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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cheiromancer" data-source="post: 3121221" data-attributes="member: 141">My understanding is that this represents how WotC under-CRs dragons to make them scarier.  A UK-36 dragon is WotC-18.  A UK-36 non-dragon would normally be WotC-24.  Although I think this mostly applies to SRD monsters; some critters from later monster manuals seem to also be under-CRed.But I think if you are considering them for player use, you should weight the UK-36 as a 24, not an 18. There are flaws with this system too, but I think it is the best considering the uncertainties intrinsic to a challenge rating system.I think [polymorph] should let swift be put in or out at a cost of 4 SP.  As you mention, it is a natural for dragonshape.I am hesitant about allowing characters to use abilities that have limited uses per day.  Using any SLA or supernatural ability has an opportunity cost; you can't be doing something else.  But the abilities that are limited per day seem to require more of a balancing factor.  Some of the things you can change into are spellcasters; I don't think you should get access to their prepared spells.I've been thinking of it as a "floating" slot that migrates upwards as the user's level increases. Which compensates somewhat for the lack of bonus spells that it gets in the ISC + "spell level = 6 + SP/6" system.Re: Sorcerer featsI really like it that sorcerers get to cast twice as many epic spells.  And they don't have to spend the gp and time and xp to get their first few.  Very nice. [edit] Figures.  You go and change the part I liked!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> [/edit]I was also sort of thinking that sorcerers could tinker with their spells a little bit on a daily basis.  Or at least when they level up.  6 points of free factor changes per spell, say.  A wizard might be able to do the same thing; but I was thinking 12 free factor changes total, and only when they level up.  If they want more they can pay for it.I think that it could be cumbersome if a sorcerer were constantly fiddling with his spells at the table.  A suite would be better.  In practice a player could write up the likely variations ahead of time, and thus have a de facto suite although in game terms he's applying the factors on the fly; and even if the suite is the default mechanic, a DM might allow an unprepared player to design an ad hoc spell at the table and pretend it was in his suite all along.  So maybe there wouldn't be any game play difference between the two approaches, but in practice I suspect that the suite version would be more playable.  (I know I disclaimed a preference for this idea, but now I'm reclaiming it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />)I don't know what you mean by this.****I've got a formula for the Power Word seed.  Close range, verbal component, 1 individual, no save, affects only a creature whose current hit points are below the current threshold.  Choose a base spell (like blindness or finger of death) whose spell level is SL.  If the range of the base spell is touch and/or if there are expensive material components or a long casting time you might want to increase the SL a bit.  (convert the extra factors at a rate of 6 SP per spell level) Choose a hit point threshold of HP.  Then to determine the SP of the resulting epic power word consult the following formula:(SL * 6) + (HP / 6) - 45 = SPE.g. if you wanted to upgrade power word: kill to affect a 200 hp target, you'd have (7 * 6) + (200/6) - 45 = 42 + 33 - 45 = 30.That's assuming that being killed by a PWK is like failing a save vs finger of death.E.g. to put a 300 hp creature into temporal stasis (treat as SL 9 for its range and power component cost) would be (9 * 6) + (300 / 6) - 45 =  54 + 50 - 45 = 59.It's expensive, but the creature is treated as automatically failing its save.  SR still applies, of course.  Although there should be a way of bypassing it, too... I'd guess that adding +12 to the SP of a power word would allow you to bypass SR too.  Awfully expensive, but with enough SP anything should be possible.****I'm still having trouble with the blasphemy suite.  For one thing, you can kill creatures with a blasphemy that a power word: kill wouldn't touch.  A 10th level barbarian with 120 hp, say.  And you affect a whole bunch of creatures in a 40-ft. spread, not just one.  The overlapping effects are complicating things too.At the moment I'm thinking that a blasphemy occupies a cost-effectiveness "valley" - almost any change to its parameters, even one that makes it "weaker" (like confining its effect to a single target) increases its SP.  Thus if you eliminate the overlapping effects and make it affect only a single target, then you might not be able to affect that 10th level barbarian any more, even if you increase it to 9th level.  (The fact that hp changes in combat but HD normally don't is an important difference between the two spells; I'm still trying to chew on that.)I still think that blasphemy should have its effects capped at level 20.  +1 level = +2 SP.  But other than that... I dunno.[edit] The comparison isn't always in favor of blasphemy, of course.  A PWK can destroy a 20th level wizard with a 10 Constitution.  Or a wounded 20th level fighter.  So it might be wrong to compare the two of them, or to base an argument on direct damage.  The [destroy] seed is buried deep in the analysis of PWK, but it's hard to see.  Perhaps negative levels would be a more fruitful approach to figuring out the level based mechanic of the blasphemy suite...</blockquote>

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