1st-Level Ritual Books for Your Wizard
Ritual Choices for Exploration, Communication, and Survival
Despite what you may have heard, D&D 4th edition is NOT limited to combat. There are many times when you will need to perform magic in a setting outside of the battlefield. While other versions of the game defined these actions as just different types of spells, 4e redefined these as rituals with a set of rules that highlight how these are not trivial tasks.
If you’d like to hear more of my thoughts about 4e magic, please check out my video about how 4th edition perfected Vancian Magic.
As a 1st-level wizard, you get a Ritual Book with three rituals of your choice. You then get to choose more rituals at higher levels. The challenge is that, just like selecting feats, there are a lot of rituals to choose from and sometimes you just want to get your character created so you can get into the game.
Do not fear. I have created a few ready-to-go ritual books that you can use for your 1st-level wizard.
Let’s take a look.
After this message…
Support the Journal
All my new content is free for everyone. If you like this content, you can show your support for the journal by making a one-time contribution through PayPal or Ko-Fi.1
OR, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Be sure to read my About page for details.
Similar to the standard character builds you find in the Player’s Handbooks, these custom ritual books are designed to be quick choices you can make to get moving. They are each centered around a specific theme. If you have more specific needs, or want to mix and match, then you can define your own ritual book. 4e is all about options and flexibility.
Book of Exploration
If your adventure is built around a traditional dungeon crawl, then you will want to have rituals that help you navigate these labyrinths.
Silence Whether you need a good night’s sleep or are having a sensitive conversation, this ritual will give you the privacy you need. It only covers a Burst 4 area, but that is just enough for everyone to get cozy without fear of others listening in.
Tensor’s Floating Disk Don’t you hate it when you find that amazing relic you were searching for only to learn that it weighs 250 pounds and you are 5 miles from your cart? Well, this floating disk last 24 hours and can carry up to 2,000 pounds if you get a good roll.
Unseen Servant Exploring the wilds is hard work. All that lifting of heavy stuff and making camp and cleaning up after your messy companions can be tedious. But this ritual conjures up a servant that can handle all those menial tasks for you until you go to sleep. Note that this ritual is in the Arcane Powers book.
Book of Communication
Success on a quest will often depend on what you can understand while keeping others from doing the same.
Animal Messenger Nothing says, D&D communication, quite like softly whispering to an animal in the wild and having it deliver your message to a distant relation. The message can be no more than 25 words, but the animal could reach a recipient up to 24 hours away.
Comprehend Language Dungeons are filled with ancient texts and runes. There might also be intelligent creatures that you need to speak with. This ritual allows you to understand, speak, read, and/or write a language for the next 24 hours.
Secret Page While Comprehend Language will help you interact with the world around you, you may not want others snooping on what you’ve written. You can protect a single page of up to 250 words so that others cannot read it, or even see it. This warding is permanent so you will have plenty of time to get the information to a safe place.
Book of Survival
Dangers lurk at every turn. When the situation gets dire, the party might look to you for assistance.
Brew Potion There never seems to be an alchemist around when you need one. No matter. When you need an elixir, just spend an hour of your time and you can mix up just what the party needs.
Purify Water Clean drinking water is vital to the party’s survival. With this ritual, you can purify up to 50 square feet of water (with a good skill check). Note that this ritual is in the Arcane Powers book.
Gentle Repose Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, someone in the party just gets unlucky. This ritual will protect them from being raised as an undead creature and keep them safe until you can figure out how to resurrect them.
These are just a few combinations for your 1st-level wizard. I’ll try to think of some more combinations that work for the higher levels.
PayPal and Ko-Fi contributions are processed via Shenanigans Media LLC
Great article! 4e definitely has the framework and tools, but it’s not always as intuitive as how you’ve presented here.
These are good. Something like this should have been included in the ritual section of the PHB. The party I am currently running a 4e campaign for has no wizard and the person playing the only spell caster, a cleric, has showed only minor interest in learning how the ritual casting works. Mostly that has been left to the higher level clerics of the town they are protecting.