(Edited to clarify the point of the question):
In the interest of better balance between the tiers of classes, what if we took some of the biggest out of combat utility and long cast-time spells and made them rituals available to any character? 4th Edition did something like this with the "Ritual Caster" feat, and I think it could help things in PathFinder.
If there were to be a such a feat in Pathfinder, which spells should be converted to rituals?
If we converted spells to rituals, would that in any respect lead to a more balanced class-tier arrangement? Would allowing the lower tier, non-caster classes access to spells in this manner help things in any meaningful way?
Thanks for your thoughts!
This should be under homebrew.
Original post edited to better clarify the point of the question.
Some thoughts in no particular order:
Components would be needed, and the more powerful the more rare.
I would limit it to Arcane spells, as that uses the resource of mana and is not subject to constraints of divine power. Alternately this could be a way to get Divine help for any religious follower.
Make a Ritual Spellcasting roll
Caster level is character level, or a derivative of it
Higher spell levels are cast at a penalty
Casting Time is as normal time but shifted up a notch, so one full round is one minute, one minute is an hour.
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This should be under homebrew.Original post edited to better clarify the point of the question.
It should still be under homebrew.
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So, how it would work?
What would be needed to cast those rituals? How many could you cast in a day?
I there isn't a minimun stat requirement or some kind of skill roll involved it seem awfully easy.
If the rituals don't use spell slots or some kind of stored energy you are gifting spellcasters with more spells as the slots they would use for spells like Secure shelter would be freed for use with combat spells.
Spontaneous spellcasters would greatly increase their number of know spells.
Both things that would greatly increase the power of spellcasters.
Then you would similarluy increase the power of non spellcasters, but probably the increase would be smaller than what spellcasters would get.
If a non spellcaster become capable to cast secure shelter he has a nice off combat utility.
If a wizard can use secure shelter as a off combat ritual he free spell slot for black tentacles or charm monster.
I think that the spellcaster would gain more.
Ritual caster?
i would replace the concentration check with a spellcraft check?
it would take 10 minutes per spell level
insteading of spending spell slots, you spend money
the rituals would cost a mere feat to learn
example spells for rituals include
raise dead
teleport
planar binding/planar ally (merged together)
animate dead/all derivatives
plane shift
bless/curse water
magic circle against (Alignment)
consecrate
desecrate
polymorph any object
geisha tea ceremony class ability
While it's not completely what you're asking for, I'd take a look at the rules for Incantations, both in 3.5 Unearthed Arcana (available at the d20srd here) and the Pathfinder update (available here). Both take the concept of rituals and apply them to spells, not only making them talk a duration but also involving multiple party members, each doing a specific skill or task. The catch is that you'd have to build the "ritual incantations" yourself as the GM. What I'd suggest doing is using some of the classic spells in fantasy and make them into rituals/incantations. Things like scrying, teleporting/gate, wish/miracle. Things of that nature.
Personally, if I ever ran a low magic or E6/8 campaign, I'd use this for all spells level 4 and above. It's part of my "Low Magic Rules From A Guy That Hates Low Magic" rules set that I really need to post at some point.