Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Archive Forums
Hosted Forums
Personal & Hosted Forums
Hosted Publisher Forums
Eternity Publishing Hosted Forum
paradox42's crazy cosmology
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="paradox42" data-source="post: 5241193" data-attributes="member: 29746"><p>I actually had a dual system in my setting, since I ported my old "10th level spells" from 2nd Edition into 3rd as Ultramagic (among other things, one has to learn individual Ultraspells as feats, and every last one deals ability damage to the caster as part of the casting in addition to carrying an often-hefty XP casting cost). We used Ultraspells, and also Epic spells- though since the Ultraspells weren't really designed around a quantified system the way Epic spells were, the Epic system got used a lot more often as we got way up in the divine levels.</p><p></p><p>For a base, with the Epic spell system, we used the <a href="http://dicefreaks.superforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=266" target="_blank">FeanMerc</a> Epic Spell System, which adds a few extra factors such as removal of saving throws and allowing material components and foci, and more importantly allows the use of existing spells as spell <em>seeds</em> so you're not limited to using the generic (and sometimes badly designed) seeds from the original Epic spell system. We used this one extensively, and also threw in a variant I picked up from reading Sepulchrave's Story Hour here on the ENWorld boards.</p><p></p><p>Sepulchrave had a game that was going up into high Epic territory, though his characters never reached godhood from what I saw- but one variant he used that I really liked, was that an Epic spell maker can (by stacking enough mitigating factors) reduce the Epic spell's DC to 0- and in that case is allowed to create the spell instantaneously, on the spur of the moment, for no (research) cost in gold or XP. Part of the impetus behind this variant in his game, I think, was the fact that one of his PCs was a NG Druid with the Vow of Poverty feat, who therefore couldn't keep money for researching Epic spells the usual way. Nobody in my games used that feat, but my PCs still created several insta-spells with DC 0, even back before any of them ascended. They most commonly did this by using powerful personal artifacts as material foci, and stacking on a lot of XP and caster-takes-damage costs, but one can do some cool things even without using those.</p><p></p><p>It's worth commenting on one more aspect of Epic spells. As they got way up there in divine levels, of course, damage became less and less threatening to them, so they tended to use that one more and more- one of the characters who eventually became half of Evolution created a DC-0 Epic Psionic Power he called "Ultraf*ckomnicognition" (I burst out laughing the first time I saw that name and gave him a "really entertain the DM" XP award for coming up with it) which basically works just like <em>Hypercognition</em> except for granting a much higher bonus on the check. This power dealt over 1000 dice of damage to him with each manifestation. Since by this time, he had hit points in the five-digit range, this was considered a trivial cost by him, and he often used this Epic power several times at a stretch to work things out during each of the party's "learn everything we can about the enemy before we fight it so we can take it apart methodically when we actually get around to acting" episodes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="paradox42, post: 5241193, member: 29746"] I actually had a dual system in my setting, since I ported my old "10th level spells" from 2nd Edition into 3rd as Ultramagic (among other things, one has to learn individual Ultraspells as feats, and every last one deals ability damage to the caster as part of the casting in addition to carrying an often-hefty XP casting cost). We used Ultraspells, and also Epic spells- though since the Ultraspells weren't really designed around a quantified system the way Epic spells were, the Epic system got used a lot more often as we got way up in the divine levels. For a base, with the Epic spell system, we used the [URL=http://dicefreaks.superforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=266]FeanMerc[/URL] Epic Spell System, which adds a few extra factors such as removal of saving throws and allowing material components and foci, and more importantly allows the use of existing spells as spell [I]seeds[/I] so you're not limited to using the generic (and sometimes badly designed) seeds from the original Epic spell system. We used this one extensively, and also threw in a variant I picked up from reading Sepulchrave's Story Hour here on the ENWorld boards. Sepulchrave had a game that was going up into high Epic territory, though his characters never reached godhood from what I saw- but one variant he used that I really liked, was that an Epic spell maker can (by stacking enough mitigating factors) reduce the Epic spell's DC to 0- and in that case is allowed to create the spell instantaneously, on the spur of the moment, for no (research) cost in gold or XP. Part of the impetus behind this variant in his game, I think, was the fact that one of his PCs was a NG Druid with the Vow of Poverty feat, who therefore couldn't keep money for researching Epic spells the usual way. Nobody in my games used that feat, but my PCs still created several insta-spells with DC 0, even back before any of them ascended. They most commonly did this by using powerful personal artifacts as material foci, and stacking on a lot of XP and caster-takes-damage costs, but one can do some cool things even without using those. It's worth commenting on one more aspect of Epic spells. As they got way up there in divine levels, of course, damage became less and less threatening to them, so they tended to use that one more and more- one of the characters who eventually became half of Evolution created a DC-0 Epic Psionic Power he called "Ultraf*ckomnicognition" (I burst out laughing the first time I saw that name and gave him a "really entertain the DM" XP award for coming up with it) which basically works just like [I]Hypercognition[/I] except for granting a much higher bonus on the check. This power dealt over 1000 dice of damage to him with each manifestation. Since by this time, he had hit points in the five-digit range, this was considered a trivial cost by him, and he often used this Epic power several times at a stretch to work things out during each of the party's "learn everything we can about the enemy before we fight it so we can take it apart methodically when we actually get around to acting" episodes. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Archive Forums
Hosted Forums
Personal & Hosted Forums
Hosted Publisher Forums
Eternity Publishing Hosted Forum
paradox42's crazy cosmology
Top