OotS 843

[StreamOfTheSky]

It has to work through deceased relatives. It was CAST on an animated undead head of the slain dragon and traveled from there!

And yes, this is by far and away the most grossly powerful spell even shown in the comic, and as I said last thread, whoever Haera was, she was apparently more powerful than Xykon and her rise and fall should be one of the single most important historical events in the entire world in which the comic takes place.

 

[wingsandsword]

Familicide is *way* overpowered.

1. It's an Epic spell. They tend to be very overpowered. The standard ones in the ELH do things like create a whole new species, produce a silenced, still & quickened Death effect that works on anything with less than 160 HD, grant permanent immunity to any a litany of effects (entangle, hold, imprisonment, paralysis, petrification, sleep, slow, stunning, temporal stasis & web), rain fire & destruction over several square miles for a minute, create a solar eclipse over a 5 mile radius, or do 305d6 damage to one target (save for half). Low end Epic spells ones do effects like create permanent new islands on material plane bodies of water or do 20d6 damage to any creature grappling you (as a silenced, still quickened effect with no material components or XP cost). Epic spells are generally plot devices unless the game itself is Epic level, because they provide a way within the 3.x rules framework for spells of arbitrarily high power.

2. It was (effectively) cast by the single most powerful Evil spellcaster in the history of the world (whose soul is in the possession of the Lower planes, which leaves out anybody annihilated by the Snarl or still alive/undead). She could have lived 1000 years ago, and never got to cast the spell in life (or cast it once, and it rebounded on her as she didn't know the target was distantly related).

These two factors mean that I can buy Familicide as being incredibly overpowered. Even Tiamat herself was furious over the casting, and if Haerta ever cast it in life, presumably she could have brought down divine wrath.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

V explicitly says he did it in this strip. Of course, he may be wrong, but I don't think so.

So I see (now). The second half of that page apparently didn't load the first time I read through it.

 

[Brakkart]

And yes, this is by far and away the most grossly powerful spell even shown in the comic, and as I said last thread, whoever Haera was, she was apparently more powerful than Xykon and her rise and fall should be one of the single most important historical events in the entire world in which the comic takes place.

Just because Vaarsuvius comes from that particular world, does not mean that Haerta (or the other 2 soul-spliced casters) had to have come from it though. The fiends have access to evil souls that come to the lower planes from all of the Material Plane and the Material Plane is vast and likely contains many inhabited worlds. You're right in that the life and death of such a powerful caster should be a pivotal event in the history of the world, but that doesn't mean that such took place on the same world that the OotS saga takes place on. Chances are the world Haerta originally comes from is long dead.

 

[frankthedm]

Here is to hoping that was the last we see of the elf. Not sure if Burlew will be brave enough to let the elf die that way, but I think it is appropriately ignoble.

 

[Piratecat]

Here is to hoping that was the last we see of the elf. Not sure if Burlew will be brave enough to let the elf die that way, but I think it is appropriately ignoble.

Heh. Not even looking at narrative causality, there's no way that trap would have killed a high level adventurer. The falling block shoved him/her into the pit, not the floor. I used one exactly like it three weeks ago.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Yeah, V has to have a chance to redeem himself, all that much moreso now that we know that not only was his action hideously evil, but may in fact contribute to the unravelling of reality itself!

 

[Squire James]

The Three Evil Guys in Robes suggested that most of what they wanted was already accomplished. Now we know why, to some extent.

Even by Epic Spell standards, Familicide is broken beyond belief. The save DC required to make all those deaths a sure thing would have made the Spellcraft DC so high the caster would either need to be 300th level or would need to die to cast the spell (even assuming 2 extra casters in a soul splice as a requirement for the spell). I suppose it's possible the save DC was "only" 30 or so, and most of the "on screen" kills happened to be low-level people. In such a case, a very angry Girard Draketooth may still be alive!

 

[Donal Graeme]

The Three Evil Guys in Robes suggested that most of what they wanted was already accomplished. Now we know why, to some extent.

Even by Epic Spell standards, Familicide is broken beyond belief. The save DC required to make all those deaths a sure thing would have made the Spellcraft DC so high the caster would either need to be 300th level or would need to die to cast the spell (even assuming 2 extra casters in a soul splice as a requirement for the spell). I suppose it's possible the save DC was "only" 30 or so, and most of the "on screen" kills happened to be low-level people. In such a case, a very angry Girard Draketooth may still be alive!

I rather doubt the spell allowed a save, or at least, it was very restrictive in what saves it allowed. It might have only allowed a save if the target had a certain number of hit dice, much like cloudkill. Given that it was an epic spell, that hit dice limit would probably be quite high.

 

[Kaodi]

Going from the fact that the spell killed 1/4 of all black dragons, my guess is that the only reason it stopped is because it did not get through Tiamat, but all of the descendants of her conjugal relations with several of her past consorts probably bought the farm. Casualties would almost certainly include dragons of far higher level than Girard.