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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cheiromancer" data-source="post: 3122759" data-attributes="member: 141">I keep reading that as Horned and Tempered.  We need a "Horned and Bad-Tempered" feat that a particularly grumpy fiend (or minotaur) might take.  My dyslexia aside, that seems to be a good power level an overall feat.  Up to +6 SP versus opponents with troubling saves and SR, which too many opponents are.  The other bonuses provide a nice niche benefit.Probably for the best.  I'd love to see a nice OGC variant for vile damage, though.  I agree on your pricing for selective damage reduction.You posted this on September 11 (post 123 of this thread).  With [energy blast] as I propose, it seems that a 39th level jacobian sorcerer can use a tripled (+24) skewed (+2) typeless (+8) base 35d6 (+10) individualized (-6) inflexible (-4) energy blast to do 210d6 on a failed save. (735 hp)  That's a SP 58 spell, right?  He can do this 8 times a day for a total potential damage of 5,880 hp.Just to check for parity, the krustean sorcerer could deploy 14 levels of metamagic on a disintegrate (3 from using a 9th level slot, +11 for AMC); 1 enhancement for +4 and 5 empowers is +2.5, so it does 60d6 * 3.5 = 210d6.  Also 735 hp 8 times a day, for 5880 hp.Of course he can use his 8th level slots (maximize +3 + enhance +4 + triple empower +6)  = +2 higher spell slot + 11 AMC) for 360 hp + 60d6 * 1.5 = 675 hp.  But the jacobian caster can use his 9th level slots for disintegrates too (11 total levels; maximize and 4 empowers, say - he doesn't know Enhance Spell) for 240 hp + 40d6 * 2 = 520 hp. Not too shabby, but the conventional caster is better.Anyway, the damage dealt by these epic casters is more modest than last month's version; 735 is only 62% of 1168, and the total damage per day (5880) is only 41% of the previous version's 14,168.  We've done good work!I'm not sure how Metannihilator and Herald of the Eschaton would work in this system.   We introduced them to ensure parity with conventional casters, but that's not necessary anymore.  And they do have a fundamental weakness, namely that they require their opponents to fail their saving throws, and that doesn't happen often enough.  On the other hand, their names are too cool for them to be discarded.  And we do have the precedent of giving large bonuses via a feat to a particular seed.  How about  this: Metannihilator [Epic][Epic Magic]Prerequisites: Epic Spellcasting, Empower Spell, Spellcraft 30 ranks, ability to cast disintegrate as an arcane or domain spell.Benefit: Your base damage when devising and casting epic spells which contain the [energy blast] seed is increased to 40d6. If you use factors to further increase the damage of the spell, you gain +2d6 to the damage delivered by the spell for each +1 increase in the Spellcraft Prerequisite. Furthermore, all creatures killed by your [energy blast] spells are so marred by the energies involved that raise dead cannot be employed; only a few fragments of the body survive.Herald of the Eschaton [Epic][Epic Magic]Prerequisites: Epic Spellcasting, Metannihilator, Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, Spellcraft 42 ranks, ability to cast disintegrate as an arcane or domain spell.Benefit: When you use the Maximize and Empower factors on a spell which uses [energy blast] as the base seed, the benefits combine, and the resulting spell does maximum damage on all dice.Normal: An empowered, maximized spell normally gains the separate benefits of each factor: the maximum result plus one-half the normally rolled result.Since the schools are kinda blurred (evocation for fireball, transmutation for disintegrate) I'm a little leery about requiring Spell Focus.  I'm not sure.Metannihilator gives +16 up front (+15 to increase the base damage, and the Cannot be Raised factor).  The rest of the benefits accrue after you have the seed is doubly empowered (base damage x2 damage) for a cost of +12 SP. Only then does it makes sense to spend +6 SP to get +12d6 (x2) rather than another 50% of the base value (of 40d6).  This version of Herald of the Eschaton gives a Maximize factor (+9 SP value) for every two Empower Factors that are added (+12 SP value).  And of course you have to have included an initial Maximize (+9) in the mix. It's a very good feat (more than +30 SP value) when you can cast USP 75+ spells.Taking either of these feats means one less AMC, of course, which has a huge overall utility.  That's the main opportunity cost, I think.</blockquote>

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