D&D Encounter Template: The Ritual Challenge

This post was last updated on September 19th, 2023.

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Fantastic rituals create memorable encounters

What is a ritual challenge in D&D?

The characters step into the Spell Forge, the long-lost magical furnace create by dwarves and humans during the Phandelver Pact. They decipher the inscriptions of the three runic circles carved into the marble floor. One for the Forger of the Flame, one for the Forger of the Arcane, and one for the Forger of the Mountain. After a moment of awe, the characters take their place in the circles, and the ancient crafting ritual begins once again. Will they manage to forge a new magical weapon with the arcane hearth? Will they assume the legacy of the mages of the Pact?

Rituals such as this one are a staple of fantasy fiction. The heroes must combine their skills, wits, and talents to fulfill the requirements of an ancient rite. We can insert these kinds of rituals as unique challenges into our D&D game. They provide a break from the regular flow of our game. Ritual challenges in D&D let players show off their characters’ abilities in moments of collaborative story telling.

Ritual Challenge encounter template

Here is the general sequence of a ritual challenge which we can use as an encounter template for our D&D game:

Goal and Setup. Players are aware of the goal of the ritual. The DM initiates the ritual challenge and encourages players to use their character’s abilities in unconventional ways.
Character Contributions. Each player answers the DM’s question, “How do you contribute to the ritual?” The players then explain their character’s contribution.
Resolution through Ability Check. The DM asks for an appropriate ability check, and determines a DC based on the situation of the ritual and the difficulty of the contribution. Advantage and disadvantage apply as usual.
Success and Failure. The DM records successes and failures, and decides whether the ritual as a whole succeeds or fails.

The Ritual Challenge goal

When the characters encounter a ritual challenge in our D&D game, we need to ensure that they are aware of the ritual’s goal. They should have a clear idea of what the ritual is designed to accomplish. In the case of the Spell Forge ritual, it is the creation of a magical weapon. Whatever the purpose of the specific ritual, the players and the characters need to be aware of its purpose.

Here are ten potential goals for a ritual challenge encounter in D&D:

Reigniting the ancient, long-lost Spell Forge to create a magical weapon.
Resurrecting a fallen member of the party.
Beseeching the spirit of a mystical river to let the characters pass over it.
Calming the ravaging anger of an eldritch storm.
Re-consecrating a defiled shrine.
Freeing a nobleman from a powerful curse.
Asking a deity for a blessing for a divine mission.
Driving away the corrupting shadows that have overtaken a cemetery.
Binding an evil hag into a crystal orb.
Forge unbreakable bonds of companionship between two individuals.

The Ritual Challenge lets players bend the normal rules of D&D

In addition, we need to make it clear to the players, that we are suspending some of the “normal” rules surrounding spells, skills, and character abilities. We can say something like, “We are now entering a ritual challenge. Your characters can sense that this is an extraordinary moment. Therefore, they will be able to use their abilities in unconventional ways that wouldn’t be possible under normal circumstances.” Making the extraordinary nature of the ritual challenge explicit allows players to think more freely. They can step outside of the usual boundaries of the wording of their character abilities. Some players might have difficulties with this at first. So we need to continue to encourage them to look past their character sheet.

We can tie the suspension of the normal rules to the extraordinary nature of the ritual in the fiction. Magic is bent in strange ways by the ancient rite. The gods unhinge the laws of nature for this mysterious ceremony.

Ask players, “How does your character contribute to the ritual?”

After this brief introduction, the ritual is afoot. The doors of the Spell Forge slam shut, and the brazier lights up with green flames. Now, the characters take their place in the runic circles. Then, we ask each player, “How does your character contribute to the ritual?” Since we made it clear to them that they can really get creative here, we need to embrace the wild ideas they come up with. It is important for us to not pre-define any solutions. This allows us to keep our mind as open as possible to the creative contributions of our players.

Players might want to use a spell in a way that’s impossible by the rules as written (or as intended for that matter). They might come up with contributions that would sound highly improbable under normal circumstances. For example, the sorcerer might cast scorching ray to empower the flames of the ancient furnace. The druid might beseech the mountain itself to aid the ritual. The monk might connect with the forces of ki that flow through herself and her allies to guide the ritual’s process.

The beauty of a ritual challenge is that players can look beyond their characters sheets. They become collaborators in the telling of a fantastic story. In the heightened states of sacramental power, nothing is impossible.

Resolve the outcome of each contribution

Even though the players can try anything, their attempt at a contribution might still fail. The chance of failure is necessary to generate tension and drama in the ritual challenge. Therefore, we listen to the player’s idea, and call for an appropriate roll. The sorcerer must roll a Charisma (Arcana) check to try and embolden the flames. The druid rolls a Wisdom (Persuasion) check to calm the mountain. The monk rolls a Wisdom (Arcana) check or another ki-related ability check that’s appropriate to the use of ki in our world.

In our head, we set a DC that makes sense for the situation of the ritual and the specific contribution of a character. We can think of the difficulty on a scale from 1 to 10 and add 10 to determine a DC between 10 and 20. Setting a difficulty above 20 might mean that the ritual is particularly challenging or the contribution is particularly difficult to achieve. We can apply advantage or disadvantage if it makes sense in the situation. In short, we use all the normal techniques of ability checks to adjudicate the outcome of each contribution.

Determine whether the ritual fails or succeeds

The circumstances of the ritual determine what is necessary for the characters to succeed. Maybe all three of them need to succeed on their contributions or else the ritual fails. Maybe it is enough if only a few of them succeed. We might also consider by how much the individual characters succeeded if it makes sense that one contribution could outweigh the others. In the example of the Spell Forge, we might decide that each successful contribution adds one quality to the crafted magic weapon. We also decide that the magic of the Forge only holds enough arcane energy for two ritual attempts.

If we want to visualize the progress characters are making in the ritual, we can use a progress clock. Divide a circle into four, six or eight sections, depending on the complexity of the ritual. For each success, we fill in one section. By using a progress clock, we make the progress of the ritual transparent to the players.

In case of failure, we follow the principles of “success at a cost” and “failing forward” to keep the challenge dramatic and memorable even if the characters failed. A failed ritual might create a magical weapon but the weapon bears a curse as a result of the failure. Alternatively, the mountain might erupt in a shattering earthquake when the ritual fails. Now, the characters need to escape the Spell Forge as the caves collapse around them. As in many situations in D&D, we can look for ways to turn failure in the ritual challenge into an opportunity for action and drama.

Example: Matthew Mercer’s Resurrection Rules

Dungeon master of Critical Role, Matthew Mercer, shows us a specific instance of a ritual challenge in the form of his homebrew resurrection rules. When a character dies and has to be resurrected in an episode of critical role, Matt uses his resurrection house rules. You can read the full article about these rules here. As part of the rules, any resurrection spell or spell effect with a casting time longer than 1 action, initiates a “Resurrection Challenge”:

“Up to 3 members of the adventuring party can offer to contribute to the ritual via a Contribution Skill Check. The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.”

Here again, no possible contributions are specified before the ritual. It is up to the players to think of ways in which their characters can aid the resurrection of their fallen comrade.

“After all contributions are completed, the DM then rolls a single, final Resurrection success check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone … For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 3, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1.”

As we can see, Matt uses a special mechanical framework to determine success or failure of the ritual challenge. This is designed to lower the risk of permanent character death in this house rule slightly. In any case, the “Resurrection Challenge” provides a fantastic example of the potential of ritual challenges for collaborative story telling moments. The characters can contribute to the ritual in extraordinary ways, and directly impact the outcome. They become creative conspirators in the unfolding of a fantastic story that magical or sacramental rituals provide.

Try out a Ritual Challenge!

Rituals are a staple of fantasy fiction. More likely than not, players will have an idea of the significance of rituals for the kind of fantasy world they are playing in. When we add ritual challenges into our DM’s toolkit, we gain a powerful encounter template for collaborative storytelling.