got another definitely non political music toot for ya today:
#primordial
this one goes out to all you trying to stop the fire
Photos/Review: Primordial’s Triumphant Return to NYC @ TV Eye – 3/20/2025
#Primordial #Sonja #TheWatcher #TVEye #LiveGig #LiveReview #LivePhotos
Link: https://metalinsider.net/photos/photos-review-primordials-triumphant-return-to-nyc-tv-eye-3-20-2025
Concert Calendar (03/19-03/23) The Week Before the Concerts Spring Forward: the Iron Maidens, Gost, & more:
#ConcertCalendar #Primordial #DecibelMagazineTour #Alcest #IronMaidens #Gost
what, this is over 10 years old. what a gem this record is. #doom #metal #primordial
Another great song here. I was never into this band, even though they were Irish. There was a lot of bullshit attached to some genres back then.
Saw them at probably one of their earliest gigs, a friend was trying to pull the singer off the stage, armed with a crucifix necklace, in a kind of pantomime/pro-wrestling beef, that if anything only helped the band.
Turns out that same singer is actually a racist c*nt. Maybe my friend had a good eye for a c*nt.
This song came on a free cd, and I think it grew on me. It's a damn good tune, aside from all the horseshit that goes along with #primordial #metalheadclub
https://youtu.be/83B9t1C--qU?feature=shared
New Artist announced for Motocultor Festival 2025: 🔥 Primordial 🔥
🎶 Listen to the current LineUp on YouTube and Spotify: https://fyrefestivals.co
🎟️ Get your Tickets now: https://prf.hn/l/EJnYMdO
#Motocultor_Festival_2025 #Primordial #fyre_festivals #livemusic #youtube #spotify #music #musicfestivals #playlist #tickets #announcement
Calm quiet warming
Winter marsh is waking up
Primordial spring
#Haiku #OneHaikuADay #WritersCollective #writingcommunity #BackToHaiku #Winter #March #Spring #Marsh #Swamp #Primordial #Wakeup
March 6, 2025
that time a kindergarten visited a #primordial show
what a summer this was
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENoQTWRsbQY
The second time in my life seeing #Primordial live yesterday! I love their concerts for a number of reasons and would recommend them any time.
What I love most about singing is to tell a story and capture people‘s imagination. So when I meet a master of this art, I can’t help but admire them. I just love Nemtheanga‘s voice and stage acting. The only act that left a somewhat comparable impression with me were Sólstafir on a very late summer festival night, followed closely (but followed) by Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford.
🧵1/4
primordial cosmos
#Nautilus #Glowing #Blue #Gray #Mystical #Spheres #Primordial #Cosmic #Dreamy
#Img2img #AiArt #AiArtists #AiArtCommunity #StableDiffusion
in real life: https://aieris.art/featured/primordial-cosmos-eris-and-ai.html
Thy Catafalque – XII: A gyönyörū álmok ezután jönnek
By Ferox
Angry Metal Guy’s Guide to Not Sucking Anymore is a manual for surviving n00bdom and a window into the mind of our founder. In seventy-nine pages of psychologically revealing prose, this actual book whipped my class into form by teaching us to structure our reviews with one or maaybe two paragraphs describing a band’s sound. How could you ever pull that off with Tamás Kátai’s prolific Thy Catafalque? ”Piros Koksi, Fekete Ej,” the opening track of new album XII, kicks off with a rock riff that evokes New Order before segueing into a long section capturing Primordial’s sweep and grandeur. Heavy sections and parts where a woman sings “nah-nah-nah” fight their way in, before it resolves into an acoustic outro. That’s one song! Thy Catafalque has been attempting the musical equivalent of free solo climbs for two decades. They should have plummeted to earth years ago, but Kátai and his rotating band of collaborators reach the summit every time. Can they do it again, or is XII the “splat” that awaits every glory hound?
XII finds Thy Catafalque retreating from the heaviness of last year’s excellent Alföld. The metal sections dominate here and there, but Kátai’s wandering muse often takes up with folk and prog. Classical and acoustic instruments add warmth and a sense of nostalgia. Over twenty musicians contribute to XII, including singers and frequent collaborators Attila Bakos and Martina Veronika Horväth. The album ends with soothing bird tweets. It’s a lot–and for the first time ever, Kátai brings in an outside producer in Gábor Vári to help him wrestle it all to the deck. They mostly pull it off. XII is less cohesive and urgent than Thy Catafalque’s best work, but there are thrilling highs along the way.
XII plays like a journey, one where lots of things go as hoped but there are missed connections and maybe a pickpocketing or two along the way. Those who prize atmosphere will find wispy sections to get lost in. Songs like “Villagnak Vilaga,” the aforementioned “Piros Koksi, Fekete Ej” and the duet “Lydiához” conjure a sense of place and a mood of reflection. “Vakond” opens with a whistled passage before engaging playfully with the folk traditions of Kátai’s native Hungary. That nostalgic vibe is not all about the gauzy and gorgeous, despite that sun-drenched cover. “Vakond” segues into a synths-dominated section that feels like it’s evoking Kátai’s memories of some long-shuttered Budapest nightclub. Banger “Vasgyár” is an ode to the rotting ironworks that once fueled Hungary’s economy and still haunt its landscapes. If you give XII some time and attention, you’ll come away feeling like you just took a vacation in Tamás Kátai’s memory palace.
You will not come away from XII with a melted face. If you want to get Wormed or Replicant-ed, have your passport stamped elsewhere–XII is just not that committed to being a metal album. The heavy songs and passages that do pop up are cathartic and fun. “Mindenevo” drops the first harsh vocals into the mix, and it roars and stomps before it falls completely silent for a while and then does a dungeon synth kind of thing. That track segues into the killer “Vasgyár.” The two songs, taken together, are my favorite section of the album–but I can be a knuckle-dragger like that. “Alahullas” engages with Thy Catafalque’s black metal roots to stirring effect. Still and all, you’re not booking passage on 70000 Tons of Metal here. The metal songs are day trips that enliven a calmer journey than adrenaline junkies might be seeking.
Angry Metal Guy’s Guide to Not Sucking Anymore teaches us to conclude with a summary that finds pathos, if timid and underfed n00bs can scrape some up in our hearts.1 With XII, Tamás Kátai has followed his muse (he always does) into some very personal places (that’s where it always goes). I appreciate his restless spirit and I was mostly happy to take the trip with him. There are some unfortunate hiccups–closer “A Gyonyuro Almok Ezutan Jonnek,” with its handclaps and cloying attempts to rouse, is a lowlight in Thy Catafalque’s catalog. It’ll take some time for XII to find its place in the band’s incredible discography, But a few dips in quality and focus, combined with the smaller portions of metal doled out, mean that I’ll remember other journeys with the band more fondly than I will XII.
Rating: Good!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Season of Mist
Websites: thycatafalque.bandcamp.com| thy-catafalque.hu
Releases Worldwide: November 15, 2024
#2024 #30 #AvantGardeMetal #HungarianMetal #NewOrder #Nov24 #Primordial #Replicant #Review #Reviews #SeasonOfMist #ThyCatafalque #Wormed
I’m pulling together some thoughts I was moved to post on social media regarding the standard D&D spellcasting classes. I don’t know if any of this is incredibly profound, but I’ve also learned that I can’t trust social media as a storage format for my thoughts, so here’s hoping you don’t mind me sharing.
Over the years, I’ve posted many articles about the philosophical differences between different spell casters in D&D, yet I’m still moved to take another run at it occasionally. Perhaps someday I’ll have as many posts about this as alignment or how to make traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws work better (which I guess I can retire now that D&D 2024 and Tales of the Valiant both jettisoned the concepts).
Spellcaster Emphasis
This time, I was going for a very simple, very quickly summarized way to express how each class approaches spellcasting. I’m also only looking at spellcasters that derive their power from an outside source, which they had to take some action to access.
- Clerics believe one or more Truths must be recognized.
- Druids feel the flow of nature.
- Paladins know that something must be done.
- Rangers chase something in their soul.
- Warlocks need the ability to accomplish their goals.
The most challenging summary was probably the Ranger because it’s easy to assume “like druids, but less.” What led me to this idea that a Ranger has something in their soul that makes them restless to chase the feeling of being “in” the right spot with nature is that Rangers move. They roam. They hunt. All of that suggests chasing after a feeling, and the supernatural manifestation of chasing that feeling is their various powers.
To develop this concept, I also considered the philosophy of spellcasting and the idea that different editions have had means of shifting what spellcasting statistic classes use. I wanted to consider what having more than one spellcasting stat would mean and what additional one makes the most sense for each class.
I also added this disclaimer online–I’m not saying this is what you should do. I’m playing around with a thought process to see what it would mean if this were true. I’m sure some issues could arise from this, and I know this won’t “feel” right for some players.
Alternate Spellcasting Statistics by Class
- Artificer (Int or Wis)
- Bard (Cha or Wis)
- Cleric (Int or Wis)
- Druid (Cha or Wis)
- Paladin (Cha or Wis)
- Ranger (Int or Wis)
- Sorcerer (Cha or Wis)
- Warlock (Int or Cha)
- Wizard (Int or Wis)
It’s my blog, and I can’t help myself, so let’s look at each of the classes, and I’ll explain my logic for the additional spellcasting stat.
Artificer
The standard spellcasting stat for Artificers is Intelligence, which makes sense because they are effectively magical engineers. My logic for adding Wisdom of a secondary casting stat is that I can see Artificers that create things by rote. In other words, they don’t draw up their own plans, and they don’t vary the plans they use. They just adhere to what they have internalized and practiced over time.
Bard
I was very tempted to use Intelligence as the Bard’s secondary statistic. I could probably still be persuaded to do so. Still, I felt like there is a natural dichotomy between relating a story or an artistic piece with enough energy and emotion for people to internalize it or knowing the most important aspects of a story to emphasize and convey meaning to a specific audience. With all of that said, if you wanted to convince me that Bards would be the one class that could pick any stat from Int/Cha/Wis, thematically, I would have a hard time arguing against it.
Cleric
I added Intelligence as an alternate for Clerics based on the concept of religious scholars. I can picture Clerics versing themselves in scholarly works to reinforce the history of the religion and details of all of the church’s practices. You could argue for the Charismatic evangelist, but Paladins have the primary Charisma Divine caster role in the 5e SRD classes.
Druid
I can see Druids having Charisma as their secondary spellcasting statistic option because I can picture Druids that don’t contemplate their place in nature so much as they are imposing the will of “nature” on the world, assuming they are already right with the balance of nature. In some ways, it also dovetails with the roots of Bards and Druids and how, conceptually, they are essentially the same thing in some stories.
Paladin
It makes sense that Paladins can manifest their powers by Charisma, because they have a deeply held feeling that something must be done to effect a specific change in the world. They are a force of personality. Even with that understanding of the Paladin, though, I can picture the Paladin that still deeply feels what needs to be done. They are very proactive but may be introspective enough to want to contextualize their actions and choose between potential outcomes quickly.
Ranger
Wisdom represents the Ranger’s awareness of and perhaps even subconscious preparation for everything happening around them, especially in the environments they are most comfortable traversing. I don’t picture Charisma doing much to allow for an understanding and assessment of a situation. Still, I can see a more formalized approach to information gathering and threat assessment being something some Rangers may lean toward.
Sorcerer
I think the primary story of the Sorcerer is that they don’t learn their magic through scholarly study. They have a natural connection to the power they wield. While the default may be that Sorcerers can use the power they are connected to by force of personality, willing the world to change in accordance with their powers, I can also see Sorcerers having a deeper understanding and feeling for the depths of their power. They would still be using intrinsic power, but potentially with more intentionality.
Warlock
I picture Warlocks using Charisma to impose the power they have bargained for on the rules of reality. That’s looking at how Warlocks use their powers from the point of view of already having the power and then using it. I can also see Intelligence being a spellcasting statistic because the Warlock learns the forms and ways to communicate with otherworldly powers and measures the limits of different sources of power. Additionally, I just think the story of the Warlock leans away from assuming Wisdom, carefully considering repercussions, and avoiding unseen threats, so Wisdom isn’t the best fit for them, even with an expanded range of spellcasting statistics.
Gathering Information
I would love to get feedback on this post. I would love to know if those quick summaries of spellcaster approaches are helpful to people and if you have your own summaries that you think would work.When my “narrative” brain is going, it often pushes out my “rules” brain. I would also love to see if there is any issue with how the 5e SRD works compared to swapping out some of the spellcasting statistics, as I have conjectured above.
But most of all, I just like talking to other people about games.
https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/10/17/grasping-power-playing-with-spellcasting-assumptions/
#00ccff #3366ff #339966 #5eSRD #800000 #800080 #808080 #993300 #99cc00 #Arcane #Artificer #Bard #BlackFlagReferenceDocument #Cleric #Divine #Druid #DungeonsDragons #ff00ff #ff9900 #ffcc00 #Paladin #Primordial #Ranger #Sorcerer #Spellcaster #TalesOfTheValiant #Warlock #Wizard #Wyrd
This article is starting something that I hope to continue in the future. Diegetic is an adjective derived from the noun diegesis, which just means conveying information in fiction via narrative. Diegetic generally means: existing or occurring within the world of a narrative rather than as something external to that world. The term is usually used when referring to music, which means, the music in a movie, play, or show is music that exists in the world, that the characters can hear, versus something like the soundtrack, which is a storytelling convention to convey emotion to the viewer, which is not part of the world, or something the characters can hear.
I’ve used this a little looser when talking about how things like rolling big numbers on damage roles convey information in the story. The number doesn’t literally exist, but the “rating” of how effective the attack is does exist in the setting. That’s not to say you shouldn’t attempt to wrap that number in descriptions, but the number itself is already starting to convey the story when it’s generated.
Mission Statement
I’m looking at something a little more specific in this series. Some rules constrain how level-based fantasy games work. Some of those rules don’t mean anything in the narrative of the world itself. For example, people don’t express all of the skills you can learn in a culture with a set list of skill names, but the rules define skills to make it easier to determine what characters can do, and how often they can leverage those abilities. Some rules tell you the upper limit of how many skills or languages your character can have at the start of the campaign, but no one in the campaign is going to say that someone can’t know more than X number of languages.
On the other hand, some rules are simplifications of the reality of the world you are using in your story. In most settings, we assume that people in the setting have an idea of what a cleric, druid, or paladin is. Magical scholars understand what the different magical sources are, and in many 5e SRD settings, many scholars have expressly discussed magic as categorized into the schools that exist in the SRD rules. What I want to look at in this series is how these diegetic rules can inform the story of your game.
Tales of the Valiant: Ritual Spells
In Tales of the Valiant, in contrast to ritual spells as defined in the standard 5e SRD, ritual spells aren’t spells that can be cast as rituals instead of spending a spell slot. They are spells that can only be cast as rituals, and the number of rituals available to spellcasters is tracked separately from spells cast with slots. In a way, it’s an extension of the concept of cantrips, in that they are magical abilities that a spellcaster always has access to, without being limited to a finite number of resources per long rest.
Something that 5e SRD rules, as well as the Black Flag SR, communicates, is that NPCs aren’t always built the same way as player characters. A stat block representing a cleric may be able to add spells into multi-attack routines, may have magical attacks only defined in the stat block, and not by external rules text, or may have a signature ability of a subclass that they can access, but with the details calculated in a different manner than the PC version of the ability, or expressed as a recharge ability instead of “proficiency bonus number per long rest,” as an example.
Some groups want to feel like characters with player-character abilities are among the very few in the world with that amount of easily available power. There may be spellcasters, but they aren’t slinging multiple combat-ready spells a dozen times per day. The tactic of saying that NPCs don’t have comparable abilities similar to PCs can work, but in some cases, you may not want there to be a lack of powerful NPC spellcasters, you may just want a dearth of adventuring spellcasters.
Because of the division of spells into standard spells and ritual spells, a GM running Tales of the Valiant has an additional storytelling tool that they can access. What if most of your NPCs only have access to rituals? How does that change the tone and feel of the setting? What would those spellcasters contribute to the world, and what would player characters be able to count on if this is true?
What Creates the Divide
We’re going to look like what ritual abilities look like for different sources of power, but before we look at that, why would player characters access magic in a different way than NPCs? While player characters may be just that exceptional, I think we have some real-world examples that can inform why PCs and NPCs don’t wield the same magical resources.
It’s possible that being able to cast non-ritual spells is the equivalent of being a magical athlete. With enough dedication and practice, anyone that can wield magic could cast non-ritual spells, but it takes constant practice and use to maintain that style of magic. Spell slots are essentially packets of energy, and not every spellcaster may practice the talent to collect and hold enough discreet energy to power non-ritual spells.
That also means that an adventurer who retires from adventuring may not retain their ability to cast non-ritual spells. Like an athlete who doesn’t continue to practice their sport, the ability to use that extraordinary ability might atrophy. In that way, you can have your powerful casters as quest-givers who remember adventuring, but they’re in no shape to delve into dungeons and sling fireballs because they’ve only been dealing with rituals for the last decade or so.
Non-Adventuring Spellcaster Capabilities
Because NPCs can have whatever stat block the GM wants to use, there is no reason to overly quantify what NPC spellcasters can do, in similar terms to how player characters access their powers. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to think about what it would mean for spellcasters to only have access to ritual spells.
One consideration should be cantrips. Cantrips don’t require spell slots, so even a spellcasters that can only use ritual spells may retain the ability to use cantrips. This works well to represent spellcasters that were once adventurers, because they may not have spell slots, but they still know how to throw a firebolt enough to make it hurt. If you don’t want your NPC spellcasters to even have this level of combat, it’s easy to assume that your NPC spellcasters don’t have cantrips that do damage, change armor class, or modify armor class.
NPC spellcasters may also spend their time crafting items, rather than practicing their day-to-day spellcasting. It can take a long time to craft really powerful items, and maybe not spending time on gathering ambient energy into spell slots makes that process just a wee bit faster. These spellcasters can still count as a particular class when it comes to having access to magic items, so they may still be carrying powerful items. Attunement slots can help to explain why that NPC doesn’t have enough magic on them to annihilate others even without spell slots, because there will be a limit to what they can have attuned at any given time.
Wyrd Ritualists are probably the trickiest to support with this approach, because a Wyrd Ritualist with cantrips, rituals, but no spell slots, doesn’t look a lot different than a warlock. In fact, in Tales of the Valiant, it makes them look more like a 2014 Warlock. If you are going to present NPC spellcasters as “similar to PC classes, without spell slots,” you may also want to assume that a Wyrd Ritualist doesn’t have the Pact Magic feature, either. This makes sense if you assume that the Wyrd Ritualist is constantly making situational deals, rather than having one specific patron to grant more persistent abilities.
Wizards Are Always the Exception
One of the defining characteristics of the wizard is that they can continually add spells to their spellbooks, when they encounter new spells and can spend time studying them. That would seem to make wizard NPCs that don’t have access to spell slots a strange disconnect, implying that they may be entirely neglecting magic, not just the specialized practice of gathering energy for spell slots.
That doesn’t necessarily need to be the case. Wizards that don’t use spell slots can still get some utility from having tons of non-ritual spells in their spell books, outside of just keeping score with other wizards. While I’m mainly looking at wizards, to reflect why even a non-spell slot using wizard would still be collecting non-ritual spells, the following is true of most spellcasting NPCs.
Non-spellcasting NPCs might spend some of their time preparing scrolls, just in case they need to use something on the fly. Being loaded down with scrolls that require time and money to create isn’t really a viable alternative to having ready access to spell slots, when it comes to adventuring, but that old wizard that likes to take his time with his spellcasting may still feel as if it’s prudent to resources squirreled away, and they may also get a thrill learning a new spell, and enacting the spell as part of committing it to a scroll.
This also provides a reason for wizards, as well as other spellcasters, to have a number of scrolls on hand to either give to the PCs to aid them in their assigned tasks, as payment for their efforts, or as something available for purchase and trade.
Alternatives to Spellbooks
One other consideration you may want to make, specifically related to wizards, is what it means for a wizard to find a spell. If your NPC spellcasters are more likely to be magical theoreticians, you may want to introduce magical workbooks or theses. A player character wizard may be able to study this work and add a spell to their spellbook based on what they learned from the various topics expressed in the work. This shouldn’t take any more time or money than copying a spell from a spellbook.
You may want to quantify exactly what the PC wizard can get from a given thesis. You should probably specify what magical school the topics intersect with, and the most powerful effects the book details. That means you could detail a scholarly work like this:
- Title of the Work
- Subject of the Work
- Resources Gained
In other words, if a wizard finds The Parameters and Intensity of Warding Symbols, you might determine that the book can be used to add Abjuration spells to a spellbook, and for the resources gained, you could say that a wizard studying the work can add up to three spells to their spellbook, which are of the 4th circle or lower. That same wizard can’t read the book again later, and get any more benefit, at least in terms of spells added to their spellbook. Those spells are literally in the book, but the topic combined with the native knowledge of the wizard, allows them to make a breakthrough in recreating various spells.
What Do Dedicated Ritual Casters Look Like
Not every ritual circle is created equal. It’s possible in the future, we’ll have more utility items that make sense for non-adventuring spellcasters, and you can also assume that ritual spellcasters have some utility rituals that haven’t been defined in the rules, although you should still be careful not to expand those undefined abilities beyond what the various power sources normally allow.
It may also be useful to think about what it means to be a ritual caster. As we discussed above, these may be retired adventurers, in which case, your casters are still defined as being wizards, clerics, etc. But if you increase the presence of ritual only casters, some of those casters may never have defined their spellcasting in the same way that various player character classes do.
Dedicated Ritualists in a Setting
Arcane Ritualists may be sages that study the flow of ambient magic, untethered by other forces. This does mean that Arcane Ritualists are probably, by default, going to feel a little more like Wizards, or maybe Bards, rather than Sorcerers. You may still have a sage or expert that doesn’t study magic so much as they never fully explored the source of their sorcerous powers, but regularly cast rituals in their everyday life, or as a profession. That may look a little more like a fortune teller or a medium than a more scholarly Arcane Ritualist.
Divine Ritualists may be dedicated to the worship of a single god or religious practice, but they are also a great example of what a priest may look like that is trained in the observance of worship for a pantheon or family of deities. They might invoke different religious rituals, targeting different gods, depending on the ritual being utilized.
Primordial Ritualists may have a more difficult time accessing Primordial energies outside of the wilder places in the world. They may not be able to do so if they aren’t under an open sky, or within a natural cavern or cave. They may not be able to perform rituals on drastically modified lands, like farms. In this way, trained druids may serve as the ambassadors to the places in the world that push out Primordial energies, in a way that a Primordial Ritualist cannot. Even a Primordial Ritualist from a more agrarian culture may still need to take a pilgrimage to untouched wilderness when they want to perform rituals, and people that want to interact with the ritualist and benefit from those rituals may need to climb or swim to reach those areas of Primordial power, or they may need to endure cold or heat while waiting for rituals to complete.
Tales of the Valiant presents us with an interesting story element in this regard. What does a Wyrd Ritualist look like? They won’t have the persistent connection from a patron helping them to access the power source, but these aren’t natural energies that would be quantified in the same way that you might assume an arcane sage to be measuring. In this case, a dedicated ritual caster using the Wyrd power source may need to make some kind of sacrifice or short-term promise to a different entity each time they enact a ritual.
In fact, if the PCs go to them for help, the PCs may need to sacrifice something meaningful to themselves so the ritual caster can proceed. You may be able to present an interesting contrast between an Arcane Ritualist working as a fortune teller or medium, or the potentially more dangerous and unpredictable Wyrd Ritualist fortune teller or medium, and there may be a rivalry between those practicing similar professions in the same area.
A Day in the Life
I wanted to wrap all of this up by looking at what dedicated ritual casters would look like for each of the power sources, and what they would likely be able to provide for anyone that visits them. This is separate from assuming they might be able to prepare scrolls and potions, or that they may have magic items available to them.
Arcane Ritualists
Arcane Ritualists are going to be providing gathered information at lower levels, as well as having a few situationally useful abilities to place on objects. At higher levels, they are good at warding things and locations and pronouncing judgments on already incapacitated creatures. Transportation networks are going to be a big thing that powerful Arcane Ritualists can be in charge of, and potentially sending mysterious messages over great distances.
There are enough rituals available to them to make planar servants or undead justifiable retainers to add to their domains. Arcane Ritualists will be able to have weird, hard to find places to live that can punish unwanted visitors.
- Arcane Ritualist Novices (+2 PB)–Novices may have familiars to help them with research and gathering information. Identify is a useful ability but presupposes magic items to examine with the abilities. Unseen servants are going to be fairly common to take care of day-to-day needs. Novices may create coded messages for people, but that’s probably going to be very situational. Locking items, adding auras, or adding spoken messages are going to be situationally useful. Locate is probably one of their most useful utility spells. In fact, cantrips are probably going to be more generally useful, with the ability to mend, send messages, or do whatever things you can come up with using
- Arcane Ritualist Practitioner (+3 PB)—Animate Dead could be popular, in places where it’s considered acceptable, or people are too cowed by spellcasters to complain. Clairvoyance and Fabricate are probably the most useful rituals at this stratum of power. I can see there being a market for Glyph of Warding being placed on things. Magic Circle, and Tiny Hut probably requires the Arcane Ritualist to get out in be in potential danger. Hallucinatory Terrain and Private Sanctum would be good for the Arcane Ritualist’s reputation and privacy. Secret Chest might be a spell that the ritualist uses to hide away other people’s important items as well as their own.
- Arcane Ritualist Expert (+4 PB)–This degree of proficiency is where the Arcane Ritualist is going to really start to shine. Contact Other Plane and Creation are widely useful. Planar Binding and Create Undead are going to be great for getting the Arcane Ritualist some substantial servants. Scrying is one of the signature things you expect from the Arcane Ritualist sitting in their tower. Dream is going to be useful for the Arcane Ritualist needing to reach out to others to communicate. Geas might be a useful ability for sealing the terms of employment with retainers, and Guards and Wards are another signature means of protecting the ritualist’s home. Being able to create and maintain a Teleportation Circle network is going to be very important for people that are on good terms with the ritualist.
- Arcane Ritualist Specialists (+5 PB)–at this degree of proficiency, your Arcane Ritualist is going to have a nice, impressive, secure home with rituals like Magnificent Mansion, Mirage Arcane and Antipathy/Sympathy. Simulacrum and Clone are your go to spells for the paranoid Arcane Ritualist, and Simulacrum may be interesting if the ritualist wants to accompany employees in the field. Symbol is an amazing thing to be able to conjure, and once it’s in place, it’s going to show off the ritualist’s potential power, if they have the time to use it.
- Arcane Ritualist Masters (+6 PB)–An Arcane Ritualist may not be as dangerous in the moment, but being able to astrally project, utilize Foresight, or pronounce an Imprisonment on something dangerous that has been brought to them is pretty impressive.
Divine Ritualists
The lower powered Divine rituals feel very community service oriented. Toward the middle of their progression, they dovetail a lot with Arcane rituals, although from a narrative element, Arcane ritualist feel more like they are forcing concessions for the universe, while Divine rituals feel more like just imploring the deities for major events to happen. Reversing death and major injuries are very much signature abilities.
- Divine Ritualist Novices (+2 PB)—Purify Food and Drink, Augury, and Locate are all things I can envision a general priest doing as a useful ritual. Detect Poison and Disease may be an interesting thing for a Divine Ritualist to use on an afflicted person brought to them, which may then allow them to attempt an alchemical or herbal treatment or let them get out a scroll if the affliction is bad enough. Prayer of Healing could be good for injuries that aren’t immediately life-threatening, possibly as a follow-up to using Spare the Dying on someone.
- Divine Ritualist Practitioner (+3 PB)–Divine Ritualists gain similar abilities to Arcane Ritualists, except that they get much more definitive information gathering with access to Divination, which feels logical considering they are literally connected with the divine.
- Divine Ritualist Expert (+4 PB)–This tier of ability continues to be similar to Arcane Ritualists, except for a few really important differences. Raise Dead is a game changer, meaning that Divine Ritualists have some power over life and death when they are more powerful. Heroes’ Feast is also a major boost for Divine Ritualists sending champions out to perform a mission for their god or gods.
- Divine Ritualist Specialists (+5 PB)–The Divine Ritualist at this level has fewer options than the Arcane Ritualist, but Regenerate is an interesting “someone injured is brought to them” narrative element. Resurrection reinforces the access to the gods and powers over life and death, and Control Weather feels like something important for priests of some churches to be able to enact.
- Divine Ritualist Masters (+6 PB)–Divine Ritualists share Foresight with Arcane Ritualists, and True Resurrection is the kind of ability that can actually call legendary figures back from the afterlife.
Primordial Ritualists
Primordial Ritualists serve a very similar purpose to Divine Ritualists, but they take longer to have ritual access to some kind of immediate healing. They do maintain the “cast something to send off your champions” abilities, but they can’t negate death, at least not in the same way as a Divine Ritualist. It could be an interesting plot point for the PCs to be tasked with awakening animals that are important for some reason. They’re also obviously going to be the go-to for petitioning for a change in the weather.
- Primordial Ritualist Novices (+2 PB)–Primordial Ritualists early on have traits that lean close to Divine Ritualists, with a little bit of the Arcane Ritualist’s options to communicate via Animal Messenger, and to make a location more dangerous, via Circle of Stones.
- Primordial Ritualist Practitioner (+3 PB)–This tier of ability has fewer options for an NPC that is sedentary, and for rituals that aren’t supplemental to someone that’s an adventurer to begin with. Trestle and Water Walk are all about being able to move more easily or in a different way. Song of the Forest may be situationally useful if the Primordial Ritualist needs to examine something in their close vicinity, but Briar Rose is the most useful ritual here for an NPC Primordial Ritualist, as it can create something that is given to others to use later.
- Primordial Ritualist Expert (+4 PB)–This level of proficiency for the Primordial Ritualist is very similar to what the Divine Ritualist gets, but with a few changes. Primordial Ritualists don’t get the same mastery over life and death, but they can change common beasts into sapient beings, which can be a major plot point in a story, creating new helpers or retainers for the ritualist. They get the same “sending off the champion” ability with Heroes’ Feast. I’m going to play my “this opinion isn’t helpful in this context” card and say I can even touch on Reincarnation because it just bothers me as a concept, expressly in the way it’s used with this spell, in multiple editions of D&D. Moving on.
- Primordial Ritualist Specialists (+5 PB)—Oculus Blossoms may not be greatly useful for an NPC residing at a particular location, but it is a fun power for a character to use to prove they know everything going on in their personal domain. Control Weather is the signature Primordial ritual at this tier of access.
- Primordial Ritualist Masters (+6 PB)–There is only one new ritual option at this tier, which does allow the Primordial Ritualist to permanently alter something’s form, which feels potentially fitting to the theme. It is a reason that people would seek this NPC out, if no one in their party can do that.
Wyrd Ritualists
Wyrd Ritualists, as NPCs to consult, or as a patron to send the party to do things, should probably feel dangerous, and like a last resort. A lot of what will make them seem powerful at the lowest tiers of abilities will likely be via cantrips, with some situational use of other powers. Missions where PCs must bring a person or thing to the Wyrd Ritualist are going to be strongly thematic, and potentially supported by their ritual abilities.
- Wyrd Ritualist Novices (+2 PB)–At this early tier, the Wyrd Ritualist has similar access to abilities that Arcane Ritualists can use, but if it takes some kind of risk or sacrifice to perform this magic, there isn’t as much of a risk/reward calculation at this stratum. It does give the Wyrd Ritualist the possibility of an advisor in the form of a familiar.
- Wyrd Ritualist Practitioner (+3 PB)–This tier continues the trend of the previous tier of power, where the risk/reward for some of their utility may not feel like a great payoff depending on the sacrifice, although access to Speak with Dead is an important ability both as a worthwhile personal ability and as something others would seek them out to perform.
- Wyrd Ritualist Expert (+4 PB)–This is the strata of power where the Wyrd Ritualist is going to get more bang for their sacrificial buck, with powerful divinations, communications, and the ability to bind servants to them. Magic Jar is one of those abilities that sems to require the Wyrd Rituals to tag along with adventurers, but it does seem like you could work in some plot points where the PCs have to voice for the body swapped Wyrd Ritualist, after bringing them the person to swap with.
- Wyrd Ritualist Specialists (+5 PB)–They don’t get quite as many home base fortification abilities at lower levels, the way Arcane Ritualists do, but Wyrd Ritualists get some of that “warp my headquarters” abilities in this range.
- Wyrd Ritualist Masters (+6 PB)—Astral Projection and Imprisonment are both very thematic for a Wyrd Ritualist, as someone that can scout locations out of their bodies, or trap someone, somewhere, away from anyone else’s access. In fact, Imprisonment feels like a tool to “pay off” some entities that have granted powers elsewhere.
Building Around The Concepts
I haven’t had much time to implement this kind of world-building assumption in my games up to this point. There is something appealing to considering NPC spellcasters in my Thrones and Bones game, because that feels thematically appropriate for that setting.
If you give these concepts a try in your campaigns, or if you have already adopted something similar to this paradigm, I would love to hear about it. I’m intrigued at the inspiration provided to me by the implications of certain rules, and rituals seem to be a fertile ground for story-based inclusion. It’s also interesting to see how the ritual spell lists play into the themes of different types of magic. I really want to see more rituals across the board, and I hope that introducing additional rituals doesn’t blur the themes too much.
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