know for sure.
Hi Keno - haven't seen you on the board before - WELCOME, and thanks for participating.
Rituals to gain special abilities are a major part of Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed stuff, I believe. Basically, people can select from a list of Ceremonial Feats each of which require performing a specific ceremony, but which grants them the special benefits of the feat.
It's been a while since I read it, but I believe these examples are accurate:
- One feat lets you bond with a magic item, gaining a +1 luck bonus whenever you use it thereafter.
- One feat lets you, once per day, get a special roll (a Reflex save, I think) to take half damage from an otherwise-incapacitating strike.
- I believe some of the others let you get Natural Armor, Evasion (may have added prereqs), the ability to add an energy-type of damage to your weapon, etc.
All these Ceremonial feats require you to have a Truename, which most folk (but not all) have, and which can be used to your benefit or to your detriment by those who learn it.
I assume this is general knowledge, but Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved has some of that type of thing.
I don't have that one - I thumbed through it a cpouple of times but thought it was lame - maybe it was my timing and energy level at the time I was browsing though.
But thanks for the input (to everyone so far).
I actually like the stuff I create myself - I was just curious as to what other people actually USED - as opposed to what was on the shelf.
Do people out there build stories around their parties developing such rituals, do they pursue entry into orders that provide them, do they encourage/discourage such?
I guess the broader question was what kind of worlds do people have - rules were this type of thing happens - or is it an aspect of fantasy character development you steer away from - and why for either answer.
I personally think its a cool idea (I always have) and I was pleased to see it used so effectively in some novels recently - got me thinking about it again.
Maybe I'll get lucky and WOTC will asked me to write the "Complete Rites & Rituals - Paths to Magical Character Development"
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It seems like you could easily incoporate a homebrew stat-boost system by adapting the magic item rules for the various stat-boosting tomes. If a cleric goes through a ritual that boosts his wisdom by 2, it could count against his wealth by level for a Tome of Understanding +2. And it sounds a lot more flavorful than reading a book...