An Epic Inconsistency

[moritheil]

This is surely far from the only example of a mistake in the epic rules, but I was curious about the area of effect for this spell:

Rain Of Fire
Evocation [Fire]
Spellcraft DC: 50
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 0 ft.
Area: 2-mile-radius emanation
Duration: 20 hours
Saving Throw: Reflex negates (see text)
Spell Resistance: Yes
To Develop: 450,000 gp; 9 days; 18,000 XP. Seeds: energy (fire) (DC 19), energy (weather) (DC 19). Factor: change rain to wisps of flame (ad hoc +12 DC).

This spell summons a swirling thunderstorm that rains fire rather than raindrops down on the character and everything within a two-mile radius of him or her. Everything caught unprotected or unsheltered in the flaming deluge takes 1 point of fire damage each round. A successful Reflex save results in no damage, but the save must be repeated each round. Unless the ground is exceedingly damp, all vegetation is eventually blackened and destroyed, leaving behind a barren wasteland similar to the aftermath of a grass or forest fire. The fiery storm is stationary and persists even if the caster leaves.

One would expect energy to be the cause of the 2 mile radius, but no:

Seed: Energy
Area: A bolt 5 ft. wide to 300 ft. long; or a 10-ft.-radius emanation; or a wall whose area is up to one 200-ft. square; or a sphere or hemi-sphere with a radius of up to 20 ft.

Can anyone account for this 2 mile radius?

EDIT: never mind, I found it.

The caster can also use the energy seed to create a spell that carefully releases and balances the emanation of cold, electricity, and fire, creating specific weather effects for a period of 20 hours. Using the energy seed this way has a base Spellcraft DC of 25. The area extends to a two-mile-radius centered on the caster.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Quite a few of the !!!Epic Spells!!! were badly designed. In this case it wasn't made from the seeds. I think they took a control weather and added the energy(fire) seed then ad-hocced the DC. If you actually try to build this spell from the seeds using the Epic system it ends up with a rather higher DC.

That was the problem with the Seed system, it didn't mesh with the lower level system. Try creating some lower level spells with it to get an idea, you'll find that the effects and DCs are off-kilter to the first 9 levels. They really should have just extended spell levels to 10th and beyond using earlier levels as a guide.

 

[moritheil]

Yeah, epic spell design is problematic to say the least. In this case there was a hidden clause in an epic seed that I missed. You would think they would put 2 mile radius in the options for area, but for some reason they didn't.

 

[s-dub]

Yes the epic spell system is poorly designed to say the least.

Try making disintegrate with the epic system: you get a DC of 89 (assuming 40d6 damage and 1 action casting time)

So a level 21 caster with a with 30 int and 24 ranks in spellcraft still is 45 points shy of being able to cast it without a chance of failure. (Assuming no skill-focus, etc)

But there are other spell that

With decent mitigating factors you can have an encounter ending spell that's nigh unsavable

For the same DC as disintegrate you can use the slay seed (although I imagine death ward protects against this?) and have an insta-kill with a DC of 20 (base) + 22 (44 DC worth of pumping up save) + relevant ability modifier.