The new language of the 2024 Ritual Caster feat removes the part that talks about adding new ritual spells from found spell scrolls. Now it only talks about adding new spells when your proficiency bonus goes up. There is also no discussion about limiting choices to a class list.
Ritual Spells. Choose a number of level 1 spells equal to your Proficiency Bonus that have the Ritual tag. You always have those spells prepared, and you can cast them with any spell slots you have. The spells’ spellcasting ability is the ability increased by this feat. Whenever your Proficiency Bonus increases thereafter, you can add an additional level 1 spell with the Ritual tag to the spells always prepared with this feature.
Quick Ritual. With this benefit, you can cast a Ritual spell that you have prepared using its regular casting time rather than the extended time for a Ritual. Doing so doesn’t require a spell slot. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can’t use this benefit again until you finish a Long Rest.
It doesn't make logical sense to me why you couldn't add using spell scrolls. It seems really limiting even more so than wizard spellsbook nonsense.
Is this right? No more adding ritual spells from scrolls?
2014 gave you a spell book, the ability to cast ritual spells as rituals, and the ability to add spells to the book from one class list.
2024 gives you an ability score increase, Quick Ritual, and a 2-6 spells with the ritual tag (I think this is any class list); give your bard or sorcerer 2-6 extra spells known. These are extra spells prepared and can be ritually cast without using a spell slot.
I get that they changed it to be more balanced, but it doesn’t feel logical regardless. If I’m proficient in Calligraphy Tools I can craft seemingly infinite spell scrolls, but can’t scribe new rituals?
I think when they simplified the language of things in 2024 they lost a lot of its spirit.
As someone else pointed out, the feats share a name and that's about it. Ritual casting in the first place is vastly different. Ritual caster used to be the only way some casters could cast a spell using the ritual rules. Now this feat's use case has dramatically changed. The feat is designed to limit the ability of non-casters to cast high level spells and also to allow casters to remove from their preparations some lower level spells, allowing room for higher level spells. The feat's mechanical value also no longer relies on DM fiat. It's fine.
It has nothing to do with simplified language, and all to do with a design change (and I would say it is a better designed feat considering the rest of the games they exist in). If you don't like it, the old rules still exist.
Filtering the list, there is 12 applicable spells that I can see, from three sources.
I will also note that Book of the Tome got a similar treatment as book of Ancient Secrets is no longer an eldritch invocation for it in 2024.
As I understand it, Book of Ancient Secrets is still viable, but I can't add it in D&D Beyond to a 2024 Warlock even with Legacy Sources turned on. It hasn't been updated so it should be fine (I think per a Jeremy Crawford interview on backwards compatibility).
Actually, on the topic of applicable spells, the old version let you pick 1st level spells initially but add spells up to half your character level (up to 9th level at Caster Level 18).
Including Legacy Content, there are 68 applicable spells, with about 31 duplicates for about 37 potential spells. There may be additional duplicates due to SRD names versus PHB names.
Yes, that's right. Ritual Caster is a half-feat now; it gives you an ability score increase, so the other benefit was reduced in impact to compensate.
That must be why they weakened every other feat when making it now a 1/2 feat. but they didn't. and its not like ritual caster was a top tier feat before this.
This has nothing to do with balance and everything to do with making wizards be the bestest most bestest. They should have expanded this so martials could have access to a wide range of rituals. Instead they made it worse, far worse.
Filtering the list, there is 12 applicable spells that I can see, from three sources.
I will also note that Book of the Tome got a similar treatment as book of Ancient Secrets is no longer an eldritch invocation for it in 2024.
As I understand it, Book of Ancient Secrets is still viable, but I can't add it in D&D Beyond to a 2024 Warlock even with Legacy Sources turned on. It hasn't been updated so it should be fine (I think per a Jeremy Crawford interview on backwards compatibility).
Maybe. The problem with all invocations that pair off the pacts is the core pact is now different so its not clear the old invocations work with them.
Yes, that's right. Ritual Caster is a half-feat now; it gives you an ability score increase, so the other benefit was reduced in impact to compensate.
That must be why they weakened every other feat when making it now a 1/2 feat. but they didn't. and its not like ritual caster was a top tier feat before this.
Not really sure what you mean. They did weaken almost every feat they turned into a half feat, and there aren't enough exceptions to make any kind of point here. The feat was decent before and it's still decent now.
This has nothing to do with balance and everything to do with making wizards be the bestest most bestest. They should have expanded this so martials could have access to a wide range of rituals. Instead they made it worse, far worse.
Yeah dude, you keep spinning those completely unfounded conspiracy theories.
Yes, that's right. Ritual Caster is a half-feat now; it gives you an ability score increase, so the other benefit was reduced in impact to compensate.
That must be why they weakened every other feat when making it now a 1/2 feat. but they didn't. and its not like ritual caster was a top tier feat before this.
Let's see how that claim holds up.
2024 Half Feats:
Actor (Already a half feat)
Athlete (Already a half feat, minor buff)
Charger (Changed to half feat, buffed)
Chef (Already a half feat)
Crossbow Expert (Converted to a half feat, minor change since Light weapon property now provides the bonus attack; minor buff)
Crusher (Already a half feat)
Defensive Duelist (Converted to a half feat, minor buff)
Dual Wielder (Converted to a half feat, noticeable weakened)
Durable (Already a half feat, buffed)
Elemental Adept (Changed to a half feat, unchanged otherwise)
Fey-Touched (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Grappler (Changed to a half feat, significantly buffed)
Great Weapon Master (Changed to a half feat, one effect was replaced with a different one; I think it's a buff?)
Heavily Armored (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Heavy Armor Master (Already a half feat, slight buff)
Inspiring Leader (Changed to a half feat, minor change)
Keen Mind (Changed to a half feat, basically completely redone. Changes basically a flavor feat into a mechanically functional one.)
Lightly Armored (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Mage Slayer (Changed to a half feat, small nerf)
Martial Weapon Training (Replaces Weapon Master which was already a half feat, small buff)
Medium Armor Master (Changed to a half feat, small nerf)
Moderately Armored (Already a half feat, small nerf)
Mounted Combatant (Changed to a half feat, technically minor nerfs, but they are common sense rulings so effectively no change)
Observant (Already a half feat, completely reworked.)
Piercer (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Poisoner (Changed to a half feat, loses tool proficiency, but poison DC improved)
Polearm Master (Changed to a half feat, minor buff, effectively adding Lance to eligible weapons)
Resilient (Already a half feat, technically more restricted, but functionally unchanged)
Ritual Caster (Updated to Half Feat, heavily modified, nerfed)
Sentinel (Changed to a half feat, minor buff)
Shadow-Touched (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Sharpshooter (Changed to a half feat, one effect replaced by ability to fire while in melee; not sure if buff or nerf.)
Shield Master (Changed to a half feat, nerfed?)
Skill Expert (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Skulker (Changed to a half feat, buffed?)
Slasher (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Speedy (Renamed from Mobile, Changed to a half feat, net buff?)
Spell Sniper (Changed to a half feat, nerfed?)
Telekinetic (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Telepathic (Already a half feat, unchanged)
War Caster (Changed to a half feat, otherwise unchanged)
Weapon Master (New feat. For old Weapon Master feat, see Martial Weapon Training)
I count 22 feats that were changed to a half feat. Let me know if I miscounted; I'm tired.
I would count Charger, Crossbow Expert, Defensive Duelist, Dual Wielder, Grappler, Great Weapon Master, Mage Slayer, Medium Armor Master, Mounted Combat, Poisoner, Polearm Master, Sentinel, Shield Master, and Speedy to be primarily martial feats (14 feats) even if there may be some edge case caster usages. For this, I am counting Rangers and Paladins as martials in case you normally separate half-casters from full casters and pure martials. Of these feats, Charger, Crossbow Expert, Defensive Duelist, Grappler, Great Weapon Master (?), Polearm Master. Sentinel, and Speedy were buffed (57% buff rate for martials) and Dual Wielder, Mage Slayer, Medium Armor Master, Sharpshooter (?), and Shield Master were nerfed (36% nerf rate for martials).
Primarily for casters, I would count Elemental Adept, Ritual Caster (may also be interesting for Paladins, Rangers, and 1/3rd casters, but I think the focus is full casters), Spell Sniper, and War Caster (4 feats). Of these, I think none of the caster feats were buffed and only Ritual Caster was nerfed.
So, get back to your claim, other feats got nerfed too. Some got buffed. I think Ritual Caster got hit the hardest, but it was not the only one nerfed by the update. I suspect that it may have been balanced in mind of choosing rituals from all spell lists as a full caster. What exactly were trying to accomplish with the feat before?
This has nothing to do with balance and everything to do with making wizards be the bestest most bestest. They should have expanded this so martials could have access to a wide range of rituals. Instead they made it worse, far worse.
Now that is not accurate. The changes to magical feats were neutral or nerfs while martial options were largely buffed. Quick Ritual is a nice perk on this feat even if the feat can no longer give you access to 6th level spells without further investment in magical abilities.
If a martial wants a wide range of rituals, why aren't they multiclassing or taking a caster subclass? What do you want out of the feat and why are you unwilling to actually sacrifice for a martial caster/hybrid?
Crossbow Expert (Converted to a half feat, minor change since Light weapon property now provides the bonus attack; minor buff)
Crusher (Already a half feat)
Defensive Duelist (Converted to a half feat, minor buff)
Dual Wielder (Converted to a half feat, noticeable weakened)
Durable (Already a half feat, buffed)
Elemental Adept (Changed to a half feat, unchanged otherwise)
Fey-Touched (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Grappler (Changed to a half feat, significantly buffed)
Great Weapon Master (Changed to a half feat, one effect was replaced with a different one; I think it's a buff?)
Heavily Armored (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Heavy Armor Master (Already a half feat, slight buff)
Inspiring Leader (Changed to a half feat, minor change)
Keen Mind (Changed to a half feat, basically completely redone. Changes basically a flavor feat into a mechanically functional one.)
Lightly Armored (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Mage Slayer (Changed to a half feat, small nerf)
Martial Weapon Training (Replaces Weapon Master which was already a half feat, small buff)
Medium Armor Master (Changed to a half feat, small nerf)
Moderately Armored (Already a half feat, small nerf)
Mounted Combatant (Changed to a half feat, technically minor nerfs, but they are common sense rulings so effectively no change)
Observant (Already a half feat, completely reworked.)
Piercer (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Poisoner (Changed to a half feat, loses tool proficiency, but poison DC improved)
Polearm Master (Changed to a half feat, minor buff, effectively adding Lance to eligible weapons)
Resilient (Already a half feat, technically more restricted, but functionally unchanged)
Ritual Caster (Updated to Half Feat, heavily modified, nerfed)
Sentinel (Changed to a half feat, minor buff)
Shadow-Touched (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Sharpshooter (Changed to a half feat, one effect replaced by ability to fire while in melee; not sure if buff or nerf.)
Shield Master (Changed to a half feat, nerfed?)
Skill Expert (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Skulker (Changed to a half feat, buffed?)
Slasher (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Speedy (Renamed from Mobile, Changed to a half feat, net buff?)
Spell Sniper (Changed to a half feat, nerfed?)
Telekinetic (Already a half feat, unchanged)
Telepathic (Already a half feat, unchanged)
War Caster (Changed to a half feat, otherwise unchanged)
Weapon Master (New feat. For old Weapon Master feat, see Martial Weapon Training)
This is a great list!
I think they nerfed Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter big time by taking out the -5 to hit gets +10 damage. To me, they didn't want to make these two more like Spell Sniper. The biggest nerf to "Speedy" is that Opportunity Attacks against you went from not an issue to disadvantaged.
My main issue with Ritual Caster is that they've opened up Magic Initiate to many more classes and it could be a powerful way to add some extra options for fun. It's not like a ritual is going to give a big advantage in combat, but if a Magic Initiate gets the ability to also keep a ritual book it makes changing spells a little easier since it only happens at a level up. Why would a full caster, especially someone who prepares spells daily, need to take this feat? Wizards can ritual cast without even having it prepared because of their spell book.
As someone that used the old version of Ritual Caster, actually finding written sources of spells and having them be rituals was extremely hit-or-miss. I suspect the motivation here was to give the feat a more predictable value proposition. A lot of the more...circumstantial or niche benefits in other feats were also removed in favor of more general but reliable options. E.g. Observant no longer makes you good at reading lips nor give you +5 to passive Investigation (something that has never come up for me).
Yes, that's right. Ritual Caster is a half-feat now; it gives you an ability score increase, so the other benefit was reduced in impact to compensate.
That must be why they weakened every other feat when making it now a 1/2 feat. but they didn't. and its not like ritual caster was a top tier feat before this.
Not really sure what you mean. They did weaken almost every feat they turned into a half feat, and there aren't enough exceptions to make any kind of point here. The feat was decent before and it's still decent now.
This has nothing to do with balance and everything to do with making wizards be the bestest most bestest. They should have expanded this so martials could have access to a wide range of rituals. Instead they made it worse, far worse.
Yeah dude, you keep spinning those completely unfounded conspiracy theories.
They didn't weaken most the feats they turned into 1/2 feats. Most were either buffed or remained unchanged. And no its not a unfounded conspiracy theory it tracks with comments they were making about wizard players complaining about them not having access to the greatest spell lists of all time. By adding more general ritual casting to the other classes they reduced the wizards niche of being the best ritual caster. Which is why they reduced the other ritual casting options to compensate.
Yes, that's right. Ritual Caster is a half-feat now; it gives you an ability score increase, so the other benefit was reduced in impact to compensate.
That must be why they weakened every other feat when making it now a 1/2 feat. but they didn't. and its not like ritual caster was a top tier feat before this.
Not really sure what you mean. They did weaken almost every feat they turned into a half feat, and there aren't enough exceptions to make any kind of point here. The feat was decent before and it's still decent now.
This has nothing to do with balance and everything to do with making wizards be the bestest most bestest. They should have expanded this so martials could have access to a wide range of rituals. Instead they made it worse, far worse.
Yeah dude, you keep spinning those completely unfounded conspiracy theories.
They didn't weaken most the feats they turned into 1/2 feats. Most were either buffed or remained unchanged. And no its not a unfounded conspiracy theory it tracks with comments they were making about wizard players complaining about them not having access to the greatest spell lists of all time. By adding more general ritual casting to the other classes they reduced the wizards niche of being the best ritual caster. Which is why they reduced the other ritual casting options to compensate.
They nerfed a decent chunk of the updated feats and the ones that they buffed were targeted at martials so you're claim that they were "making wizards be the bestest most bestest" is not just unsupported by the changes, but the opposite.
I get that they changed it to be more balanced, but it doesn’t feel logical regardless. If I’m proficient in Calligraphy Tools I can craft seemingly infinite spell scrolls, but can’t scribe new rituals? .
The tool proficiency allows you to scribe spells which you already know, but if you're not a wizard you simply aren't scholarly enough to analyze, understand, learn, and then write down spells from spell scrolls.
Remember that spell scrolls aren't just recipes that you copy to a book. They are magic items that have the spell baked into them. When cast from a scroll, you simply release it. Wizards have the ability to learn it in the process and write down what they learned.
It's not that you lack the ability to write something in the book. It's that you lack the ability to reverse engineer spell scrolls.
I get that they changed it to be more balanced, but it doesn’t feel logical regardless. If I’m proficient in Calligraphy Tools I can craft seemingly infinite spell scrolls, but can’t scribe new rituals? .
The tool proficiency allows you to scribe spells which you already know, but if you're not a wizard you simply aren't scholarly enough to analyze, understand, learn, and then write down spells from spell scrolls.
Remember that spell scrolls aren't just recipes that you copy to a book. They are magic items that have the spell baked into them. When cast from a scroll, you simply release it. Wizards have the ability to learn it in the process and write down what they learned.
It's not that you lack the ability to write something in the book. It's that you lack the ability to reverse engineer spell scrolls.
So I have Magic Initiate, which gives me access to potentially one ritual spell at a time. With my calligraphy tools I can create spell scrolls from a prepared spell given 8 hours and 25gp worth of materials. Ritual Caster isn't just a static book of spells, you get a new spell for each proficiency bonus. They don't just magically appear, I would assume that represents learning the spell over the course of time. Why couldn't I reverse engineer a spell scroll to a book that I created in the first place? It just seems like a silly line to draw. I need to take a level of wizard in order to do something that I could "logically" do with my existing two feats and tool proficiency?
I get that they changed it to be more balanced, but it doesn’t feel logical regardless. If I’m proficient in Calligraphy Tools I can craft seemingly infinite spell scrolls, but can’t scribe new rituals? .
The tool proficiency allows you to scribe spells which you already know, but if you're not a wizard you simply aren't scholarly enough to analyze, understand, learn, and then write down spells from spell scrolls.
Remember that spell scrolls aren't just recipes that you copy to a book. They are magic items that have the spell baked into them. When cast from a scroll, you simply release it. Wizards have the ability to learn it in the process and write down what they learned.
It's not that you lack the ability to write something in the book. It's that you lack the ability to reverse engineer spell scrolls.
So I have Magic Initiate, which gives me access to potentially one ritual spell at a time. With my calligraphy tools I can create spell scrolls from a prepared spell given 8 hours and 25gp worth of materials. Ritual Caster isn't just a static book of spells, you get a new spell for each proficiency bonus. They don't just magically appear, I would assume that represents learning the spell over the course of time. Why couldn't I reverse engineer a spell scroll to a book that I created in the first place? It just seems like a silly line to draw. I need to take a level of wizard in order to do something that I could "logically" do with my existing two feats and tool proficiency?
Huh, that's an unusual combination. Are you trying to exploit the "Spell Change" feature of the Magic Initiate by changing to various Ritual Spells and then "backing them up" in the Ritual book? That's actually a great example for why it shouldn't work.
As for a in-universe explanation: Not everyone knows how to cast a spell as a ritual. If you're a Paladin who takes Ritual Caster you still can't ritual cast "Ceremony" unless you chose Ceremony as part of the Ritual Caster feat. I guess learning how a spell is cast and learning how a spell is ritual cast are two different things. So, a spell scroll won't necessarily teach you how a ritual for a spell works.
I get that they changed it to be more balanced, but it doesn’t feel logical regardless. If I’m proficient in Calligraphy Tools I can craft seemingly infinite spell scrolls, but can’t scribe new rituals? .
The tool proficiency allows you to scribe spells which you already know, but if you're not a wizard you simply aren't scholarly enough to analyze, understand, learn, and then write down spells from spell scrolls.
Remember that spell scrolls aren't just recipes that you copy to a book. They are magic items that have the spell baked into them. When cast from a scroll, you simply release it. Wizards have the ability to learn it in the process and write down what they learned.
It's not that you lack the ability to write something in the book. It's that you lack the ability to reverse engineer spell scrolls.
So I have Magic Initiate, which gives me access to potentially one ritual spell at a time. With my calligraphy tools I can create spell scrolls from a prepared spell given 8 hours and 25gp worth of materials. Ritual Caster isn't just a static book of spells, you get a new spell for each proficiency bonus. They don't just magically appear, I would assume that represents learning the spell over the course of time. Why couldn't I reverse engineer a spell scroll to a book that I created in the first place? It just seems like a silly line to draw. I need to take a level of wizard in order to do something that I could "logically" do with my existing two feats and tool proficiency?
As for a in-universe explanation: Not everyone knows how to cast a spell as a ritual. If you're a Paladin who takes Ritual Caster you still can't ritual cast "Ceremony" unless you chose Ceremony as part of the Ritual Caster feat. I guess learning how a spell is cast and learning how a spell is ritual cast are two different things. So, a spell scroll won't necessarily teach you how a ritual for a spell works.
That's not actually true. Any spellcaster can ritual cast any ritual spell they have prepared. Any paladin who prepares Ceremony can cast it as a ritual.
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The new language of the 2024 Ritual Caster feat removes the part that talks about adding new ritual spells from found spell scrolls. Now it only talks about adding new spells when your proficiency bonus goes up. There is also no discussion about limiting choices to a class list.
It doesn't make logical sense to me why you couldn't add using spell scrolls. It seems really limiting even more so than wizard spellsbook nonsense.
Is this right? No more adding ritual spells from scrolls?
Yes, that's right. Ritual Caster is a half-feat now; it gives you an ability score increase, so the other benefit was reduced in impact to compensate.
The Ritual Caster feat is vastly different now.
2014 gave you a spell book, the ability to cast ritual spells as rituals, and the ability to add spells to the book from one class list.
2024 gives you an ability score increase, Quick Ritual, and a 2-6 spells with the ritual tag (I think this is any class list); give your bard or sorcerer 2-6 extra spells known. These are extra spells prepared and can be ritually cast without using a spell slot.
Honestly, I think 2024 is a pretty sweet upgrade.
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I get that they changed it to be more balanced, but it doesn’t feel logical regardless. If I’m proficient in Calligraphy Tools I can craft seemingly infinite spell scrolls, but can’t scribe new rituals?
I think when they simplified the language of things in 2024 they lost a lot of its spirit.
As someone else pointed out, the feats share a name and that's about it. Ritual casting in the first place is vastly different. Ritual caster used to be the only way some casters could cast a spell using the ritual rules. Now this feat's use case has dramatically changed. The feat is designed to limit the ability of non-casters to cast high level spells and also to allow casters to remove from their preparations some lower level spells, allowing room for higher level spells. The feat's mechanical value also no longer relies on DM fiat. It's fine.
It has nothing to do with simplified language, and all to do with a design change (and I would say it is a better designed feat considering the rest of the games they exist in). If you don't like it, the old rules still exist.
Filtering the list, there is 12 applicable spells that I can see, from three sources.
I will also note that Book of the Tome got a similar treatment as book of Ancient Secrets is no longer an eldritch invocation for it in 2024.
As I understand it, Book of Ancient Secrets is still viable, but I can't add it in D&D Beyond to a 2024 Warlock even with Legacy Sources turned on. It hasn't been updated so it should be fine (I think per a Jeremy Crawford interview on backwards compatibility).
Actually, on the topic of applicable spells, the old version let you pick 1st level spells initially but add spells up to half your character level (up to 9th level at Caster Level 18).
Including Legacy Content, there are 68 applicable spells, with about 31 duplicates for about 37 potential spells. There may be additional duplicates due to SRD names versus PHB names.
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That must be why they weakened every other feat when making it now a 1/2 feat. but they didn't. and its not like ritual caster was a top tier feat before this.
This has nothing to do with balance and everything to do with making wizards be the bestest most bestest. They should have expanded this so martials could have access to a wide range of rituals. Instead they made it worse, far worse.
Maybe. The problem with all invocations that pair off the pacts is the core pact is now different so its not clear the old invocations work with them.
Not really sure what you mean. They did weaken almost every feat they turned into a half feat, and there aren't enough exceptions to make any kind of point here. The feat was decent before and it's still decent now.
Yeah dude, you keep spinning those completely unfounded conspiracy theories.
Let's see how that claim holds up.
2024 Half Feats:
Actor(Already a half feat)Athlete(Already a half feat, minor buff)Chef(Already a half feat)Crusher(Already a half feat)Durable(Already a half feat, buffed)Fey-Touched(Already a half feat, unchanged)Heavily Armored(Already a half feat, unchanged)Heavy Armor Master(Already a half feat, slight buff)Lightly Armored(Already a half feat, unchanged)Martial Weapon Training(Replaces Weapon Master which was already a half feat, small buff)Moderately Armored(Already a half feat, small nerf)Observant(Already a half feat, completely reworked.)Piercer(Already a half feat, unchanged)Resilient(Already a half feat, technically more restricted, but functionally unchanged)Shadow-Touched(Already a half feat, unchanged)Skill Expert(Already a half feat, unchanged)Slasher(Already a half feat, unchanged)Telekinetic(Already a half feat, unchanged)Telepathic(Already a half feat, unchanged)Weapon Master(New feat. For old Weapon Master feat, see Martial Weapon Training)I count 22 feats that were changed to a half feat. Let me know if I miscounted; I'm tired.
I would count Charger, Crossbow Expert, Defensive Duelist, Dual Wielder, Grappler, Great Weapon Master, Mage Slayer, Medium Armor Master, Mounted Combat, Poisoner, Polearm Master, Sentinel, Shield Master, and Speedy to be primarily martial feats (14 feats) even if there may be some edge case caster usages. For this, I am counting Rangers and Paladins as martials in case you normally separate half-casters from full casters and pure martials. Of these feats, Charger, Crossbow Expert, Defensive Duelist, Grappler, Great Weapon Master (?), Polearm Master. Sentinel, and Speedy were buffed (57% buff rate for martials) and Dual Wielder, Mage Slayer, Medium Armor Master, Sharpshooter (?), and Shield Master were nerfed (36% nerf rate for martials).
Primarily for casters, I would count Elemental Adept, Ritual Caster (may also be interesting for Paladins, Rangers, and 1/3rd casters, but I think the focus is full casters), Spell Sniper, and War Caster (4 feats). Of these, I think none of the caster feats were buffed and only Ritual Caster was nerfed.
So, get back to your claim, other feats got nerfed too. Some got buffed. I think Ritual Caster got hit the hardest, but it was not the only one nerfed by the update. I suspect that it may have been balanced in mind of choosing rituals from all spell lists as a full caster. What exactly were trying to accomplish with the feat before?
Now that is not accurate. The changes to magical feats were neutral or nerfs while martial options were largely buffed. Quick Ritual is a nice perk on this feat even if the feat can no longer give you access to 6th level spells without further investment in magical abilities.
If a martial wants a wide range of rituals, why aren't they multiclassing or taking a caster subclass? What do you want out of the feat and why are you unwilling to actually sacrifice for a martial caster/hybrid?
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This is a great list!
I think they nerfed Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter big time by taking out the -5 to hit gets +10 damage. To me, they didn't want to make these two more like Spell Sniper. The biggest nerf to "Speedy" is that Opportunity Attacks against you went from not an issue to disadvantaged.
My main issue with Ritual Caster is that they've opened up Magic Initiate to many more classes and it could be a powerful way to add some extra options for fun. It's not like a ritual is going to give a big advantage in combat, but if a Magic Initiate gets the ability to also keep a ritual book it makes changing spells a little easier since it only happens at a level up. Why would a full caster, especially someone who prepares spells daily, need to take this feat? Wizards can ritual cast without even having it prepared because of their spell book.
As someone that used the old version of Ritual Caster, actually finding written sources of spells and having them be rituals was extremely hit-or-miss. I suspect the motivation here was to give the feat a more predictable value proposition. A lot of the more...circumstantial or niche benefits in other feats were also removed in favor of more general but reliable options. E.g. Observant no longer makes you good at reading lips nor give you +5 to passive Investigation (something that has never come up for me).
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They didn't weaken most the feats they turned into 1/2 feats. Most were either buffed or remained unchanged. And no its not a unfounded conspiracy theory it tracks with comments they were making about wizard players complaining about them not having access to the greatest spell lists of all time. By adding more general ritual casting to the other classes they reduced the wizards niche of being the best ritual caster. Which is why they reduced the other ritual casting options to compensate.
They nerfed a decent chunk of the updated feats and the ones that they buffed were targeted at martials so you're claim that they were "making wizards be the bestest most bestest" is not just unsupported by the changes, but the opposite.
How to add Tooltips.
The tool proficiency allows you to scribe spells which you already know, but if you're not a wizard you simply aren't scholarly enough to analyze, understand, learn, and then write down spells from spell scrolls.
Remember that spell scrolls aren't just recipes that you copy to a book. They are magic items that have the spell baked into them. When cast from a scroll, you simply release it. Wizards have the ability to learn it in the process and write down what they learned.
It's not that you lack the ability to write something in the book. It's that you lack the ability to reverse engineer spell scrolls.
So I have Magic Initiate, which gives me access to potentially one ritual spell at a time. With my calligraphy tools I can create spell scrolls from a prepared spell given 8 hours and 25gp worth of materials. Ritual Caster isn't just a static book of spells, you get a new spell for each proficiency bonus. They don't just magically appear, I would assume that represents learning the spell over the course of time. Why couldn't I reverse engineer a spell scroll to a book that I created in the first place? It just seems like a silly line to draw. I need to take a level of wizard in order to do something that I could "logically" do with my existing two feats and tool proficiency?
Huh, that's an unusual combination. Are you trying to exploit the "Spell Change" feature of the Magic Initiate by changing to various Ritual Spells and then "backing them up" in the Ritual book? That's actually a great example for why it shouldn't work.
As for a in-universe explanation: Not everyone knows how to cast a spell as a ritual. If you're a Paladin who takes Ritual Caster you still can't ritual cast "Ceremony" unless you chose Ceremony as part of the Ritual Caster feat. I guess learning how a spell is cast and learning how a spell is ritual cast are two different things. So, a spell scroll won't necessarily teach you how a ritual for a spell works.
The new feat doesn't mention any book, really.
That's not actually true. Any spellcaster can ritual cast any ritual spell they have prepared. Any paladin who prepares Ceremony can cast it as a ritual.