Starting a game with a new character this weekend. My plan is to play a variant human fighter (original, I know) and go rune knight.
My backstory for him is researcher, basically he didn't have the talent to get accepted into a magic academy but he learned the basics of being a fighter by getting a job as a guard there, and is so passionate about magic that he would spend all his time in the library or covertly observing magic classes while on guard duty. His rune knight abilities will be a sort of cobbled together kind of spellcasting where he figures out some unorthodox spells through experimentation.
So Im wondering if at level 1, it would make more sense for him to have the magic initiate feat, to represent that he only learned a fraction of what a wizard would have learned, or if Ritual caster makes more sense to show what a slow spell caster he generally is compared to someone more talented.
Either way, I intend to take detect magic to explain how observing magic helped him develop his own offbrand magical abilities.
I'd go with MI just because the cantrips can really add to it. You get a lot more from them than you do from rituals, I find.
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I'd still probably go with Ritual Caster just for the book. I think it helps to sell the idea of someone researching magic in their own way, plus the ability to add to it later makes it potentially more interesting. That said... being able to start with cantrips does sound pretty tempting as well.
I'd go with MI just because the cantrips can really add to it. You get a lot more from them than you do from rituals, I find.
Im leaning that way for the same reason. Also, Im terrified of losing the ritual book and having to start over from zero on it.
This is why Drawmin’s Instant Summons is a necessary ritual later on. Lose your book? BAM. You either get it back, or you know exactly who has it. 🙂
Agreed! Also, nothing says you can't subject the object to the spell more than once -- keep one sapphire on you but another someplace secure like a demiplane. Even if they take the book and the sapphire - you can use the other sapphire in the demiplane to get the book back.
Conjurors are even better - the 2nd level Minor Conjuration can let you just summon a temporary copy of your spellbook to memorise from, leaving the real book secure somewhere else for when you want to scribe new spells.
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I'd go with MI just because the cantrips can really add to it. You get a lot more from them than you do from rituals, I find.
Im leaning that way for the same reason. Also, Im terrified of losing the ritual book and having to start over from zero on it.
This is why Drawmin’s Instant Summons is a necessary ritual later on. Lose your book? BAM. You either get it back, or you know exactly who has it. 🙂
Agreed! Also, nothing says you can't subject the object to the spell more than once -- keep one sapphire on you but another someplace secure like a demiplane. Even if they take the book and the sapphire - you can use the other sapphire in the demiplane to get the book back.
Conjurors are even better - the 2nd level Minor Conjuration can let you just summon a temporary copy of your spellbook to memorise from, leaving the real book secure somewhere else for when you want to scribe new spells.
I'd start MI and save ritual caster for something like 6th level to show that the Rune Knight is still working on learning actual magic while cobbling together his other magical abilities. Cantrips are perfect for someone that's learning like this since they are set in the mind and simple enough to not require spell slots. The flavor of the ritual caster shows the dedication to the craft, though a dip in wizard could also show that same flavor later.
The benefits of magic initiate will be immediately available, but will probably never get any better. Non damaging utility cantrips can definitely make life easier, but they may not drastically impact the game like certain rituals can. And since your talking magic imitate that let’s you know a spell, not being a known caster choosing from your own spell list limits you to only casting the bonus 1st level spell once a day.
ritual caster starts out with two rituals and has the ability to scale up easily as a reward. The rituals are definitely limited by time to cast, but I’d imagine if your DM ends up giving you rituals they’d definitely give the time to make use of them.
there’s also the fact that the earlier you take ritual caster, the more time you will have the feat available to gain more rituals as a reward. Taking ritual caster at level 4 or 6 as a fighter means that you weren’t using those rituals when they were likely to be most effective.
ritual caster also lets you cast rituals at full caster level progression if you actually have them, which can be incredibly impactful at tiers 1 and two.
if your DM let’s you, you might even be able to spend downtime with your cleric/druid/wizard/bard party member to make copies of rituals they have available. It saves known/prepared spots for the bard/druid/cleric, and provides a backup for the wizard on axe their book is damaged.
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Starting a game with a new character this weekend. My plan is to play a variant human fighter (original, I know) and go rune knight.
My backstory for him is researcher, basically he didn't have the talent to get accepted into a magic academy but he learned the basics of being a fighter by getting a job as a guard there, and is so passionate about magic that he would spend all his time in the library or covertly observing magic classes while on guard duty. His rune knight abilities will be a sort of cobbled together kind of spellcasting where he figures out some unorthodox spells through experimentation.
So Im wondering if at level 1, it would make more sense for him to have the magic initiate feat, to represent that he only learned a fraction of what a wizard would have learned, or if Ritual caster makes more sense to show what a slow spell caster he generally is compared to someone more talented.
Either way, I intend to take detect magic to explain how observing magic helped him develop his own offbrand magical abilities.
I'd go with MI just because the cantrips can really add to it. You get a lot more from them than you do from rituals, I find.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Im leaning that way for the same reason. Also, Im terrified of losing the ritual book and having to start over from zero on it.
This is why Drawmin’s Instant Summons is a necessary ritual later on. Lose your book? BAM. You either get it back, or you know exactly who has it. 🙂
I'd still probably go with Ritual Caster just for the book. I think it helps to sell the idea of someone researching magic in their own way, plus the ability to add to it later makes it potentially more interesting. That said... being able to start with cantrips does sound pretty tempting as well.
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Agreed! Also, nothing says you can't subject the object to the spell more than once -- keep one sapphire on you but another someplace secure like a demiplane. Even if they take the book and the sapphire - you can use the other sapphire in the demiplane to get the book back.
Conjurors are even better - the 2nd level Minor Conjuration can let you just summon a temporary copy of your spellbook to memorise from, leaving the real book secure somewhere else for when you want to scribe new spells.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Genius!!!!
I'd start MI and save ritual caster for something like 6th level to show that the Rune Knight is still working on learning actual magic while cobbling together his other magical abilities. Cantrips are perfect for someone that's learning like this since they are set in the mind and simple enough to not require spell slots. The flavor of the ritual caster shows the dedication to the craft, though a dip in wizard could also show that same flavor later.
MI is more functional, but ritual makes a lot more sense from a role playing point of view.
The benefits of magic initiate will be immediately available, but will probably never get any better. Non damaging utility cantrips can definitely make life easier, but they may not drastically impact the game like certain rituals can. And since your talking magic imitate that let’s you know a spell, not being a known caster choosing from your own spell list limits you to only casting the bonus 1st level spell once a day.
ritual caster starts out with two rituals and has the ability to scale up easily as a reward. The rituals are definitely limited by time to cast, but I’d imagine if your DM ends up giving you rituals they’d definitely give the time to make use of them.
there’s also the fact that the earlier you take ritual caster, the more time you will have the feat available to gain more rituals as a reward. Taking ritual caster at level 4 or 6 as a fighter means that you weren’t using those rituals when they were likely to be most effective.
ritual caster also lets you cast rituals at full caster level progression if you actually have them, which can be incredibly impactful at tiers 1 and two.
if your DM let’s you, you might even be able to spend downtime with your cleric/druid/wizard/bard party member to make copies of rituals they have available. It saves known/prepared spots for the bard/druid/cleric, and provides a backup for the wizard on axe their book is damaged.