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This is used in NWN but is a little weak (its 10 + level 10 spell + ability score) - due to Spell Focus you can get up to 16 + characters relevant ability score already.
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At least kinda is like that, Hellball is 32 but spellcraft DC 90 haha. However Greater Ruin is DC 3
I think "just make it make sense" is best. Given spellcraft is base level, it is a minimum of DC - 3 for the level (so 33 spellcraft needs character level 30 minimum).
We also don't have the advantage of having things like Skill Focus feats or Ability Bonuses apply to these requirements. Meaning we need to keep it in a reasonable range of numbers.
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Level 21 is the lowest epic level possible, anything under that is not doable. However if spellcraft requirements are lower I guess it means they could have just less investment in spellcraft. Below we take 20 off values of DC as noted in brackets the original. List of 3.5E ones by spellcraft rank.
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Lore Skill for Epic Spells
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Slots
Usually Knowledge skills / 10 are used to have an amount you can have. This might be doable by having multiple feats with different Lore skill requirements perhaps, and they be parented somehow.
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But you don't get a ton of epic feats anyway, and in 3.5E you have to just get Epic Spellcasting then develop however many you like.
If we want to have a separate "Epic Spell" system this is a good way to help balance it. It might be doable with NUI and Cheat Casting Spells (since all the disadvantages of cheat casting - like no counterspell, etc. - are fine!) and have the proper spellcraft DCs in use so you'd need to buff your spellcraft to cast them (magic items/Skill Focus etc.)
Updated Descriptions
The feat description always was lacking information. An improved version example with Hellball:
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Type of Feat: Epic Spell Prerequisites: 21st level, the ability to cast 9th level spells and 32 ranks in spellcraft Innate Level: 10 School: Evocation Descriptor(s): Component(s): Verbal, Somatic Range: Long Area of Effect / Target: Mega (20M radius) Duration: Instantaneous Save: Reflex 1/2 (+10 DC) (No Evasion) Spell Resistance: No The caster creates a huge ball of energy that does 10d6 points of acid, fire, electrical and sonic damage to all targets in its blast radius. Additionally all creatures are knocked down for 1 round (no saving throw allowed). Hellball ignores Spell Resistance, Evasion and Improved Evasion. |
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| Spell (feat) (Spellcraft Requirement) | Current Effects | Change Made | Notes |
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mummy dust (feat) (15) | Summons a mummy warrior | Potentially make the Mummy Lord scale with the caster level. Make the weapons held more versatile - could even have different summon options for different damage types. A niche at least. | Would be great pre-epic but the Mummy Lord doesn't perform the best. The original actually summons 2 mummies making this seem even lamer.
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dragon knight (feat) (22) | Summons a powerful adult red dragon | Description clarified is 20 round duration (as per 3.5E version) | Low duration. While much better than the Mummy Lord, it still takes quite a bit of investment for such a short duration spell - 20 rounds instead of the Mummy Dust 24 hours. Could possibly:
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greater ruin (feat) (25) | Damage: 35d6 positive energy damage to a single target (save for half, fortitude) | Added Hostile flag. Made Long range (the 3.5E version has a 12000 ft range!) Adjusted VFX to match timing. Clarified description on what save is used, damage type etc. | Actually is to the rules! Not awful but have to think. Scaling is probably the answer (Start at 35d6 and scale up from there?) |
epic mage armor (feat) (26) | +5 of 4 armor types. | School changed to Conjuration (For what it's worth) Made to be bonus Armor Enchantment AC not +5 of each type. Loses the dodge but gets the generally much more powerful +20 enchantment. | VFX is same as Epic Warding, could recolour/adjust it. It seems like this is more sensible to have as Epic Mage Armor (it is shields after all) but Epic Warding has it persistently first. |
| 10d6 points of acid, fire, electrical and sonic damage to all targets in its blast radius. Reflex save for half. | Projectile updated to be Accelerating so it loses the cool factor but gains the sensible "fire it at the target NOW!" Long range. 1 round of knockdown always occurs regardless of save (buff). Evasion and Improved Evasion are ignored (buff) so always does at least half damage. | That's 40d6 so great for mobs with no resistances, less good against things with resistances. Scaling the damage up may be nice. The increased DC from Evocation Spell Focus is helpful at least. Alternatively maybe we could just force one damage type as a subdial option - mixed / fire / electrical / sonic / acid then you can choose, easier to pick one that's effective. We can make the knockdown more prevalent - 3 rounds of knockdown instead of 1? Or Arelith changed it to be not typically resisted damage (like divine) and always knocks down for 3 rounds. Also limits it to Evocation casters who have the right feat since otherwise you take a lot of self damage. NWN2 also reduced the spellcraft requirement to 30. | |
epic warding (feat) (34) | It grants damage reduction 50/+20 and absorbs 50 points of damage per caster level before collapsing. | Removed Hostile flag, AI Category changed to "Protection Self", Range changed to 0, Remove erroneous spell projectile | Not really much needed here - this essentially is 50 DR against any enemy, since +20 weapons are the pinnacle and not usually found in the game. VFX is same as Epic Mage Armor, but probably keep it for this since it's the "persistent" version (although could use a fix pass). |
Implemented New Epic Spells
| Spell Name | Sources | Spellcraft Requirement | Description | Notes | Work Required |
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Potential New Epic Spells
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