Why is Ritual casting such an underused mechanic? This is a great way for a spellcaster to get more bang at low levels. Spells that would great sense to be rituals are left out too. I don't see why it would be unbalancing if your caster took ten minutes to cast knock. Sure it could be abused, but that applies to everything if taken to the extreme.
Mostly because the spells that you can ritually cast tend to be divinations, or something that is long lasting and can be cast during downtime, or you're too pressed for time to spend the time ritually casting.
Take Find Familiar, for one example. Generally, you won't be casting this spell more than once or twice during your entire career. Does it really matter if you use a first level spell slot to cast the spell or not, given that you're very likely casting this during downtime?
Detect Magic is another good spell, but on the flip side, chances are you won't have time to settle down and casually cast this spell - you're likely dungeon crawling, and trying to balance your Concentration effects. Silence, in my experience, tends to be used more in combat or situation where it needs to happen NOW.
One of my current clerics is mostly a ritual caster. He has very few combat spells (which he uses quite well) but has tons of OoC identify, detect magic, and things of the like. It is a Forge Cleric that is fairly combat oriented so it uses spells only as quick pick me up to dying players and tons of fun role play abilities outside of combat. It surprises me how awesome that ended up being for him.
As to why most people don't use them I think it is just they are not thinking about ANY of their spells outside of combat. I have been trying to break some people of the idea that Oh I am low on spell slots we should take a long rest. I will actively ask if they are casting it as a ritual when they are using Identify to see if the group is willing to wait a bit for him to figure out what the heck this is.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
There is a lot of Divination, and just 2 pages of Ritual spells out of allthe spells from allthe classes. I honestly was hoping XgtE would have more Ritual spells.
I wish the Dev had made Ritual * 10 for casting time instead of +10 minutes. In my experience players use Detect Magic so frequently and it take 10 minutes to cast and lasts for 10 minutes, unless there is a time crunch, why not have it up? If you have two Ritual Casters with it, they can just keep bouncing it back and forth while exploring to always have it up. From what I can read of RAW (since it doesn't say anything) is that it takes your Action for 10 minutes... not that you can't walk or do anything else.
Most of the list like Alarm are pretty underwhelming... Yay, you alarm a 20' cube for 8 hours.... great, cast it 8 more times and the camp will be surrounded. My Abjuration Wizard uses it to recharge his arcane barrier during short rests.
Comprehend Language, Find Familiar (Mephista's point here is very valid also), and Purify Food and Drink are some of my favorites (although "grace" takes 10 minutes). I *really* want to use Unseen Servant more, but I'm a bit at a loss for what I could have it do. aside from help setup camp.
That said Tiny Hut is amazing and once you get 3rd level Ritual spells that should always be on your list.... Phantom Steed was better in 3rd. Water Breathing is surprisingly good to have. It's Ritual so it just needs to be in the spellbook and your whole party can breath water, every day with 10 minutes of work at the start of the morning... you never know when it'll be useful.
That said, I do love Ritual Casting as an ability and is one the list of things for "I love Sorcerers, but I love Ritual Casting.
The Feat and Pact of the Tome Warlock also have a problem because they are EXPENSIVE. The Wizard gets 2 spells / lvl for free and can choose Ritual Spells. For someone with the Ritual Caster feat or Pact of the Tome, every spell costs you 50 * lvl in gold. It adds up very quickly if you want to "catch em all".
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Why is Ritual casting such an underused mechanic? This is a great way for a spellcaster to get more bang at low levels. Spells that would great sense to be rituals are left out too. I don't see why it would be unbalancing if your caster took ten minutes to cast knock. Sure it could be abused, but that applies to everything if taken to the extreme.
Mostly because the spells that you can ritually cast tend to be divinations, or something that is long lasting and can be cast during downtime, or you're too pressed for time to spend the time ritually casting.
Take Find Familiar, for one example. Generally, you won't be casting this spell more than once or twice during your entire career. Does it really matter if you use a first level spell slot to cast the spell or not, given that you're very likely casting this during downtime?
Detect Magic is another good spell, but on the flip side, chances are you won't have time to settle down and casually cast this spell - you're likely dungeon crawling, and trying to balance your Concentration effects. Silence, in my experience, tends to be used more in combat or situation where it needs to happen NOW.
And so on.
One of my current clerics is mostly a ritual caster. He has very few combat spells (which he uses quite well) but has tons of OoC identify, detect magic, and things of the like. It is a Forge Cleric that is fairly combat oriented so it uses spells only as quick pick me up to dying players and tons of fun role play abilities outside of combat. It surprises me how awesome that ended up being for him.
As to why most people don't use them I think it is just they are not thinking about ANY of their spells outside of combat. I have been trying to break some people of the idea that Oh I am low on spell slots we should take a long rest. I will actively ask if they are casting it as a ritual when they are using Identify to see if the group is willing to wait a bit for him to figure out what the heck this is.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I agree with Mephista,
There is a lot of Divination, and just 2 pages of Ritual spells out of all the spells from all the classes. I honestly was hoping XgtE would have more Ritual spells.
I wish the Dev had made Ritual * 10 for casting time instead of +10 minutes. In my experience players use Detect Magic so frequently and it take 10 minutes to cast and lasts for 10 minutes, unless there is a time crunch, why not have it up? If you have two Ritual Casters with it, they can just keep bouncing it back and forth while exploring to always have it up. From what I can read of RAW (since it doesn't say anything) is that it takes your Action for 10 minutes... not that you can't walk or do anything else.
Most of the list like Alarm are pretty underwhelming... Yay, you alarm a 20' cube for 8 hours.... great, cast it 8 more times and the camp will be surrounded. My Abjuration Wizard uses it to recharge his arcane barrier during short rests.
Comprehend Language, Find Familiar (Mephista's point here is very valid also), and Purify Food and Drink are some of my favorites (although "grace" takes 10 minutes). I *really* want to use Unseen Servant more, but I'm a bit at a loss for what I could have it do. aside from help setup camp.
That said Tiny Hut is amazing and once you get 3rd level Ritual spells that should always be on your list.... Phantom Steed was better in 3rd. Water Breathing is surprisingly good to have. It's Ritual so it just needs to be in the spellbook and your whole party can breath water, every day with 10 minutes of work at the start of the morning... you never know when it'll be useful.
That said, I do love Ritual Casting as an ability and is one the list of things for "I love Sorcerers, but I love Ritual Casting.
The Feat and Pact of the Tome Warlock also have a problem because they are EXPENSIVE. The Wizard gets 2 spells / lvl for free and can choose Ritual Spells. For someone with the Ritual Caster feat or Pact of the Tome, every spell costs you 50 * lvl in gold. It adds up very quickly if you want to "catch em all".