4th Edition Fixes, Kain-style

So with a 4e game in the realm of possibilities, I've been considering ways to tweak it with house rules and make it a bit more fun. 4e has some great combat balance, and while roleplay is definitely more of a player-based phenomenon than a rule-based one, I feel like some of the mechanical tools in 4th edition could be better for providing players a platform.

First of all, Rituals.

Rituals (and Martial Practices) are a sort of interesting thing. They contain rather a lot of things that would have been utility spells in 3.5 or 5th edition, and make them available without spell slots or class restrictions. This opens up a wide variety of interesting options for players, or would, except there are some problems. Rituals and Martial Practices (hereby referred to under the catch all of 'rituals') cost two major things that a lot of players can be uneasy about using: Time, and resources. Perhaps put in place to keep players from being super magical godlords, but on the other hand it also creatures frustrating scenarios. No one wants to wait ten minutes to unlock a door. Especially when Knock can fail! You may as well just figure out some other way of bypassing the door, like rolling ten minute's worth of thievery or brute force checks, or unbar the door from the other side by casting Mage Hand through the keyhole. So here are my thoughts on how to change rituals, and all of these apply:

1. Rituals have their base cast times lowered. A ritual with a casting time of ten minutes or under is reduced to one minute. A ritual with a casting time greater than ten minutes but takes thirty minutes or less instead becomes a ten minute ritual. Rituals that take longer than that have their casting time unchanged.

2. Rituals no longer cost anything to use. You are not deducted GP or healing surges, except for rituals that are prohibitive in cost for a reason, such as Raise Dead or Enchant Magic Item.

3. Rituals with a cast time of one minute (previously ten minutes or less) may now be cast as a Standard Action, in return for paying the former component cost of the ritual. For the Knock Ritual, for instance, you might pull a bronze door knocker worth 35 GP from your belongings and consume it in the ritual (with some of your stamina in the form of a healing surge) to quickly open a locked door. The exception to this is rituals for which this action shortening would be extremely ridiculous to justify - like creating a forgery of an official document with Precise Forgery in a single action.

Because rituals and martial practices are available to characters on a wider scale in 4e and not just limited to the casters, I feel like this is a more fair playing field. I might also grant the relevant feats as a free option, but that's undecided right now.

Second - magic items.

A lot of magic items are nerfed to some ridiculous extents because the benefits they provide in combat are too strong if they were any better. See: The Ring of Invisibility. In 5e this grants invisibility as an action, until you attack or cast a spell, or until you use a bonus action to become visible again. In 4e this item grants a small bonus to stealth checks, and a daily power that as a Standard action, gain Invisibility until the end of your next turn, and do this as a minor action if you've hit a milestone. In 5e, the Slippers of Spider Climbing allow free movement along walls and ceilings. In 4e, they make you climb faster and once per day, let you climb equal to your speed. Once.

See where I'm going with this? These effects might be balanced for combat, but they're a bit less fun out of combat. Give a player more tools, and they'll be sure to make good use of them. In that train of thought I might situationally grant magic items stronger powers outside of combat. Or just change some of them up significantly.

More to come.