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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cheiromancer" data-source="post: 3044326" data-attributes="member: 141">I think the limited flexibility provision is a good idea.  I was thinking of that with the Summon seed, actually, but got distracted.  Summon monster lets you choose from a small list of choices, but the target of an epic summon is chosen at spell development.  Which could be desirable from a game play perspective, since it simplifies play.  The player only has to have one card with the monster's stats on it.  Limited flexibility which would allow (say) 4 choices would be quite manageable.  Similar remarks apply to the Polymorph seed. The new version of polymorph is kind of growing on me, btw.  It occurred to me that if the assumed form retained magic items, then you couldn't use the stats from out of the book.  You'd have to include the amulet of natural armor +5, the mithral twilight chain shirt +8, the cloak of protection +5, etc., etc. and recalculate all sorts of stats.  A mess.  Just for ease of play it makes sense to say that magic items are absorbed and neutralized.  Basing the mechanics on planar exchange (in SC) might be an even better solution.  A polymorphed creature is not actually changed, just switched. If characters wish to preserve their buffs they might strip before assuming a humanoid form of the same size.  If this will cause a hassle you might want to include an "amorphous" provision in a flexibility factor (either limited or not) that says that the assumed form doesn't have item slots.  The magic messes up the chakras, and so rings, cloaks, boots, etc.. don't work.  But this should only apply to a flexible spell.  If someone learns gloom form, say, then they could calculate the modifiers as a template to apply to their current stats.  You might even waive the requirement that items be removed then redonned.  (Hmmm.  A gloom has a KR of 33, which correspons to a CR of 22.  The ELH pegs it as CR 25.  I generally trust the KR more than the WotC CR, but dropping the dagger would remove any doubt: I'd go with the CR 22.  So gloom form would be quite an accessible spell.)I think it reduces the effectiveness by more than 15%.  A character with a Con of 18 has a small risk of instant death if he takes 9 points of mitigation (3d6 Con damage).  So he might only go with 6.  Previously he might go 16 or 17.  I am assuming that a divine caster will quickly devise an epic healing spell which is narrowly focused on healing backlash damage.  Healing only backlash damage seems to be a major limiting factor, so the effective caster level can be put quite high; it will probably be effective.This means that the mitigating effect of backlash has to be pretty close to the contribution of an epic spell slot.  Which I gather is 10.  I'd say that a character shouldn't get 20 points of backlash.  15 might be good, though. I don't think the factor needs to be random.  Players will do everything possible to minimize the random factor, and if not, well, it would be a lousy way to kill a character.  Given the mechanic for Destroyer of Life, Magnificat and Runesong, maybe backlash should reduce one's Con to 1 for a flat bonus of -15.  Autoimmolator could maybe allow backlash to apply to Dex or Strength instead; an autoimmolator could thus cast 3 epic spells with backlash before having to recover.  You could use an epic Heal spell to restore this damage, but unless it is specially tailored to apply only to backlash an opposed caster level check is required.  A spell doesn't have to make an opposed check if all it does is heal backlash.False life is great when you are low level, but is less significant at higher levels.  It doesn't look like it can bear the burden of supporting epic effects.  (Neither does barkskin, to tell you the truth.) It would be nice if the temporary hit point mechanic from the Polymorph seed could be split off somehow.  Hmmm.  How about this: use the mechanic for the Con buff to determine extra hit points (so USP 8 = 2 hp/die).  But rather than also buff the fort save, make the hit points temporary.  That way the character isn't in trouble when the spell runs out.  Sure it'll give a lot of hit points, but hit points don't last long in epic encounters.  I think it should give between 100 and 200 hit points at low epic levels.Let's see.  If the basic USP 24 spell gives +12 Con, that's a +6 modifier, times 21... yeah.  I think 126 points is pretty reasonable for an entry-level epic spell.Revisions 3, 4 and 5 look fine.  3 makes a lot of sense, 4 could go either way.  5... well, I think dramatic considerations have to apply.  PCs aren't going to be able to spend a month on something without the DM's active cooperation.  But a higher mitigating factor lets off-stage NPCs get away with more stuff.  At the moment I can't think of much of an argument for a particular number.I'd probably reverse engineer the number based on the fact that Fillein bound Graz'zt.</blockquote>

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