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<blockquote data-quote="Brace Cormaeril" data-source="post: 5120258" data-attributes="member: 45956">You're probably right on that point.&nbsp; I've only done the most cursory review of Character Optimization forums.&nbsp; I have found that frequently these optimizations are purely mathematical exercises, and that many Optimizers treated them as such. YMMV.&nbsp; I did independantly develop the &quot;Little Raid Raiding Hood&quot;, fwiw.&nbsp; However, on the topic of Epic Spellcasting, I must disagree.&nbsp; Taking a look at the vaunted &quot;+50 to casting stat spell&quot;:&nbsp; I don't have any books with me, as I'm out on business and responding via Blackberry, but isn't that a a Spellcraft DC of 27+2(bonus applied to relevant stat), with a gp cost of 9,000gp x Spellcraft DC of the developed spell, taking time in days to develop equal to (Total Cost of Development)/50,000 ?&nbsp; So, for your +50 stat booster, you are looking at a DC 127, without any duration increase, you are looking at 1,143,000 gp and 23 days to develop.&nbsp; Where is any character going to get this kind of money?&nbsp; I can't recall the extrapolated table for wealth by character level, but with a 50% cap on expenditure on a single item v. Total wealth, a character would have to be, what, 50th level to possess so much money? RAW, even a Metropolis+ sized city can only outlay 100k gp per day.&nbsp; If your campaign allows for a single PC to drain the total resources of an entire metropolis for nearly half a month, then rock on... Not gonna happen IMC...&nbsp; You may choose to mitigate these costs by adding ritual spellcasters to contribute spell slots to mitigate costs.&nbsp; This is a failing enterprise unless the casters in question are casting the spells for free.&nbsp; Paying the NPC caster fees every 1-2 days will quickly outpace an initial development cost.&nbsp; If these &quot;minions&quot; are Leadership based minions, rock on.&nbsp; The Ritual casters are now free, but to get the Spellcraft DC into reasonable numbers, fiscally speaking, would require the coordination of, what, 30-50 3rd level wizards contributing there highest level spell slot every two days?&nbsp; Cool, but if *that* were one of my players' masterplan... I would be disappointed at best, overcome by laughter at worst.The Hellball example above is a great example of &quot;Epic Spell Development is an art&quot;.&nbsp; Use the rules as they are written, and you have a dynamic and balanced (as balanced as 3.5 gets, lol) system for the highest levels of play.&nbsp; Turn any aspect of this game into a mathematical exercise, and your game will eventually fail before &quot;The Crunch Conundrum&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Brace Cormaeril, post: 5120258, member: 45956"] You're probably right on that point. I've only done the most cursory review of Character Optimization forums. I have found that frequently these optimizations are purely mathematical exercises, and that many Optimizers treated them as such. YMMV. I did independantly develop the "Little Raid Raiding Hood", fwiw. However, on the topic of Epic Spellcasting, I must disagree. Taking a look at the vaunted "+50 to casting stat spell": I don't have any books with me, as I'm out on business and responding via Blackberry, but isn't that a a Spellcraft DC of 27+2(bonus applied to relevant stat), with a gp cost of 9,000gp x Spellcraft DC of the developed spell, taking time in days to develop equal to (Total Cost of Development)/50,000 ? So, for your +50 stat booster, you are looking at a DC 127, without any duration increase, you are looking at 1,143,000 gp and 23 days to develop. Where is any character going to get this kind of money? I can't recall the extrapolated table for wealth by character level, but with a 50% cap on expenditure on a single item v. Total wealth, a character would have to be, what, 50th level to possess so much money? RAW, even a Metropolis+ sized city can only outlay 100k gp per day. If your campaign allows for a single PC to drain the total resources of an entire metropolis for nearly half a month, then rock on... Not gonna happen IMC... You may choose to mitigate these costs by adding ritual spellcasters to contribute spell slots to mitigate costs. This is a failing enterprise unless the casters in question are casting the spells for free. Paying the NPC caster fees every 1-2 days will quickly outpace an initial development cost. If these "minions" are Leadership based minions, rock on. The Ritual casters are now free, but to get the Spellcraft DC into reasonable numbers, fiscally speaking, would require the coordination of, what, 30-50 3rd level wizards contributing there highest level spell slot every two days? Cool, but if *that* were one of my players' masterplan... I would be disappointed at best, overcome by laughter at worst. The Hellball example above is a great example of "Epic Spell Development is an art". Use the rules as they are written, and you have a dynamic and balanced (as balanced as 3.5 gets, lol) system for the highest levels of play. Turn any aspect of this game into a mathematical exercise, and your game will eventually fail before "The Crunch Conundrum". [/QUOTE]

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