Epic Spellcasting

[Trainz]

Well, we've been playtesting the system I proposed in this thread, and it passed a lot of test.

Test Number 1: It's good enough for PC casters to want to take it without hesitation.

Test Number 2: When giving it to NPC's attacking the PC's, it made the NPC's more lethal, but didn't result in a TPK, which is good.

We have altered it a bit with playtesting, so here is the updated version:

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Epic Spellcasting Feat:

Same prereq's as the one from ELH, with different effect: It allows a caster to shape his spells a number of times per day equal to his ranks in the appropriate Knowledge feat divided by 10 (2 times per day for Knowledge Arcana 23). When this feat is taken, one shape is acquired. This feat can be taken multiple times in order to acquire new DIFFERENT shapes.

These shapes can be applied to a metamagicked spell. They do not increase the spell level.

Shapes:

TIME: The duration of the spell is increased by one factor:

1 round ==> 1 minute
1 minute ==> 1 hour
1 hour ==> 1 day
1 round per level ==> 1 minute per level
1 minute per level ==> 1 hour per level
1 hour per level ==> 1 day per level

A spell with a duration shorter than 1 round or longer than 1 hour per level cannot be shaped with TIME.

SPACE: The area of effect is multiplied by 10. A fireball would explode in a 200 ft radius spread.

LIFE: The amount of hit points cured by a spell (cure and heal spells only) is tripled. A mass heal by a 25th level cleric would cure 750 hit points. If this shape is applied to a raise dead or any resurrection spell, up to one creature per 4 divine caster levels can be brought back to life with a single casting of the spell (a 29th level cleric could resurrect 7 creatures).

ARCANE: The spell's saving throw DC is raised by 7, the caster gains a +7 on his roll to bypass spell resistance, and any dispel checks are made with a +7.

ENERGY: If a spell does damage to creatures by rolling some dice and are part of the Invocation/Evocation schools, the targets saving throws are automatically failed, their spell resistance is automatically bypassed, and any energy resistance or immunity they may have is suppressed for the casting of this single spell.

SHARING: A beneficial spell with a target of personal or creature touched may affect you and one willing creature per caster level within line of sight.

SPEED: You may cast another spell this round. It is not "Quickened", which means that sorcerors can apply metamagic feats to it, even if they already did with a previous spell this same round.

ENTHROPY: As you cast the spell, magical energies unleashed by the casting gives you temporary hit points equal to your caster level multiplied by 20. These hit points disappear at a rate of 10 per round, and are diminished by any attacks damaging you.

A spell can be modified by more than one shape, but each shape counts as a use.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Sepulchrave,

I like the genesis seed you posted on the other thread. That is one of the more complicated of the seeds- most of the rest should be pretty straightforward.

Developing more seeds is a good idea, but some of the differences would be mostly nominal- consider how Time Stop is subsumed under Transport, for example. You *could* write a separate "Time" seed, but the DCs would be the same as listed under Transport. The only practical difference would be when you want a spell that combines Transport and Time: If they were separate seeds, it would be more expensive to combine them.

The tricky part lies in the combination of seeds, and mixing in the factors. I think there needs to be more constraints to address the problems of certain spells, and make spells seem more elegant. Some spells are too powerful for their DC, others are far too weak. (Verdigris Tsunami, for instance, is not very impressive for its DC!)

We need more elegant, model spells to consider. And then we can determine rules that allow those kind of spells. Or spells that don't work out right, and we can find rules that make them turn out differently (and better!). What spells should we take as our models?

 

[Kerrick]

I should have posted this some time back, but I was still tweaking it a bit and trying to get some playtesters. I recently released it for general use, though, so I figured that since this thread is still going, I'd weight in here.

First off, here's the link: www.geocities.com/mistmane/3E/LSC.zip

This is a level-based system I've been working for about a year now, and I've pretty much finalized things. It has not been thoroughly playtested, but I've created nearly 100 spells with it, and I think it's pretty well balanced.

I have made a few changes since this version was posted, though, and I can't post a new one due to my current circumstances, so I'll just recap them here:

The spells/day chart at the beginning is not finalized yet - it may well change between now and when we actually release this thing.

The mitigating factor "Caster takes 1 point of ability damage" should be -3, not -2.

Add in the following mitigating factors: "Caster is stunned for 1d10 rounds: -2"; "caster is exhausted: -4"; and "Caster is knocked unconscious for 1d6 rounds: -8".

The Afflict element is gone - I got rid of the first part and changed the second part to the DIsease element.

Dispel has been changed: +5 on the caster level check increases the spell level by +1 (+1/point was too prohibitively expensive, and who uses a caster level cap that's divisible by anything other than 5 or 10 anyway?)

I've also added a Telekinesis element, but I haven't yet had a chance to write it up.

Ideas, questions, comments? Let me know - I'm eager to hear how well this thing works out.

 

[Cheiromancer]

I am not sure that the spellcraft-based system in the ELH needs to be replaced with a level-based system. But I like your new seeds. Many are highly yoinkworthy. Which reminds me: I think you need to update section 15 of the OGL.

You must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder's name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute.

That would be "Legendary Magic, 2004, Mike Chapin" This way if anyone uses your work you automatically get credit for it. The SRD should be in there too, I think.

 

[Kerrick]

I am not sure that the spellcraft-based system in the ELH needs to be replaced with a level-based system.

I don't know, I think this system is a lot cleaner and easier to use. And it's also harder to abuse, IMO.

Which reminds me: I think you need to update section 15 of the OGL.

Oh hell. I had the OGL on the previous version, but I must have forgotten to tack it on when I did the revisions. Unfortunately, I can't post a new version due to restrictions on the computer I'm using.