PDA

View Full Version : Crafting Epic (3.5)



Letums Gate
2009-11-23, 11:06 PM
Hello I am new on the forms and a long time fan of OOTS and a long time DND player and DM so I desided to join this is my first thread any ways the idea is that I am taking requests to make Epic Level spells for whoever asks me please understand i can only make one or two at a time so I will edit my post when I am working on some ones request all I ask is that you give me a rough discripton of what the spell dose and nothing else and I try to make a spell for you if you like it grate keep it if not I tryed thank you I will post my first spell now


DESTRUCTIVE PESTILENCE

Transmutation (Death).
Spellcraft DC: 90
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: 12,000 feet
Area: 800 foot radius
Duration: permanent
Saving Throw: fortitude half (see text)
Spell Resistance: yes
To Develop: 810,000 GP; 17 days; 32,400 XP. Seed: destroy (29). Factors: permanent duration (x5DC), increase area by 300% (+12 DC), change from target to area (+10 DC), change area to 100 foot radius (+10 DC). Mitigating factors: burn 20,000 xp during casting (-200 DC), increase casting time by 10 minutes (-20 DC), decrease damage die to D4 (-5 DC).

The caster blights and corrupts a vast area of land. Plants with 19 HD or less, shrivel and die, and the ground cannot support such plant life ever again. Plants with more than 20 HD must succeed at a fortitude saving throw or die. Even those successful on their saving throws take 20 D4 points of damage. All unattended objects, including structural features such as walls and doors, grow brittle and lose 10 points of hardness (to a minimum of 0), then take 10 D4 points of damage.

(made by Letums Gate for Letums Gate)

Storm of Wrath

Evocation [Acid, Electricity, Cold, and Sonic]
Spellcraft DC: 218
Components: V. S
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: 900 ft.
Target: 6 creatures (see text)
Effect: 360-ft. -radius stormcloud
Duration: Concentration (maximum 10 rounds) (D)
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: Yes
To Develop: 1,962000 gp; 40 days; 78480 XP. Seed: energy (19), energy (19), energy (19), energy (19). Factors increase area by 300% (+6 DC), change casting time to 1 round (+ 10 DC), increase area by 16000% (+64 DC), dismissable by caster (+2 DC), increase target to 6 (during round 3 only) (+ 60 DC).

This spell creates an enormous black storm cloud. Lightning and crashing claps of thunder appear within the storm. Each creature beneath the cloud must succeed on a Fortitude save or be deafened for 1d6x10 minutes.

If you do not maintain concentration on the spell affter casting it, the spell ends. If you countinue to concentrate, the spell generates additional effects in each following round, as noted below. Each effect occurs during your turn.

2nd Round: Acid rains down in the area, dealing 10d6 points of acid damage (no save).

3rd Round: You call six bolts of lightning down from the cloud. You decide where the bolts strike. No two bolts may be directed at the same target. Each bolt deals 10d6 points of electricity damnge. A creature struck can attempt a Reflex save for half damage.

4th Round: Snow Storm falls down in the area, dealing 10d6 points of Cold damage each Round for 5d6 rounds.

5th through 10th Rounds: Violent Rain and wind gusts reduce visibility. The rain obscures all sigh, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature 5 feet awat has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker cannot use sight to locate the target). Speed is reduced by three-quarters.

Ranged attacks within the area of the storm are inpossible. Spells cast within the area are disrupted unless the caster succeeds on a Concentration check against a DC equal to the storm of Wrath's save Dc + the level of the spell the caster is trying to cast.

(made by Letums Gate for Kerleth)

Milskidasith
2009-11-23, 11:18 PM
I don't think a by the books epic spell really counts as homebrew... and by epic spell standards, it is, like all other unmitigated spells, terrible for it's price.

Letums Gate
2009-11-24, 02:36 AM
I tend to disagre becuse each and every Epic level spell is a one of the kind based off of a single persons thoughts and ideas and well most Epic spells do cost alot and are hard to cast it is more the reward of casting a spell you made your self and watching it work any ways most epic spells are normly for advantures who have been playing for years and years so it is unlikely they dont have the income in a good sized campain to not be able to make them and if one dose not he may borrow loan or even ask for gold from his party mebers as well as the fact that not all the XP needs to be paid from the caster well making it you have alternitves such as from the Book Of Vile Darkness using liquid pain or souls as power so I think this dose count personly but that is only my thoughts you are aloud to disagree but I am sure more players would agree with me

Milskidasith
2009-11-24, 02:57 AM
First of all, please use punctuation... that was a massive run on sentence.


I tend to disagre becuse each and every Epic level spell is a one of the kind based off of a single persons thoughts and ideas

Still based on a formula with D&D. It's not homebrew, just like how character builds aren't homebrew.


and well most Epic spells do cost alot and are hard to cast it is more the reward of casting a spell you made your self and watching it work any ways

Epic spells are meant to be epic. They aren't meant to be massively overpriced scrolls of spells that are barely more powerful than 9th level spells, which is basically what they are.


most epic spells are normly for advantures who have been playing for years and years so it is unlikely they dont have the income in a good sized campain to not be able to make them

By WBL, epic spells take up almost all of your wealth to make one that functions better than a 9th level spell, and that means you don't get magic items.


and if one dose not he may borrow loan or even ask for gold from his party mebers

So instead of taking the income of one party member, you get rid of it from all of them in order to deal barely any damage.


as well as the fact that not all the XP needs to be paid from the caster well making it you have alternitves such as from the Book Of Vile Darkness using liquid pain or souls as power so I think this dose count personly but that is only my thoughts you are aloud to disagree but I am sure more players would agree with me

Yes, because we all know that being forced to kill massive amounts of innocent creatures to cast your spell that can kill less innocent creatures is reasonable.

Epic spellcasting is broken. There are probably no people on this board, besides you, who would disagree with that.

Temotei
2009-11-24, 04:26 AM
I tend to disagre becuse each and every Epic level spell is a one of the kind based off of a single persons thoughts and ideas and well most Epic spells do cost alot and are hard to cast it is more the reward of casting a spell you made your self and watching it work any ways most epic spells are normly for advantures who have been playing for years and years so it is unlikely they dont have the income in a good sized campain to not be able to make them and if one dose not he may borrow loan or even ask for gold from his party mebers as well as the fact that not all the XP needs to be paid from the caster well making it you have alternitves such as from the Book Of Vile Darkness using liquid pain or souls as power so I think this dose count personly but that is only my thoughts you are aloud to disagree but I am sure more players would agree with me

Gah! :smalleek:

I'm agreeing with Milskidasith on this.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-11-24, 09:00 AM
The guys above speak the truth. Epic spells are one of two things:

1: Almost useless spells rarely (if ever) worth the cost except in extremely bizarre sets of circumstances. I'd never spend 800,000gp and over a levels worth of XP to craft the spell you've given me (not to mention 20,000XP per casting) unless the entire plot hinged on destroying plants...and then I'd never cast it again. 99% of casters would rather have the 2 levels and the 1-4 magic items that this spell could instead be turned into.

2: Incredibly cheesy, yet useful. With enough mitigating factors, one can craft an incredibly insane Epic spell with a spellcraft DC of 0, often also making it exceptionally easy to cast through the right mitigating factors. This is the sort of stuff that your DM hits you over the head with the ELH for: creating a swift action, 0 DC spell that destroys an entire plane without a saving throw, or similar nonsense.

In short, Epic Level Casting is a gigantic mess of worthless rules, and needs a serious revision...and by revision, I mean a new system.

Latronis
2009-11-24, 09:13 AM
I gotta throw my vote in with the others. The mechanics just don't match up how they should.

DracoDei
2009-11-24, 09:23 AM
Could we please refrain from stomping the newbie TOO hard?
In any case, there was someone on this area of the forums specifically asking for epic spells not too long ago... and I don't think anyone posted that THAT thread was on the wrong area.

The grammar does need work, and I wouldn't phrase 800 feet as a "vast area" as plant-blight goes.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-11-24, 09:26 AM
Could we please refrain from stomping the newbie TOO hard?

*sorry*

I felt we weren't really stomping him, but rather the rules he worked with (so WotC-stomping). I see nothing really wrong with his spell, aside from the "requires multiple castings of Epic Wish to reverse," since Epic Wish doesn't exist, nor is there an Ad-hoc bonus to the DC for that clause. Other than that it's not to shabby.

Letums Gate
2009-11-24, 03:35 PM
First of all, please use punctuation... that was a massive run on sentence.



Still based on a formula with D&D. It's not homebrew, just like how character builds aren't homebrew.



Epic spells are meant to be epic. They aren't meant to be massively overpriced scrolls of spells that are barely more powerful than 9th level spells, which is basically what they are.



By WBL, epic spells take up almost all of your wealth to make one that functions better than a 9th level spell, and that means you don't get magic items.



So instead of taking the income of one party member, you get rid of it from all of them in order to deal barely any damage.



Yes, because we all know that being forced to kill massive amounts of innocent creatures to cast your spell that can kill less innocent creatures is reasonable.

Epic spellcasting is broken. There are probably no people on this board, besides you, who would disagree with that.

Milskidasith I am sorry I suffer from dyslakya I can not write properly but that is besides the point to address your complantes

These may be based on there formula but I tend to see each work as more unique then simple rules and numbers becuse you have to roughly guess at what you need to make the spell work and have to use the right seeds

Now this I tend to agree with most on the spells them self need to be stronger and the price is kind of insane but I was offering to make them for others who wanted them any ways

See above

It deepends on the party and the DM some may have a high income or they may have to poor all there income into a project like what happened with the Snarl

I was using that as an exsample there are other methouds I am sure then just using innocent souls to power spells

And finaly I invite you to try and make a better system and I will gladly use that instead

Letums Gate
2009-11-24, 03:41 PM
Could we please refrain from stomping the newbie TOO hard?
In any case, there was someone on this area of the forums specifically asking for epic spells not too long ago... and I don't think anyone posted that THAT thread was on the wrong area.

The grammar does need work, and I wouldn't phrase 800 feet as a "vast area" as plant-blight goes.

Thank you for your consern DracoDei I am not sure on the area ethire I am thinking of changing the spell however I realy enjoy helping others and have been hombrewing alot of things for me and my players campaign however I play with a mature lot and most are evil hence the spell above

Letums Gate
2009-11-24, 03:43 PM
*sorry*

I felt we weren't really stomping him, but rather the rules he worked with (so WotC-stomping). I see nothing really wrong with his spell, aside from the "requires multiple castings of Epic Wish to reverse," since Epic Wish doesn't exist, nor is there an Ad-hoc bonus to the DC for that clause. Other than that it's not to shabby.

I am sorry I will remove that clause from the spell but thank you for the positive reviwing

Milskidasith
2009-11-24, 03:58 PM
Milskidasith I am sorry I suffer from dyslakya I can not write properly but that is besides the point to address your complantes

Dyslexia has no impact on your ability to use proper grammar, AFAIK.


These may be based on there formula but I tend to see each work as more unique then simple rules and numbers becuse you have to roughly guess at what you need to make the spell work and have to use the right seeds

It's not a rough guess; everything is just statted out. This spell costs 800k and a level worth of EXP just to kill plants. It's not that useful.


Now this I tend to agree with most on the spells them self need to be stronger and the price is kind of insane but I was offering to make them for others who wanted them any ways

Everybody on these boards knows that epic spellcasting is terrible. It isn't worth trying to stat out a "real" epic spell because no party can afford them.


It deepends on the party and the DM some may have a high income or they may have to poor all there income into a project like what happened with the Snarl

I'm pretty sure Rich explicitly breaks the rules of D&D for the narrative of his comic, so citing OotS as a source is bad. Not that OotS is a bad story for breaking D&D rules, but it just doesn't follow them if they get in the way of the plot.


I was using that as an exsample there are other methouds I am sure then just using innocent souls to power spells

True, but all of them require you to do far more than this epic spell is capable of. In the time it takes to get 20k EXP worth of anything I could just burn all the plants in an 800 foot radius.


And finaly I invite you to try and make a better system and I will gladly use that instead

This is a fallacy; just because I don't have the time to totally rewrite epic spellcasting doesn't mean that the system isn't terrible. As the saying goes, I don't have to bake the cake to know it tastes like crap.

Letums Gate
2009-11-25, 05:27 PM
Dyslexia has no impact on your ability to use proper grammar, AFAIK.



It's not a rough guess; everything is just statted out. This spell costs 800k and a level worth of EXP just to kill plants. It's not that useful.



Everybody on these boards knows that epic spellcasting is terrible. It isn't worth trying to stat out a "real" epic spell because no party can afford them.



I'm pretty sure Rich explicitly breaks the rules of D&D for the narrative of his comic, so citing OotS as a source is bad. Not that OotS is a bad story for breaking D&D rules, but it just doesn't follow them if they get in the way of the plot.



True, but all of them require you to do far more than this epic spell is capable of. In the time it takes to get 20k EXP worth of anything I could just burn all the plants in an 800 foot radius.



This is a fallacy; just because I don't have the time to totally rewrite epic spellcasting doesn't mean that the system isn't terrible. As the saying goes, I don't have to bake the cake to know it tastes like crap.

First I have been diagnosed with it and they said it was uncommon but happens

Second the spell was an exsample nothing more it was used for a very spsific reson in one of my quests to kill a epic druid who was guarding a powerfull amulet

Third that was your thoughts I am sure there are still a handfull of others who want epic spells and are not sure ware to start i am simply offering them some help

Fourth I am aware the Gaint brakes the rules but I was refering to the fact that each an every meber of that party spent all of there money guarding there gates and crafting strong high level spells

Fifth the spell was made to make sure no plants grew ever again and dystroy the druids home burning them could have been stoped by his spells

Sixth if you do not have the time to work out a better system what right do you have to say the old one is bad? If you cant do any thing to fix it then the best thing to do is not use it at all however if you care so strongly then apply that to making some thing that works

Kerleth
2009-11-25, 10:18 PM
Personally, I think the critique of Epic Spells is about right on. If you are going for flavor and not very worried about optimizing, or super optimized and using a combo of doom, they can be great. I think that using Quintessential Chaos Mage(based off of Encyclopedia Arcane-Chaos Magic) is a good start for a freeform magic system. I'm currently working on streamlining it and using it as a skill based magic system in my own(one of millions) 3.75. One thing can be said about Epic Magic though, it can be a lot of fun just to think up spell designs and see what sort of cool junk you can pull off. As far as requesting spells, I got one. Create an epic Storm of Vengeance. Just for giggles. I don't really need it or anything.

Letums Gate
2009-11-26, 02:31 PM
Personally, I think the critique of Epic Spells is about right on. If you are going for flavor and not very worried about optimizing, or super optimized and using a combo of doom, they can be great. I think that using Quintessential Chaos Mage(based off of Encyclopedia Arcane-Chaos Magic) is a good start for a freeform magic system. I'm currently working on streamlining it and using it as a skill based magic system in my own(one of millions) 3.75. One thing can be said about Epic Magic though, it can be a lot of fun just to think up spell designs and see what sort of cool junk you can pull off. As far as requesting spells, I got one. Create an epic Storm of Vengeance. Just for giggles. I don't really need it or anything.

Thank you Kerleth i am glad that for once some one is intrested in making a spell rather then ranting about the system i have made your spell and am waiting for your review

Letums Gate
2009-11-28, 01:31 AM
All right i have finished the spell and am now ready to take on any new spells any one would want me to make for them just let me know

theshjuan*
2009-11-28, 02:08 AM
ok kerleth,

make me a spell that would allow me to raise a large amount of earth from the ground and turn it into a floating island

Dante & Vergil
2009-11-28, 08:19 AM
There is an epic spellcasting varient here (http://dicefreaks.superforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=266) for those who don't like things where they stand now.