Epic Casters, How do you run with the pack?

[kigmatzomat]

Souljourner: thanks for the compliment, but the way I look at it, that's the DM's job. As for him not having any experience with a wizard, much in 2e, but limited in 3e.

I play the sorceror elementalist and understand the apparent power. But that's the difference between a generalist and a specialist: focus. Heck, if the generalist can outdo the specialist in their specialty, the game is flawed.

But the specialist is limited. Thresher's a mage who can use a sword? Cast Tenser's Transformation once or twice in (relatively) low-threat encounters to remind people of what that means. (Crap! The mage went ginsu!) Work the spells he's got the Sorcerer won't have or can't use. True Strike+power attack (10pts) for effect. (assuming that was one of the 2 fighter feats) Buff the crap out of your familiar and use it as an information gathering tool or give it casting ability with Epic feats. Heck, it's probably as smart as the fighter.

You are right. SR's get kinda wierd at high level. I'm gonna fudge them a bit I think. My prob is that I have Thresher's character with a spell pen of about 25, and the sorcerer / elemental savant with a spell pen (using his favoured lightning spells) of about 35.

SRs won't be a problem forever. Epic SRs appear to max out at 45 where they essentially stack with the save so that 5% of the time nothing happens, 90% they save, and 5% they take full effect. You get used to it and move on. Elemental resistances, however, seem to become more and more common. 40d6 saved to 20d6 =70 hp - 10-20 resistance = 50-60 damage.

And as far as all epic characters looking the same, they don't. But there are only so many feats you qualify for. Epic levels are like going back to first level; the fighter does so much more and the caster's exhaust themselves. Then they reach their power potential after some levels and all is good again.

The sensation of being useless will fade with a few epic feats as the paths diverge. The barely-epic sorceror felt rather pointless compared to the epic fighters given their immense damage. That's changed with more feats.

Melees generally scale linearly, with a fixed improvement every level and regular hops. Casters have always had an every-other hop as they hit the new spell levels, and Epic magnifies that. The real power boosts occur about every 2-3 feats ~ every 3-4 levels.

 

[Hecabus]

Familiars

In the uber-butch epic game that I play in (we only play a few times a year) my character is a fighter/sorceror that is very powerful. At 30th level, he took Automatic Quickened x3 and Multispell. There is nothing as fun as walking into a room and casting a Quickened Chain Dimensional Anchor followed by a Quickened Disintergrate, Standard action Disintergrate and then a hasted action Disintergrate (this depends on how your group plays rays). Substitue Enervations or Dispels for different flavor.

As far as Familiars are considered, remember that any spell you cast on yourself can effect your familiar. Cast high level buff spells (Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Endurance), a persistant Shield, etc and then cast Tenser's Transformation. You and your Familiar are combat bad-asses..... The bonus is no one ever expects the sorceror to kick butt, much less his ferret familar. Even more fun can be had if you can convince your DM to let you cast Dragon Size from Oriental Adventures. Let's see you have the 3rd Edition version of Paul Bunyon and Babe the Big Blue Ox....only it is a 72 foot tall Sorceror and his 72 ft long Ferret of Doom (tm).