Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Realms of Chaos" data-source="post: 3732472" data-attributes="member: 54946">What are Epic Mysteries:Epic Mysteries are mysteries developed from a core of various magical ingredients called seeds. Furthermore, they are made of pure shadowstuff directly from the plane of shadow, making them incredibly hard to eliminate. Despite their power, they still follow the rules of normal shadow magic unless otherwise noted. Much like with epic spells, however, it takes much time and personal investment to actually develop an epic mystery. Unlike with epic spellcasting however, rather than spending money and life force to develop their spells, they test their knowledge and power against the plane of shadow, putting their very life on the line.Learning Epic Mysteries:In order to learn Epic Mysteries, one only needs the epic shadowcasting feat. With that feat in tow, the two step procedure of development and casting can begin.Epic Mystery Development:Before it can be cast, an epic mystery must be developed. As shadows shift and morph less willingly than raw magic, it takes a mystery-user weeks to accomplish what a spellcaster could in days.Every day that the mystery-user spends trying to learn the epic mystery, they must spend at least 8 hours studying and meditating, engaging in no more than light activity. If this is ignored for 3 consecutive days, they are set back by a week in their progress (or they must abandon the attempt and start again from scratch if they have made under a week of progress)Every week, the mystery-user must make a knowledge (arcana) or knowledge (the planes) check against the mystery’s Spellcraft DC, in order to direct their studies properly. The mystery-user may not take 10 on these checks and they take a –2 penalty on the check for each day that week in which they did not prepare themselves. With each failure, no progress is made for the week. If the mystery-user fails their knowledge check on three consecutive weeks, they must abandon the attempt and start again from scratch.In addition, once every 4 weeks, the mystery-user must bodily visit the plane of shadows and make a Spellcraft check against the mystery’s dc, to subtly shape the plane of shadows to their advantage. The mystery-user takes a –2 penalty on this check for each unsuccessful weekly knowledge check made within the last month and may not take 10 on such checks. If this Spellcraft check is failed, the mystery-user is slain, as they enter a realm of power beyond their control. If they are later revived from the dead, they must start again from scratch. An additional such Spellcraft check is made at the end of the development process in addition to that week’s knowledge check (if the development process ends at a 4-week interval, make only one spellcraft check, as normal).Perhaps uniquely among shadow magic, the development of epic mysteries is so complex that it needs specialized tools, herbs, and other commodities, providing a tangible cost. This paltry fee, however, is as copper pieces compared to the fortunes needed to fund epic spell development. The specialized equipment can be ignored, if need be, but the mystery-user takes a –10 penalty on all knowledge and Spellcraft checks made to develop the epic mystery without the equipment.Epic Shadowcasting:Once it has been developed, an epic mystery becomes tied to the mystery-user’s spiritual shadow by a bit of their life force. An epic mystery-user can have as many epic mysteries known at any time equal to one tenth of their added ranks in knowledge (arcana) and knowledge (the planes). Each epic mystery is usable once per day as an extraordinary ability and can be learned multiple times (with a +2 competence bonus on all checks to develop it for each time it has been successfully developed. Repeated developments of epic mysteries count towards the mystery-user’s limit).In order to cast an epic mystery, they must make a spellcraft check against the epic mystery’s dc. As their life force is holding onto each epic mystery, the expenditure of epic mysteries weakens them and the results of the spellcraft check determine not only success or failure but how much of that life force was retained. With a successful spellcraft check, the epic mystery is successfully cast and the mystery-user is merely fatigued for one hour (any successive epic shadowcasting within this time renders the mystery-user exhausted for an hour). With a failed spellcraft check, the daily use of the epic mystery is wasted and the mystery-user loses two points of constitution (or dexterity, for mystery-users without constitution scores) until they can regain their epic mysteries.The casting of an epic mystery causes the mystery-user’s shadow to quake, multiply, and even rise up or ripple as the effects of the epic mystery emerge from it. This display is visible with a DC 0 spot check.Metashadow, Items, and Epic MysteriesMetashadow feats and other feats that manipulate normal mysteries cannot be used with epic mysteries.A character cannot create an item that imitates the effects of an epic mystery. Only major artifacts, beyond the capabilities of even epic characters to create, can house such tremendous power.The saving throw against a character’s epic mystery is 10 + 1/2 caster level + relevant ability modifier. It is possibly to create epic mysteries with higher save DCs, however, by applying the proper factors.Epic Mystery TermsEpic MysteryMysteries that are different from common mysteries. They are normally custom-made and do not come in paths.FactorA modification to the base use of a seed, which usually increases the difficulty of casting the mystery.Mitigating FactorA special factor used in epic spells to make an epic spell easier to cast. No parallel exists with epic mysteries, with the exception of very powerful cultists.SeedEvery custom made mystery created by characters starts with a base effect called a seed. They are the fundamental building blocks of both epic spells and epic mysteries, although the seeds used for each one are somewhat different in function.Epic Mystery DescriptionsEach epic mystery uses the same format as any other mystery, with two additional entries; Spellcraft DC and To DevelopSpellcraft DCThis is the DC of the spellcraft check needed to cast the mystery, as well as the DC for the knowledge and spellcraft check(s) needed to develop the mystery.To DevelopThe first part of this entry shows the amount of time, money, and checks that are needed to develop the epic mystery. The rest of the development entry shows the seeds and factors used to create the epic mystery.</blockquote>

Verification