How Does Ritual Casting Work in 5e?

A spell with the Ritual tag can be cast as a Ritual: it takes 10 minutes longer, uses no spell slot, can't be cast at a higher level, and you must have it prepared. A level 1 Wizard has two spell slots. Spending one on Detect Magic to check a dusty chest leaves one for the fight behind the next door. Ritual casting fixes that: the spell costs time instead of a slot. Here is the rule, quoted, and what it buys each class.

The rule

The Spells chapter lists ways to cast without a slot. Rituals sit second, after cantrips:

Rituals. Certain spells have the Ritual tag in the Casting Time entry. Such a spell can be cast following the normal rules for spellcasting, or it can be cast as a Ritual. The Ritual version of a spell takes 10 minutes longer to cast than normal, but it doesn't expend a spell slot. To cast a spell as a Ritual, a spellcaster must have it prepared.

The Rules Glossary adds one more line:

It also doesn't expend a spell slot, which means the ritual version of a spell can't be cast at a higher level.

Three facts follow. Any class with spellcasting can cast a Ritual spell it has prepared; no feature needed. The spell takes 10 minutes more than its listed time. And it always goes off at its own level.

What the extra 10 minutes means

Ten minutes is a hundred rounds. No ritual belongs in a fight. It belongs before one: at the door, at camp, during a Short Rest, which lasts an hour and has room for six Action rituals back to back.

Concentration still applies. Detect Magic cast as a Ritual lasts "Concentration, up to 10 minutes", the same as the slotted version. Material components still apply too: Find Familiar still burns 10 GP of incense, and Identify still needs its 100 GP pearl.

The Wizard: Ritual Adept

The Wizard gets a better deal at level 1:

You can cast any spell as a Ritual if that spell has the Ritual tag and the spell is in your spellbook. You needn't have the spell prepared, but you must read from the book to cast a spell in this way.

A level 1 Wizard prepares 4 spells from a book of 6. With Ritual Adept, the 2 spells left in the book are not dead weight if they carry the Ritual tag. Prepare Magic Missile, Shield, Sleep and Mage Armor; keep Detect Magic and Find Familiar in the book; cast both from the page.

The SRD's recommended starting six already include one Ritual spell, Detect Magic. More cost money and time:

For each level of the spell, the transcription takes 2 hours and costs 50 GP.

All eight level 1 Wizard rituals (Alarm, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Floating Disk, Identify, Illusory Script, Unseen Servant) come to 400 GP and 16 hours of copying from scratch. Each one a Wizard copies is a utility spell that never takes a prepared spot and never burns a slot.

The catch: the book must be in hand. A Wizard who loses the spellbook loses every ritual not prepared.

The Warlock: Book of Shadows

Warlocks get rituals through the Pact of the Tome invocation:

Cantrips and Rituals. When the book appears, choose three cantrips, and choose two level 1 spells that have the Ritual tag. The spells can be from any class's spell list, and they must be spells you don't already have prepared.

Any class's list matters. A Warlock can take Find Familiar from the Wizard list, or Detect Poison and Disease from the Cleric list. Those two spells stay prepared while the book is on the Warlock's person, so the normal ritual rule covers them.

Every Ritual spell in the SRD

Twenty-nine spells in SRD 5.2.1 carry the Ritual tag.

Counted from each spell's class line:

Detect Magic is the only spell on all eight lists.

Three rituals worth the time

Tiny Hut. Eight hours of shelter for an 11-minute cast:

A 10-foot Emanation springs into existence around you and remains stationary for the duration.

Nothing from outside passes through, and spells of level 3 or lower can't reach in. A level 3 slot is precious at level 5; as a Ritual, the camp is safe for free.

Alarm. "Duration: 8 hours" against a door, a window or a 20-foot Cube. Cast it at the camp's edge every night and keep the slot.

Find Familiar. A 1-hour spell becomes 1 hour 10 minutes, and the 10 GP of incense still burns. It costs no slot either way, so the Ritual mainly matters to a Wizard keeping it in the book unprepared.

At the table

• Before a ritual, ask the GM how long the party has. A ritual in a dungeon corridor gives wandering monsters 100 rounds.
• A Wizard reads from the book. A Warlock carries the Book of Shadows. Anyone else prepares the spell.
• No upcasting. A Ritual Unseen Servant is always one servant.
• Concentration and components work as normal.

The Book of Dice covers the dice behind every spell attack and save in Part III, The Rolling.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.