I was recently directed to the Ceremony as an interesting choice for a Cleric character I'm working on.
Now, it's a great spell for Clerics to have access to certainly; if you know you want to conduct a wedding the next day, just swap it in during a long rest and you're good to go, but beyond that it doesn't really have any general utility, so for most outings it's going to feel like a wasted space in your prepared spells list unless your DM throws a lot of wedding or coming of age opportunities at you that have to be performed immediately.
So I was wondering what people though about broadening its use a little. So far I've come up with the following additions:
Cleansing. You and up to three other willing creatures take a short rest together within a body of water. Each target may remove one disease or the poisoned condition, unless it was caused by an active curse.
Consecration. You bless a bowl worth at least 200 gp that is fixed upon a solid base that cannot easily be moved, causing it to become a consecrated font belonging to your patron deity. The font must be re-consecrated once per year, and also if it is ever moved, or if it becomes corrupted in any way. A consecrated font eliminates the material component when performing the Bless Water ceremony within reach of it.
Morning Prayer. You and up to three other willing humanoids spend a short rest, or the last hour of a long rest, in prayer. Within the next 24 hours, each target may choose to take a single saving throw with advantage.
Oath of Service. You spend the last hour of a long rest reaffirming your oath of service to your patron deity. For the next 24 hours, whenever you take a Wisdom or Charisma saving throw against the effects of a necromancy spell, or an attack or spell originating from an aberration, celestial, fey, fiend or undead creature, you may roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the save.
For the ceremonies that involve a rest, the ceremony occurs during the rest (so the benefit is in addition to resting as normal). For those that affect a limited number of targets, you can cast at higher levels to add more. Using a spell slot for a ceremony performed during a rest expends the slot after the rest (i.e- you don't use it then immediately recover it due to resting).
The idea is to make the ceremony have more utility such that you might conduct them more regularly; it's still costing you 25 gp worth of powdered silver, and you still need to dedicate an hour (as part of a rest for most of these) so it shouldn't be stepping on more specialised, faster acting and generally more powerful spells.
Only one I'm not so sure about is the Oath of Service, since it could stack with other spells like Resistance, I should thought it could be characterful for a Cleric (or Paladin) to be able to spend a morning in prayer and receive a potentially useful benefit if you know for sure you're going up against the specific types of enemy, or you don't know what you might encounter.
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I hate the rest idea. This spell already has a casting time, accept it or write a whole new spell. You had to write a whole new rule about how it works, that is a bad sign.
Cleansing. I do not like this one. We already have spells that do these things. I know you were thinking of baptizing, but that was not the purpose of baptism. Baptism is an example of a Dedication ceremony.
Consecration. This one I like. But it should not eliminate the cost, that is too much. Cutting the cost from 25 gp to 10gp is what I would allow.
Morning Prayer. Too often, especially when you compare with Dedication which provides less of a bonus, but multiple times and is only a once a lifetime thing. I could see it being a 1/year thing (Holy Day, not Morning Prayer). Or you could make it grant a +1 to a single save. In any case, drop the sillyness about part of a rest.
Oath of Service. Too close to dedication. I suggest making it a set bonus of +2 to attack, or +1 to the DC of spells you cast for the next 24 hours against a specified creature type, from (aberration, celestial, fey, fiend or undead). Again, drop the rest business. T
I hate the rest idea. This spell already has a casting time, accept it or write a whole new spell. You had to write a whole new rule about how it works, that is a bad sign.
Rests are specifically described as including things like meditation, reading etc., the idea is to have ceremony options that are minor enough you might want to do them periodically or even regularly. If you lose an hour out of every day to do it then there's once again no point in keeping the spell prepared.
Though thinking about it, the alternative fix for this issue would be to make this ritual not need to be prepared; i.e- it can be cast as a ritual just by knowing it, including by paladins who iirc can't normally cast rituals?
I take the point that some of the effects might be too much, but my aim is to adjust Ceremony so it has some options you might want to keep ready.
Cleansing. I do not like this one. We already have spells that do these things. I know you were thinking of baptizing, but that was not the purpose of baptism. Baptism is an example of a Dedication ceremony.
The overlap is intentional; compared to Lesser Restoration which is an instantaneous action ideal for clearing the worst effects in tense situations, this ceremony requires 25 gp of silver powder and a short rest in which you're not able to do anything else. Also I wasn't actually thinking of a baptism, which would be (theoretically) preventative, this would be about spiritually treating an ailment, which has precedent in other water-based rituals, but honestly my inspiration was primarily the water-healing in Avatar: The Last Airbender, though I didn't want to make it HP based (stepping too much on a Bard's Song of Rest) 😉
Oath of Service. Too close to dedication. I suggest making it a set bonus of +2 to attack, or +1 to the DC of spells you cast for the next 24 hours against a specified creature type, from (aberration, celestial, fey, fiend or undead). Again, drop the rest business
I like this alternative, still trying to think of a snappier title for it.
Morning Prayer. Too often, especially when you compare with Dedication which provides less of a bonus, but multiple times and is only a once a lifetime thing. I could see it being a 1/year thing (Holy Day, not Morning Prayer). Or you could make it grant a +1 to a single save.
The idea with this one is to make it something a Cleric might choose to try and do regularly with the party, albeit at a cost of 25 gp each time and requiring them to keep this prepared. Making it a flat one-off bonus is interesting, but I wonder if +1 is too low to be worth it? The idea of a holy day ceremony is a cool one, not that I've ever played a campaign where anyone tracked time to that degree!
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I love these ideas. Mind if I throw in a few of my own?
Exodus: For the next 8 hours, you and a group of friendly creatures of your choice cannot become lost while traveling except by magical means, and difficult terrain does not slow the group's travel.
Communion: During the next 24 hours, the first time the target must make a death saving throw it does so with advantage. A creature can benefit from this rite only once.
Fasting: The target of this rite must be self or another willing creature, who immediately gains 1 level of exhaustion. Until the rite is concluded, on each of its turns the target can add additional radiant damage to a single attack (or a single damage roll for a spell). The additional radiant damage is a number of d8 equal to the levels of exhaustion the creature currently has. The target retains the benefits of this rite until the target completes a long rest. The rite also ends early if the creature eats or drinks anything.
I was recently directed to the Ceremony as an interesting choice for a Cleric character I'm working on.
Now, it's a great spell for Clerics to have access to certainly; if you know you want to conduct a wedding the next day, just swap it in during a long rest and you're good to go, but beyond that it doesn't really have any general utility, so for most outings it's going to feel like a wasted space in your prepared spells list unless your DM throws a lot of wedding or coming of age opportunities at you that have to be performed immediately.
So I was wondering what people though about broadening its use a little. So far I've come up with the following additions:
For the ceremonies that involve a rest, the ceremony occurs during the rest (so the benefit is in addition to resting as normal). For those that affect a limited number of targets, you can cast at higher levels to add more. Using a spell slot for a ceremony performed during a rest expends the slot after the rest (i.e- you don't use it then immediately recover it due to resting).
The idea is to make the ceremony have more utility such that you might conduct them more regularly; it's still costing you 25 gp worth of powdered silver, and you still need to dedicate an hour (as part of a rest for most of these) so it shouldn't be stepping on more specialised, faster acting and generally more powerful spells.
Only one I'm not so sure about is the Oath of Service, since it could stack with other spells like Resistance, I should thought it could be characterful for a Cleric (or Paladin) to be able to spend a morning in prayer and receive a potentially useful benefit if you know for sure you're going up against the specific types of enemy, or you don't know what you might encounter.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I hate the rest idea. This spell already has a casting time, accept it or write a whole new spell. You had to write a whole new rule about how it works, that is a bad sign.
Rests are specifically described as including things like meditation, reading etc., the idea is to have ceremony options that are minor enough you might want to do them periodically or even regularly. If you lose an hour out of every day to do it then there's once again no point in keeping the spell prepared.
Though thinking about it, the alternative fix for this issue would be to make this ritual not need to be prepared; i.e- it can be cast as a ritual just by knowing it, including by paladins who iirc can't normally cast rituals?
I take the point that some of the effects might be too much, but my aim is to adjust Ceremony so it has some options you might want to keep ready.
The overlap is intentional; compared to Lesser Restoration which is an instantaneous action ideal for clearing the worst effects in tense situations, this ceremony requires 25 gp of silver powder and a short rest in which you're not able to do anything else. Also I wasn't actually thinking of a baptism, which would be (theoretically) preventative, this would be about spiritually treating an ailment, which has precedent in other water-based rituals, but honestly my inspiration was primarily the water-healing in Avatar: The Last Airbender, though I didn't want to make it HP based (stepping too much on a Bard's Song of Rest) 😉
I like this alternative, still trying to think of a snappier title for it.
The idea with this one is to make it something a Cleric might choose to try and do regularly with the party, albeit at a cost of 25 gp each time and requiring them to keep this prepared. Making it a flat one-off bonus is interesting, but I wonder if +1 is too low to be worth it? The idea of a holy day ceremony is a cool one, not that I've ever played a campaign where anyone tracked time to that degree!
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
+2AC for 24 hours if you are widowed (your married partner is dead.) charge your character story...
creating holy water isn't bad. fill everyone's flask or water skin full. 2d6 damage to undead or fiend...
Not a concentration spell either. paladins are riddled with concentration spells.
I love these ideas. Mind if I throw in a few of my own?
Exodus: For the next 8 hours, you and a group of friendly creatures of your choice cannot become lost while traveling except by magical means, and difficult terrain does not slow the group's travel.
Communion: During the next 24 hours, the first time the target must make a death saving throw it does so with advantage. A creature can benefit from this rite only once.
Fasting: The target of this rite must be self or another willing creature, who immediately gains 1 level of exhaustion. Until the rite is concluded, on each of its turns the target can add additional radiant damage to a single attack (or a single damage roll for a spell). The additional radiant damage is a number of d8 equal to the levels of exhaustion the creature currently has. The target retains the benefits of this rite until the target completes a long rest. The rite also ends early if the creature eats or drinks anything.
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