Creating epic spells

[The Redwolf]

Could someone give me a breakdown of the system of creating spells in epic levels? I'm not just talking about spellcraft checks and all that, but more how it functions overall, like are there limitations on what spells you can create, how do you go about dealing with epic spell slots, can you use epic spellcasting to create spells of levels 0-9, how do you determine spells per day for an epic level character, etc.

It just seems like there's a lot there to figure out and I've been curious for a while, but I wasn't sure where I should look to find this out and I'm not that familiar with casters in general. I know there are a lot of people here who like to play epic games and spellcasters specifically, so this seemed like the right place to ask. :smallsmile:

[Glimbur]

You've probably already read Developing Epic Spells (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/developingEpicSpells.htm), so I'll try to address your specific points. Keep in mind that I have played an Epic game, but I was not a spellcaster so I could, on occasion be, wrong.

Are there limits on what spells you can create? Sort of. There is a list of Epic Spell Seeds (almost of all of which are in the ELH and SRD, there might be one or two in some obscure 3.0 book before they decided to mostly disavow epic). These seeds serve as the base of your spell. If you want, say, a super Lightning Bolt you could start with the Energy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/seeds/energy.htm) seed and add spellcraft DC until it does enough damage. If you want a spell that isn't covered by one of the seeds, for example a spell to seize control of all magic, then you are in the realm of DM fiat. Epic spells live in DM fiat anyway, but using a non-standard seed makes it more fiat-y.

Epic Spell Slots? You get two epic spell slots with the feat until you get 30 ranks of Know(Arcana, Religion, or Nature). This is unless you are a theurge with 9's in Divine and Arcane, or you have 24 ranks of Know(Religion) and 24 ranks of Know(Nature) and can cast 9th level Divine spells. That's kind of a large oversight.

You can use epic spellcasting to mimic spells of levels 0-9, using seeds and appropriate modifications. I think I did this once for Lightning Bolt and was unimpressed with how high the DC was. The advantage to this is you get the effect of being Epic which lets you maybe ignore AMFs and such (as explained here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/spellsIntro.htm#dispellingEpicSpellsAndAntimagicFi eld)).

Spells per day 0-9 are like a normal spellcaster of your level; you don't get more spells/day for spellcaster levels after 20. A wizard 50 has the same number of base 0-9 level spells as a wizard 20, barring Epic feats and differences in Int mod. Epic spells/day are determined based on your skill ranks, as I explained earlier.

Epic Spellcasting is a big, ugly mess. If you try to make combat spells with it the DC is very high, which makes the cost to research them high as well. You can mitigate the DC using other spellcasters, but this path leads to you enslaving every Solar in the multiverse so you can cast even bigger spells. There is no canon limit on how many Solars there are. I would advise not playing Epic, or if you must banning Epic Spellcasting. That might be lame to hear, but it's my honest opinion.

[The Redwolf]

Dang, there's a page in 8-Bit Theater that actually says what Black Mage's Hadoken does and I wanted to replicate it, but looking at the damage and based off what you say it's likely to be unreasonable. I hadn't seen that guide you linked to though, so I'll need to read it. That does clear a good bit up for me, so thank you.

[Yorae]

Long story short? Offensive epic spells are a nightmare to make usable (barring reduction using the other-spellcaster-gives-up-a-slot method, which I always just throw away outright). However, defensive / buff uses are often quite usable, if you think a bit about what you're doing. You can usually make stat-boosting spells that boost a single stat by a significant amount. I also once got some help making an epic version of "Open Chakra", which turned out pretty nice:

(its psionic, but its essentially the same)

Epic Open Chakra
Psychometabolism
Psicraft DC: 14
Display: Visual
Manifesting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 24 Hours
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
To Develop: 126,000 gp; 3 days; 5040 XP. Seed: Transform (DC 21). Factors: Transformation into specific creature (+25 DC), Transforming self into self (ad hoc -20 DC), Additional extraordinary ability (+10 DC), 4 Additional HD (Soul Chakra requires 19 HD) (+8 DC), Change from target to personal (-2 DC), Increase casting time to 10 minutes (-18 DC), Reduce duration from permanent to 24 hours (ad hoc -10 DC)

You use your psionic powers tap into the power of one of your greatest chakras, allowing yourself to form a chakra bind that you otherwise could not. You can open your heart or soul chakra with this power. While benefitting from this power, you can bind a soulmeld or magic item to your opened chakra just as if you had gained the ability to form a chakra bind from a feat or class feature.