ELH: Any limits to the Heal spell?

[Cheiromancer]

(attempts will save to avoid being drawn into a discussion about Heal and/or Harm. Makes save. Whew!)

 

[Hammerhead]

Well, the Mantle of Spell Resistance isn't much of a problem at 2.9 million gold. Still, there are a lot of other problems related to spell resistance. Many enemies have SR 10-15 greater than their CR. Thus, anyone who does not stay a spellcaster at every level has no chance to penetrate spell resistance without the help of Spell Power (like the FR Archmage) or some other non-PH ability. The Pseudonatural template is even worse- a Pseudonatural creature has SR equal to its hit dice x5, giving a 16 Hit Dice creature the impossible to beat SR of 80.

Damage reduction is obscene- almost every creature in the book has it and most have it at +6 or greater weapons to penetrate. Penetrate Damage Reduction is an essential feat, and makes +6 weapons irrelevant until the enemies get +8 DR. Any character who is not primarily a fighter-type will not take this feat or have a +6 weapon for several levels into the 20s and will thus be completely useless in hand to hand combat. Anti-magic shell seems the way to go against creatures with DR and other supernatural abilities (or spells), except that magic items are the only way that PCs can hope to take on all of the size H-C creatures with way too high Str scores and hit dice. On the other hand, a Demilich can't do anything against an anti-magic field except to cast Mordenkain's Disjunction or to try to drop a boulder on you. You can even penetrate its ridiculous 30/- DR and do a measly 130 damage very quickly.

A bunch of creatures with tons of hit dice makes it completely obvious that doubling hit dice= +2 CR is a very bad formula. Adding one age category to an epic red dragon does not make it
twice as powerful as it was before. However, doubling the hit dice of a Phaethon makes for a mean opponent. I also don't see anything about how to make epic characters less magic item dependent. The sample NPCs don't have a prayer- in large part due to their ridiculously low amounts of gear. How about ways to increse stats without magic? Every epic NPC has their dump stat still at 8 (except the Paladin, who gets an item to boost his Dex once he gets to level 28).

Cloudgatherer- unless you are super-DC man, save DCs don't seem to increase fast enough to keep up with a monster's saves. Heavy Fortification negates entire parts of the game- criticals and sneak attacks. It takes a lot of the tactics and excitement out of combat. At least it gets rid of silly vorpal weapons...

Now that I'm looking through the book, a Pseudonatural Legendary Tiger would probably be the nastiest opponent imaginable. CR 20, SR 130, DR 50/+11, ten tentacle rakes, hundreds of HP...

The sample NPCs aren't meant to stand a chance against the monsters - they're more like possible enemies, so if the group kills one, it wouldn't do for them to get for treasure. The NPCs are equiped with a fraction of the stuff PCs are assumed to have.

Sadly, it looks as if everyone becomes more dependent on magic items in Epic levels. Many of the feats have little value when compared next to magic items. Would any character without innate natural armor take Armor Skin? What good is Blinding Speed when Boots of Quickened Speed, possibly with no space added, are fairly cheap?

 

[Elric]

Magus- yes, Pseudonatural is an overpowered template. The CR 21 Pseudonatural Colossal Giant Scorpion has SR 320, DR 95/+20 (or so), close to a thousand HP and around 20 tentacle attacks/round. It would probably have a good chance against a Devastation Beetle.

Hammerhead- the sample NPCs clearly don't have a prayer against the monsters, but also have a lot of problems (even with the CR reduction) against PCs. The 30th level NPC fighter would have troubles against a well built 20th level PC fighter because the PC would have more gear and the PC's money would be better spent.

 

[Hejdun]

That's because heal IS overpowered, as is harm.

Well, that's subject to opinion. There has already been a lot of discussion on this subject. I don't feel the need to bring it into this thread.

 

[da chicken]

Have a cleric hang back and ready an action to counterspell.

Have a wizard with Improved Counterspell do the same.