Epic Spellcasting

[Cheiromancer]

Ok, the rules in the ELH are kind of wonky, but I figure there are a lot of talented folks out there, and somebody must have house-ruled them into something elegant.

Anybody want to post their version of the Epic Spellcasting system?

 

[ichabod]

Ok, the rules in the ELH are kind of wonky, but I figure there are a lot of talented folks out there, and somebody must have house-ruled them into something elegant.

Anybody want to post their version of the Epic Spellcasting system?

Here's what I managed over the summer, but I haven't had time to work on it since then. Spells with an * I haven't written up yet. It was all based on 3.0. I also made the feat Improved Spellcasting give one spell of up to one level higher than you can already cast (epic feat, must be able to cast that level, and can't have more slots than a lower level.

7th-LEVEL BARD SPELLS

Ethereal Jaunt: You become ethereal for 1 round/level.
Greater Scrying: As scrying, but faster and longer.
Heal: Cures all damage, diseases, and mental conditions.
Insanity: Subject suffers a continuous confusion.
Mass Charm: As charm monster, but all within 30 ft.
Mass Invisibility: As invisibility, but affects all in range.
Otto?s Irresistable Dance: Forces subjects to dance.
Phase Door: Invisible passage through wood or stone.
Prismatic Spray: Rays hit subjects with variety of effects.
Sequester: Subject is invisible to sight and scrying.
Shadow Walk: Step into shadow to travel quickly.
Song of Creation: Emulate any conjuration effect of 5th level or lower.
Summon Monster VII: Calls outsider to fight for you.

8th-LEVEL BARD SPELLS

Antipathy: Object or location affected by spell repels certain creatures.
Discern Location: Exact location of a creature or object.
Dominate Monster: As dominate person, but any creature.
Etherealness: Travel to the ethereal plane with companions.
Limited Wish: Alters reality, within spell limits.
*Mass Dominate Person: As dominate person, but one person per level.
Mordenkainen?s Disjunction: Dispels magic, disenchants magical items.
Prismatic Wall: Wall?s colors have an array of effects.
Screen: Illusion hides area from vision and scrying.
Summon Monster VIII: Calls outsider to fight for you.
Sympathy: Object or location affected by spell attracts certain creatures.

9th-LEVEL BARD SPELLS

Astral Projection: Projects you and companions into the Astral Plane.
Foresight: ?Sixth sense? warns of impending danger.
Greater Song of Creation: Emulate any conjuration effect of 7th level or lower.
Otto?s Irresitible River Dance: As Otto?s Irresitible Dance, and nearby creatures are fascinated.
Plane Shift, Improved: As plane shift, but no off-target arrival.
Prismatic Sphere: As prismatic wall, but surrounds on all sides.
Summon Monster IX: Calls outsider to fight for you.
Wail of the Banshee: Kills one creature/level.
X-ray Vision: You can see through solid objects.

10th-LEVEL CLERIC SPELLS

*Alter Weather: As control weather, but greater changes.
Damnation: See ELH.
*Death of Light: Target explodes in a wave of positive energy.
*Greater Hallow: Designates location as extremely holy.
*Greater Unhallow: Designates location as extremely unholy.
Holy Stone: Normal rock becomes a mighty weapon.
*Mass Resurrection: As resurrection, but with several subjects.
Plane Shift without Error: As plane shift, but no off-target arrival.
Temporal Stasis: Puts subject into suspended animation.

11TH-LEVEL CLERIC SPELLS

Contingent Resurrection: See ELH.
*Death to Chaos: All chaotic subjects in range must save or die.
*Death to Evil: All evil subjects in range must save or die.
*Death to Good: All good subjects in range must save or die.
*Death to Law: All lawful subjects in range must save or die.
Dire Winter: See ELH.
*Energy Immunity: Subject is immune to one type of energy.
*Second Wind: 1 subject/level is completely healed of all damage, negative levels, and ability damage.

12th-LEVEL CLERIC SPELLS

*Divine Body: Target gains +1/level bonus to all physical stats (max +30)
*Divine Intellect: Target gains +1/level bonus to all mental stats (max +30)
*Haven: Transports you and your allies into the protection of your god.
*Leomund?s Temporary Plane: Create your own plane of existence.
*Plague: Multiple targets are afflicted with chosen disease.
Superb Dispelling: See ELH (no backlash).

13TH-LEVEL CLERIC SPELLS

*Greater Spell Immunity: Target is immune to 1 school of magic/10 levels.
*Mordenkainen?s Revenge: Neither you nor the target may cast spells.
*Reverse Aging: Turn back the years.
True Contingent Resurrection: As contingent resurrection, except there is no loss of levels or constitution.

14th-LEVEL CLERIC SPELLS

*Damn: Target is destroyed, and their soul is trapped in hell.
*Divine Guidance: Find the best course of action or solution to a problem.
*Possess Golem: You transfer your life force into a Golem.
*Sell Soul: You sell your soul to a demon lord or duke of hell in return for great power.
*Summon Avatar: Summon a servant of your god to you.

10TH-LEVEL DRUID SPELLS

*Dire Transformation: Unleashes the dire nature hidden within.
Dire Winter: See ELH.
Nailed to the Sky: See ELH.
*Nature?s Wrath: Damage to creatures that aren?t animals, beasts, or magical beasts.
Summon Nature?s Ally X: Calls creature to fight for you.
*Sunder from Nature: Curses target to be opposed by nature.
*Verdigris: The area is rapidly overgrown.

11TH-LEVEL DRUID SPELLS

*Alter Weather: As control weather, but greater changes.
*At Home: Temporarily adds a template based on the terrain to a creature.
Crown of Vermin: See ELH.
*Energy Immunity: Subject is immune to one type of energy.
*Nature?s Tentacles: Plants near the targets come to life and grapple them.
*Rain of Frogs: Subjects in the area are pummeled by falling frogs.
Summon Nature?s Ally XI: Calls creature to fight for you.
*Terramorph: You can permanently change the landscape.

12TH-LEVEL DRUID SPELLS

Create Beast: Creates a breeding pair of a new beast race, whose attributes are determined by the caster.
Death Fog: Fog bank that kills.
Momento Mori: See ELH.
*Greater Nature?s Wrath: More damage to creatures that aren?t animals, beasts, or magical beasts.
Summon Nature?s Ally XII: Calls creature to fight for you.
Superb Dispelling: See ELH (no backlash).

13TH-LEVEL DRUID SPELLS

*Elemorph: The target becomes partially elemental.
*Imbue with Elements: Temporarily adds an elemental template to a creature.
*Rain of Black Frogs: As rain of frogs, but with poison.
Summon Nature?s Ally XIII: Calls creature to fight for you.

14TH-LEVEL DRUID SPELLS

Create Magical Beast: Creates a breeding pair of a new magical beast race, whose attributes are determined by the caster.
Kaiju: Turns an animal into a collosal kaiju.
Momento Mori: See ELH.
*Seventh Sense: You cannot be hit except on a threat.
Summon Natures Ally XIV: Calls creature to fight for you.
Verdigris Tsunami: See ELH (no ritual, 1,000 XP).

5TH-LEVEL PALADIN SPELLS

Break Enchantment: Frees subjects from enchantments, alterations, curses, and petrification.
Healing Circle: Cures 1d8+1/level damage in all directions.
Raise Dead: Restores life to subject who died within 1 day/caster level.
Righteous Might: Your size increases and you gain +4 Str.

6TH-LEVEL PALADIN SPELLS

Banishment: Banishes 2hd/level extraplanar creatures.
Heal: Cures all damage, diseases, and mental conditions.
Holy Word: Kills, paralyzes, weakens, or dazes nongood subjects.
Vengence Unleashed: Combat bonuses against slayers of allies of you or your god.

5TH-LEVEL RANGER SPELLS

Commune with Nature: Learn about terrain for one mile/level.
Find the Path: Shows most direct way to a location.
Stone Tell: Talk to natural or worked stone.
Summon Nature?s Ally V: Calls an animal to fight for you.
Tree Stride: Step from one tree to another far away.
Wall of Thorns: Thorns damage anyone who tries to pass.

6TH-LEVEL RANGER SPELLS

Healing Circle: Cures 1d8+1/level damage in all directions.
*Herb Lore: Find an herb that duplicates any healing spell of fifth level or lower.
Reincarnate: Brings dead subject back in a random body.
Summon Nature?s Ally VI: Calls an animal to fight for you.
Trasport via Plants: Move instantly from one plant to another of the same species.
True Seeing: See all things as they really are.
Wall of Stone: 20 hp/four levels; can be shaped.

10th-LEVEL SORCERER AND WIZARD SPELLS

Abjur Greylor?s Warding: Stops scrying and teleport.
Peripety: See ELH.
Conj Summon Drake: Summon a young adult dragon.
Summon Monster X: Calls an outsider to fight for you.
Div X-ray Vision: You can see through solid objects.
Ench Otto?s Irresitible River Dance: As Otto?s Irresitible Dance, and nearby creatures are fascinated.
Evoc Lesser War Ball: Huge fireball for up to 30d6.
Illus Mass Improved Invisibility: As improved invisibility, but affects all in range.
Necro Animus Blast: See ELH.
Mummy Dust: See ELH (1,000 gp component, no XP loss)
*Trans Alter Weather: As control weather, but greater changes.
Let Go of Me: See ELH (no backlash).
Nailed to the Sky: See ELH.

11th-LEVEL SORCERER AND WIZARD SPELLS

*Abjur Energy Immunity: You are immune to one type of energy.
* Greater Guards and Wards: Array of magic effects protects area.
* Greater Spell Turning: Relfect 1d8+10 spell levels back at caster.
*Conj Magus Armor: As mage armor, but +15 bonus.
* Summon Monster XI: Calls an outsider to fight for you
*Div Greater Telepathic Bond: As Rary?s telepathic bond, plus additional effects.
*Ench Program Soul: Brainwash subject.
*Evoc Bigby?s Other Hand: Two Bigby?s crushing hands.
* Magic Ballista: 5 missiles at 5d6+5 damage each; +1 missile/two levels above 25th (max +5).
* True Energy Ball: 1d6/5 levels of acid, cold, electricity, fire, force, and sonic damage in a 30 ft. radius.
*Illus Huge Illusion: As major image, but 100 10 ft. cubes + 20/level.
Necro Demise Unseen: Unsee ELH.
Momento Mori: See ELH.
Trans Dire Winter: See ELH.
Plane Shift, Improved: As plane shift, but no off-target arrival.
* Terramorph: You can permanently change the landscape.
*Univ Greater Wish: As limited wish, but with very few limits.

12TH-LEVEL SORCERER AND WIZARD SPELLS

*Abjur Mordenkainen?s Revenge: Neither you nor the target may cast spells.
Superb Dispelling: See ELH (no backlash).
Conj Crown of Vermin: See ELH.
Summon Dragon: Summon a mature adult dragon.
* Summon Monster XII: Calls an outsider to fight for you.
Div See All: As x-ray vision, true seeing, and all detect spells.
*Ench Mass Dominate: As dominate monster, but one creature per level.
Evoc Eclipse: See ELH (no XP cost).
* Greater War Ball: As lesser war ball, with a maximum 40d6.
Hellball: See ELH (no XP cost).
*Illus Virtual Reality: Target experiences a totally false reality.
*Necro Spell Vampire: Drain spell slots from the target.
* Storm of Death: Magical storm causes energy drain and ability damage.
*Trans Leomund?s Temporary Plane: Create your own plane of existence.
* Mass Mass: Target object cannot be moved.

13TH-LEVEL SORCERER AND WIZARD SPELLS

Abjur Energy Absorption: Damage dealt to you is stored and can be dealt to others with a touch attack.
*Conj Wizard?s Tower: You can create permanent structures.
* Summon Army: Calls a small army to fight for you.
* Summon Monster XIII: Calls an outsider to fight for you.
*Div Spot Weakness: Automatic maximum damage critical.
*Evoc Antibolt: Bolt of energy tailored to target creature.
Ench Enslave: See ELH.
* Mass Hysteria: Everyone within 1 mile/5 levels is shaken.
*Illus True Shadow Spell: As greater shadow conjuration and evocation, but more powerful.
*Necro Reverse Aging: Turn back the years.
*Trans Change Race: Transforms up to twenty members of one race into another.

14th-LEVEL SORCERER AND WIZARD SPELLS

*Abjur Force Armor: As wall of force, but it surrounds your body and moves with you.
Conj Eidolon: See ELH.
* Summon Monster XIV: Calls an outsider to fight for you.
Summon Wyrm: Summon a wyrm.
*Div Seventh Sense: You cannot be hit except on a threat.
*Ench Possess Golem: You transfer your life force into a Golem.
Evoc Helcar?s Acid Orchestra: Geysers of acid shoot out of the ground at your command.
Rain of Fire: See ELH.
Out with a Bang: Die in a monstrous explosion.
*Illus Mass Virtual Reality: As virtual reality, but with multiple targets.
Necro Animus Blizard: See ELH.
* Sell Soul: You sell your soul to a demon lord or duke of hell in return for great power.
Trans Mass Frog: See ELH.

 

[Trainz]

Ok, the rules in the ELH are kind of wonky, but I figure there are a lot of talented folks out there, and somebody must have house-ruled them into something elegant.

Anybody want to post their version of the Epic Spellcasting system?

I would love to turn back the favor you did for my Epic template, but to tell the truth, I didn't have to deal with epic spells yet. My current Epic campaign is a solo adventure with a fighter.

I am very adverse at using the epic spells mechanic. It is very sloppy, complicated, and often very costly to the caster. NOT my idea of what being a powerful caster is all about.

Fortunately, with the option of taking feats to get access to 10th, 11th, 12th... spell slots, you can metamagic 8th and 9th level spells, and thus aproximate what a 25th - 30th level caster should be able to accomplish. With a 14th level slot, an epic caster can possibly do 288 points of damage with a Meteor Swarm.

Now, that said, the sorceror needs to spend 5 FEATS to achieve this (not counting the two metamagic feats to boost the spell in the first place), which he will only be able to do at level 27, with ONLY taking the Improved Spell Capacity Feat 5 times. Other classes improve (more sneak attack damage for rogues, better smite damage for the paladin...) WITHOUT needing to buy such and such feat. They can actually use their feat-buying-power for cooler stuff (like Dire Charge... *drool*...)

You get my meaning. The thing is, I wish 3.5 would have fixed that in the Epic section of the DMG.

HUGE mistake IMO.

 

[Trainz]

Been thinking since I hit the "Submit Reply" button...

In view of what I wrote above, maybe a good house rule would be to just give a free Improved Spell Capacity every 3 levels (21, 24, 27...), but removing them from the feat list (or you'll have wizzies throwing 288 damage Meteor Swarms at level 24...).

Epic casters don't need a bigger spell selection (pretty much every aspect is covered with the huge diversity of 1st through 9th level spells), they need BIGGER GUNS.

Anyways, just a thought...

 

[GameGuru4]

Spells are about a lot more than doing damage. Epic Spells shouldn't just be higher damage attack spells than 1st-9th level ones. Bigger guns is not the answer.

Cool is the answer. That's one reason the Epic Spellcasting system is so damn neat. You can do stuff like create a whole new species of creature - you can't do that with nonepic spells.

Epic Levels are so ludicrous anyway (I should know, I run an epic game where the characters also have divine rank) that doing cool is way more important than your damage output per round. At that point story damn well better take center stage over dice of damage or else it'll get boring to anyone who is above 13 years of age.

 

[Trainz]

I stand corrected, I guess.

Still, I can't for the life of me use the rules as written. Or if I do, I'm not liking it.

 

[Cheiromancer]

These are some great ideas!

My issue with higher level spell slots is that they are very feat intensive. It is also hard to know how to benchmark a particular spell- is it 13th level? 17th? or 59th?

However I have even more issues with the system of Epic Spellcasting based on spell seeds and spellcraft. That is what I am working on right now. Sep's story hour and rogue's gallery is my primary inspiration.

 

[comrade raoul]

Here's what I managed over the summer, but I haven't had time to work on it since then. Spells with an * I haven't written up yet. It was all based on 3.0. I also made the feat Improved Spellcasting give one spell of up to one level higher than you can already cast (epic feat, must be able to cast that level, and can't have more slots than a lower level.

These are terrific ideas. I'm flirting with a similar project, and would really enjoy developing what you've got. In general, I think that you only really need epic progression up to 30th level or so; by that point, characters can challenge most of the truly fearsome traditional fantasy monsters (and I tend to like the idea of weaker deities than the ones in Deities and Demigods -- Odin might be CR 33 or so). Any chance you could send me (at bbagley1 [at] swarthmore [dot] edu) what you've got thus far?

 

[Thresher]

What we're using is similar to the White Wolf's 'Mage' system in a few ways, its 'add-hoc magic' on the fly and so far its working out well.

Instead of researching individual spells, you research a Seed.
What this does is-
Let you cast the basic abilities of that seed. Use the Seed's DC listed in the book to find out how much it will cost you in XP and GP to learn. As something of a bone, you get 1 Seed when you pick up Epic Casting.
This system ***Scales with your level*** (You can imagine early in your career how a DC25 spell will be utterly useless, especially offensive ones later on), something the book system dosnt.
Research another Seed(s), then you can combine the them to cast some of the spells in the book and make up your own on the fly. However to cut down on umming and ahhing we tend to make up some quick 'cheat sheets' for a couple of the more common spells like the defensive and healing ones we use a lot.
Know Spellcraft and Arcana, still the same as whats in the book for their use with epic casting.

So far after a few months of playing it is pretty bullet proof and only requires a knowledge of the epic casting system and some imagination to use.

 

[Mordane76]

Thresher: it could be that I've been up for 24+ hours when I read this, but I'm not completely understanding what your system entails... do you happen to have this dandy little change in a format you could share with all of us?