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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sepulchrave II" data-source="post: 3048668" data-attributes="member: 4303">160d6 (560 av.) of fire damage is actually quite moderate: a 34th level caster who goes the conventional route can find a dozen ways to match this. I think a dangerous synergy might occur beteween a dedicated epic buffer and the caster who is loaded up with Multispell, Improved Spell Capacity and Improved Metamagic: a +30 bonus to Int will pump up the DCs on a lot of spells, making those Intensified DBFs demand saves in the high forties or low fifties.  *There are other ways of preventing massive mitigation stacking, though.1) Limit backlash to 'instantaneous' spells only.2) Limit rituals to spells with a casting time of 1hr (or even 1 minute) or longer.This solves the problem of these combining in combat (the most basic premise around which 'balance' is formulated). You still get issues with life, animate dead, conjure and heal.3) Reword certain feats so that they only offer indirect mitigation - like the suggested Epic Thaumaturgy, above. I think there is a lot to be said for narrowing the focus of feats like this, as it also encourages specialization (and flavour).*I'm feeling dubious about your exponential factors, Cheiro. I agree that some mechanism is in order to allow larger scale effects, though. I'm thinking epic feats are the obvious way to go - equivalents of meta-epicmagic feats, which allow the manipulation of seeds to elevate one or more parameters (like area, range etc.) to a higher order of magnitude. Subsequent factors would then be based on this new order. Using the benefit of the feat might even incur a Spellcraft Prerequisite cost, although implicitly 1 epic feat = x amount of mitigation already. It achieves the same effect as an exponential factor, but without upsetting precedent. Epic-level casters get enough epic feats, and they need something to sink them into.  E.g.EARTHSCORCHER [EPIC]Armies flee and cities are abandoned at the rumour of your passing.Prerequisites: Epic Spellcasting, Spell Focus (Evocation), Spellcraft 30 ranks.Benefit: When you use this feat to develop an epic spell with the energy seed as its base seed to evoke a [fire] effect, the base range, area and duration (if non-instantaneous) are all multiplied by 10. Any subsequent increases in any of these parameters are calculated from their new base values.A 200-ft radius fireball can now be enlarged to 2000-ft at +36 SP. If you want to limit the level at which this becomes available, you simply up the number of Spellcraft ranks which are prerequisite for the feat: this achieves the same effect of including a factor which cannot be mitigated against, and doesn't necessitate a mechanical overhaul. The feat may be too specific, in which case some additional perks might need to be thrown in. Whether this feat is attractive is also very campaign-dependent.This might not be the best illustration of my case, because I'm tired, but I think YKWIM.</blockquote>

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