Originally posted by Sepulchrave II
Rod of the Epic Spellcaster
This magnificent adamantine rod bestows upon its possessor the equivalent of 10 additional ranks in Spellcraft for the purpose of casting epic spells, for as long as he or she holds or carries the rod.
Caster Level: 21st; Prerequisites: Craft Rod, Craft Epic Rod; Market Price: ?
Should this item even exist? How would you cost it? Should it be a minor artifact?
Cheiromancer said:
I'd rather it didn't exist. I'm hoping that our system is tight and powerful enough that we don't need such items. It also defeats one of the main purposes of having a spellcraft prerequisite system; to make it impossible to buff.
The only reason I might list such an item is because people will expect to see something like it. I would rather it be priced pretty severely, so that folks will normally choose something else. Perhaps 5 times as much as a weapon bonus. I.e.
1,000,000 + bonus cubed times 2000
More than that and people will house rule it down. Less than that and it would be a significant item; perhaps a must have item. A +10 item for 3 million might in fact be a must-have item for a 50th level character. It is the equivalent of a 100,000 gp power component for every spell (400,000 if not a preferred mitigation) and could pay for itself within days.
A +5 item would be 1,250,000 for a 37th level character. I think that would be OK.
Since we are now using half the ELH values for items (base value x5), my proposal would translate into bonus^2 x 50,000. Or, if it is an artifact, bonus^2 x 100,000.
This is priced rather conservatively- a cheaper price might be appropriate. Perhaps much cheaper. I find
Temenun very interesting. How best to translate him in our current Epic Magic system? The
Token of Cheshne, among other things, gives a +50 bonus to Spellcraft. Now our system generally gives involves smaller numbers than the ELH system, so I'd hazard a guess that this would translate to +30 ranks. Temenun has 38 ranks of Spellcraft, so we'd be looking at SP 68 spells.
Hmmm. His epic spells don't fit the pattern we were considering for sorcerers; they are too varied. If we pretend that he is casting epic spells as a wizard, we'll have to give him two more Epic Spellcasting feats. I wonder if we can replace the Spell Focus feats with Epic Spellcasting. They are default Ak'Chazar Rakshasa feats, but maybe he took
Divine Ak'Chazar Metamagic feats instead.
Whatever we do with Temenun's feats, I think a fruitful approach would be to take some ELH spells, decide what SP they ought to be, and reverse engineer the seeds so that they fit.
For instance, Temenun has 3 ranks more than he needs to cast
reflect assault, so perhaps we could see whether we can design a [reflect] seed that produces that effect at around SP 65 or so.
I mention
reflect assault because I think it was particularly cool:
4) Reflect assault: reflect (+27), 20 attacks (+60), +1000% duration (+20). Reflect first 20 ranged or melee attacks on attacker. DC = 107.
I'm gonna have to check the [summon] seed to see how this one comes out:
6) Chthonic summons: summon (+14), 1-action (+20), increase CR by +30 (+60 DC), +1000% duration (+20), 400 XP (-4). Summons a chthonic balor for 11 mins. DC = 110.
I don't remember anymore, but when casting an ELH spell, can you take 10 on your skill check? If so, then it shouldn't be that hard for a wizard to devise a spell that gives a modest penalty to Spellcraft checks in an area- this would gravely hinder most epic spellcasters, who, when they take 10, generally succeed by only a point or two.
Hmmm. I think I'll continue the discussion of the spells in the appropriate thread. If we get the Token figured out (preferably here), and Temenun's spells, we could probably add him to the Epic Characters thread. With a link to the ELH version, of course.
