Epic Spells, and Extened Spell Slots [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Zancloufer

2012-02-25, 06:53 PM

tyckspoon

2012-02-25, 07:38 PM

Two questions here:

1) I was in the Process of fully stating out the 'BBEG' for a game I'm running, and upon figuring out the Wizard Spell per day, realized that in addition to Epic Spell slots, with Improved (Extended?) spell slots he has a pile of level 10+ spell slots from his intelligence (74 Int with Items). Obviously there is some Meta-Magic abuse potential here, but can these be used to meta epic magic? Additionally according to the SRD Epic spells are considered level 10, but does that mean level 10 bonus slots increase the epic spells available past Knowledge(Arcana)/10?

No. Epic Spells don't really have anything to do with the normal 1-to-X spell levels. They're considered level 10 where that's relevant (base save DC and interacting with defenses that are based on spell level, mostly) but other than that the rules governing what you can do with regular spells (as regards metamagics, preparing lower-level spells in higher-level slots if you want extra copies, etc) don't apply to them.

2) What Epic spells to use/make? Preferably spells that would make him a PITA to kill, and spells that seem dangerous but don't outright kill, Save of die, or just plain your screwed (Quicked Slay seed 160HD 40+ Base DC in an AoE just isn't fun) .Can get 110 Base Spellcraft with a Take 10, so a fair bit of leeway. Also, any ideas for a lengthy, but seemingly apocalyptic (Ie City clearing/destroying) spells that he could be trying to cast at some point. (Thinking he would ignore the Players at first to cast his spell, while confidant his spell protections and minions can delay them long enough to cast, give a time restraint and all)

Got the Core books on paper, SRD + Complete Warrior/Divine in Digital/PDF format, but that's all atm.

If you're ignoring the completely ludicrous costs of Epic Spell development at high DCs, then.. pretty much he can do whatever he wants. Even without getting into ad-hoc factors (this is Epic Spell code for 'this spell does whatever I feel like') he can be functionally immune to everything- Fortify and Armor make his saves and AC in the hundreds, Ward can absorb damage and block off any magic he doesn't feel like being affected by, Reflect just makes it flat out impossible to attack him (even if you manage to bypass his defenses, it just bounces the attack back into the attacker's face.) If you want him to use Epic Spells to set up his defenses, I'd suggest borrowing the fairy-tale concept that nothing can be made without a flaw- he can't have absolutely perfect defenses. Perhaps his protections can be broken by somebody holding a particular object. Perhaps he can be injured by weapons laced with an otherwise mundane and irrelevant herb. Maybe he performed some mighty act of magic to erase his true identity from the world, and he is invulnerable as long as nobody is able to rediscover his name.. just some kind of non-strictly-mechanical weakness that a determined band of brave, lucky, and skilled adventurers might be able to make use of, because otherwise if you use Epic Spells by RAW it's just a race to see who can break the system harder.

As for an 'apocalypse' spell.. just make something up. The Epic spell seeds are obnoxiously good at defensive magic.. but they're actually quite bad for destructive uses (compare Hellball to just casting 2 Delayed Blast Fireballs or smacking somebody with a Maximized Meteor Swarm, for example.) That said, with sufficient DC mitigation, pretty much anything is possible, and low-level/Commoner populations are *really easy* to destroy.. so don't worry too much about the exact mechanical effect for what is fundamentally a plot event. Give the dude a handful of people who will be sacrificed at the act of casting the spell, maybe some brainwashed acolytes/demons providing a magical background chant, and say they're what's providing enough DC mitigation to do whatever it is you want the spell to do.