[3.5] Epic Spells

[Gemini476]

So. How do Epic Spells actually work? I've never really looked at them properly before, so it all looks very confusing.

What kinds of Epic Spells are actually good? What are there for tricks to mitigating costs?

[Melcar]

So. How do Epic Spells actually work? I've never really looked at them properly before, so it all looks very confusing.

What kinds of Epic Spells are actually good? What are there for tricks to mitigating costs?

Epic spells work like this: (if you can get your Spellcraft check high enough) "Press enter to win."

Everything and anything is possible with epic spells. Its just a matter of combining the different seeds and writing a perfect fluff text and spell description.

[Alleran]

Epic spells work like this: (if you can get your Spellcraft check high enough) "Press enter to win."
You don't even need to get your Spellcraft check above 0 if you pick the right things.

[Segev]

To be totally accurate, it can sometimes require a very "creative" interpretation of various Seeds to make certain effects.

"I want to create an Epic Spell that applies the Pseudonatural template to a target creature," is an example of such a design. You'll wind up with a ton of ad hoc modifiers and "yeah maybe if I squint this Seed does that" applications.

[Vaz]

Epic spells are completely and utterly broken, and should be a DM purview, and approved choice - or arguably, just remove the spell from the game.

If RAW and open game, One of my favourite uses is to combine any buff spell with the Healing seed; as the spell takes the shortest duration, and Instantaneous is the shortest duration possible, then you've got that boost indefinitely.

Wu Jen 5/Incantatrix 10/Archmage 5 are quite good at this, as they can gain Body Outside Body as a Spell-like Ability, and as these still have the spell slots (just cannot cast spells), they can tribute all of their spell slots as mitigating factors. With 10 SLA's of Body Outside Body each day, each one can summon arbitrary high numbers of Clones, each of which contributes their epic spell slot to the mitigation (-19dc). Wizards can achieve this with Wish/Miracle, but that costs XP. Incantatrix makes them Persisted+Extended.

For each clone you can add +9 to the dispel DC.

For buffs, Invisibility, and a modifier to Hide checks (there isn't a Seed by RAW that can do this, but just use your clones to add Arbitrary high/NI to your Dexterity score to provide a bonus to Hide checks; or indeed all of your scores.)