Ritual Magic Customization

I have been working more on this ritual magic idea for clerics (see older posts 1 and 2). I’ve been thinking about how by customizing the rituals you could adapt the cleric class to play the role of the druid, paladin, and others... instead of adding on brand new class kits for these roles.

If the cleric worships a nature god (or pantheon of nature spirits/gods) the DM could craft a series of rituals that would replicate traditional druidic abilities:

speak with animals

speak with plants

pass without trace

shapeshift

resist elements/energy (fire, water, cold, electricity)

control weather

accelerate growth

healing

For a cleric worship a good aligned martially bent god(s) the DM could provide abilities that replicate classic paladin abilities:

Healing Touch

cure disease

cure poisons

smite evil

holy shield (bonus to saves vs. evil magic)

holy blade (enchant weapon to smite evil - strike undead that need +1 to hit or better???)

detect ability (maybe come up with a cool name)

I think a neat idea about this ritual magic concept is that you could customize each cleric to match the ethos of the god he worships. And you could provide some variety of rituals so the cleric character can have some build options (or change daily if the rituals are short use or single use).

I’ve got ideas for a couple of additional builds - holy cleric of a good aligned diety, unholy cleric of a diety of madness and destruction, cleric of a demon prince of lies, cleric of a diety of love/lust/beaty

I’m thinking I might compile these clerical builds into a document and posting it up on the blog.