Dire Panda
2014-02-10, 09:43 PM
Yes, I realize that epic spellcasting is a fundamentally broken system and that generally a DM needs 1d4 head injuries before he will allow it in his campaign. That being said, my wizard is about to go epic in a campaign whose DM has suffered the requisite cranial trauma. I'd like to use the Heal and Life seeds in an arcane spell, but the Epic Level Handbook is terribly vague on whether this is possible.
Page 88 states that whenever a caster with access to both arcane and divine spells creates a spell with these seeds, it is always considered divine, but RAW says nothing about a pure arcanist. Table 2-1 on the same page muddies the waters further with the fact that 24 ranks in Knowledge (religion) is required to use these seeds but provides no other prerequisites. The actual seed descriptions are of no help besides mentioning a divine focus, which the PHB mentions as "an item of spiritual significance" but does not restrict its use to divine casters - it's just useless for an arcane caster at nonepic levels.
I see two possible ways to interpret these facts. The first is that only divine spellcasters can use these seeds, period. This ruling makes divine casting strictly better than arcane at epic levels, and also privileges the cleric over the druid (since, barring multiclassing, you'd need to be level 45 before you could have the appropriate number of cross-class skill ranks).
The second interpretation is that studying the gods in close enough detail (the 24 ranks in Knowledge (religion)) allows an arcane caster to use his own powers to replicate their healing abilities, albeit on a more limited scale. Not only is that quite flavorful, but it seems more balanced (though that word shouldn't be uttered in the same sentence as epic spellcasting...). You are manipulating the seeds of true magic, after all, and the party cleric learned to bring back the dead twelve levels ago.
What does the Playground think of this?
Page 88 states that whenever a caster with access to both arcane and divine spells creates a spell with these seeds, it is always considered divine, but RAW says nothing about a pure arcanist. Table 2-1 on the same page muddies the waters further with the fact that 24 ranks in Knowledge (religion) is required to use these seeds but provides no other prerequisites. The actual seed descriptions are of no help besides mentioning a divine focus, which the PHB mentions as "an item of spiritual significance" but does not restrict its use to divine casters - it's just useless for an arcane caster at nonepic levels.
I see two possible ways to interpret these facts. The first is that only divine spellcasters can use these seeds, period. This ruling makes divine casting strictly better than arcane at epic levels, and also privileges the cleric over the druid (since, barring multiclassing, you'd need to be level 45 before you could have the appropriate number of cross-class skill ranks).
The second interpretation is that studying the gods in close enough detail (the 24 ranks in Knowledge (religion)) allows an arcane caster to use his own powers to replicate their healing abilities, albeit on a more limited scale. Not only is that quite flavorful, but it seems more balanced (though that word shouldn't be uttered in the same sentence as epic spellcasting...). You are manipulating the seeds of true magic, after all, and the party cleric learned to bring back the dead twelve levels ago.
What does the Playground think of this?