Trying to make a crazy epic spell/power that kills spellcasters and manifesters

[danielxcutter]

Note: this is mostly a thought exercise, since no sane DM will allow this to players. And I don't DM.


I just had this thought after reading about Annulus, but high-level spellcasting and manifesting can potentially be really dangerous in the wrong hands. So wouldn't it be natural for some crazy person to come to the conclusion that all powerful magic-users and psionic-users should be eradicated for the sake of the whole world?

And what better(and ironic) way to do that would be using an epic-level spell or power to do so?

Of course, even with epic magic/powers, making something like that would have a crazy DC. But what if this hypothetical maniac decided to use an artifact as a component? For example, Necromantic Singularity uses a Sphere of Annihilation as a component, so that would be possible. In fact, multiple artifacts could be used - the less magic in the world, the better, right? I don't know if you can use major artifacts as components, but it fits the theme. And even if you can only use one minor artifact at a time, it's still a -50 to the DC.

The Destroy epic seed is probably the best for the job, since there are entire types of beings immune to the effects of some other seeds - for example, the Afflict and Slay seeds are useless on undead - and it has a basic range of 12,000 feet, which is great since you're going to kill every single mage and psion in the world anyways. However, if there are more effective ways of doing so, I'm all ears.

One more thing. Keep this sane, guys. Getting your hands on half a dozen artifacts to use as fuel might be technically possible, since most settings will likely have half a dozen artifacts, but a DC of 3,000 is just plain ridiculous.

[Echch]

First off all, Mystra sorta beat you to that. There used to be ACTUAL 10th level spells around. Granted she crippled magic itself instead of killing magic casters, but I just wanted to have that said.

Other than that, you could mitigate it down to 0 via Solars if that's what you want. Sky's the limit if you are willing to abuse mitigation factors.

[danielxcutter]

First off all, Mystra sorta beat you to that. There used to be ACTUAL 10th level spells around. Granted she crippled magic itself instead of killing magic casters, but I just wanted to have that said.

Other than that, you could mitigate it down to 0 via Solars if that's what you want. Sky's the limit if you are willing to abuse mitigation factors.

Uh... How does Gating in Solars help with lowering the ad-hoc? And there is a limit to using mitigation factors, at least to a powerful yet misguided single person. I mean, who in their right mind would help in something that would kill both numerous innocents and themselves?

...Oh yeah. The kind of people who would develop this spell/power in the first place. :smallannoyed: Still, there won't be hundreds of casters helping, that's for sure..

And Mystra didn't remove Wish, I see. My spell/power would kill anyone who even has a chance of eventually casting it someday.

[Echch]

Solars can cast spells. Meaning they can contribute spell slots to lower the DC. In addition to that, they can cast Gate too, allowing the one misguided character to have a lot of help.

Since he's level 21, it's very likely that he can have a lot Solars contributing 9th level spell slots:
The Solar he gates in summons one the next round, these two Solars summon two more... You get the idea. Even if they individually only have a few 9th level spell slots, they'll still take down the DC by a good amount.
Of course, that is assuming that the Solars can't act on the turn they are Gated in. If they can, there is literally no limit.

On the topic of them not wanting to help... Gate doesn't give them a say in the matter. And since the spell will murder them (as high-level divine casters) just as much as it will murder the guy casting the spell, the guy probably doesn't care about them taking revenge later on either.


And while Mystra didn't remove Wish (which I'm not even sure existed at that point in time), she wreaked more than enough havoc.



To conclude my argument: An Epic Level Spell, provided you can Gate, can be brought down to a DC of 0 with enough investment.

[Jack_Simth]

The problem with murdering them all directly:
Some might make the save (and have Evasion/Mettle). Some might be out of range when it happens. It almost certainly doesn't keep more from coming.

So here's what you do, assuming you don't mind massive cheddar:
Start with the Ward (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/seeds/ward.htm) (DC 14) seed, specifically
A ward against magic creates an immobile, faintly shimmering magical sphere (with radius 10 feet) that surrounds the caster and excludes all spell effects of up to 1st level. Alternatively, the caster can ward just the target and not create the radius effect. For each additional level of spells to be excluded, increase the Spellcraft DC by +20 (but see below). The area or effect of any such spells does not include the area of the ward, and such spells fail to affect any target within the ward. This includes spell-like abilities and spells or spell-like effects from magic items. However, any type of spell can be cast through or out of the ward. The caster can leave and return to the protected area without penalty (unless the spell specifically targets a creature and does not provide a radius effect). The ward could be brought down by a targeted dispel magic spell. Epic spells using the dispel seed may bring down a ward if the enemy spellcaster succeeds at a caster level check. The ward may also be brought down with a targeted epic spell using the destroy seed if the enemy spellcaster succeeds at a caster level check. (emphasis added)

You then ramp it up to 41st level spells (+400) (in case of DMM Heighten and similar, plus you want to exclude Epic spells... which are treated as 10th level by default), Under transparency, this should also take out manifesting and anything similar.

You then use the "Increase area by 100%" +4 a zillion times, enough so that the sphere covers the entire material plane - assuming you're casting it on the surface of an earth-like planet, you need an 8,000 mile radius on your sphere (Earth has a 3,959 mile radius, but you're on the surface, so you need the radius of your spell to encompass the diameter of the planet, plus a bit, and round numbers are easier to multiply), and at 10 feet per +4, you need 4,224,000 instances for +16,896,000 Spellcraft DC.

You then make it permanent (*5).

So before mitigation, that's 84,482,070 to mitigate away.

There's a lot of ways to fix that, but they're cheddar, and mostly revolve around ritual participants. Gating in Solars, Permanently Summoning Planetars or Solars (with a different Epic spell), and a few other methods. Permanent Summons is my preferred method, as they'll be suppressed right along with all the other magic... but they'll be back at your beck and call if someone else manages to take the spell down.

Note that you may want to use Extraordinary Spell Aim to exclude yourself from the event.

[danielxcutter]

The problem with murdering them all directly:
Some might make the save (and have Evasion/Mettle). Some might be out of range when it happens. It almost certainly doesn't keep more from coming.

So here's what you do, assuming you don't mind massive cheddar:
Start with the Ward (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/seeds/ward.htm) (DC 14) seed, specifically (emphasis added)

You then ramp it up to 41st level spells (+400) (in case of DMM Heighten and similar, plus you want to exclude Epic spells... which are treated as 10th level by default), Under transparency, this should also take out manifesting and anything similar.

You then use the "Increase area by 100%" +4 a zillion times, enough so that the sphere covers the entire material plane - assuming you're casting it on the surface of an earth-like planet, you need an 8,000 mile radius on your sphere (Earth has a 3,959 mile radius, but you're on the surface, so you need the radius of your spell to encompass the diameter of the planet, plus a bit, and round numbers are easier to multiply), and at 10 feet per +4, you need 4,224,000 instances for +16,896,000 Spellcraft DC.

You then make it permanent (*5).

So before mitigation, that's 84,482,070 to mitigate away.

There's a lot of ways to fix that, but they're cheddar, and mostly revolve around ritual participants. Gating in Solars, Permanently Summoning Planetars or Solars (with a different Epic spell), and a few other methods. Permanent Summons is my preferred method, as they'll be suppressed right along with all the other magic... but they'll be back at your beck and call if someone else manages to take the spell down.

Note that you may want to use Extraordinary Spell Aim to exclude yourself from the event.

Wait, is this basically the epic version of Anti-Magic Field? One that covers the entire planet? And also works on epic magic?

I like it.

Btw, how much should the DC be reduced if you use major artifacts as material components? For reference, using a minor artifact is -50.

[Jack_Simth]

Wait, is this basically the epic version of Anti-Magic Field? One that covers the entire planet? And also works on epic magic?

I like it.
It doesn't cut out Supernatural abilities by strict RAW, and you didn't specifically comment on the permanent bit, but other than that: pretty much.

Btw, how much should the DC be reduced if you use major artifacts as material components? For reference, using a minor artifact is -50.That is DM call. It's also largely irrelevant, as you're going to need to do some really massive mitigation, and about the only way to do that is with various forms of rules abuse.

[danielxcutter]

It doesn't cut out Supernatural abilities by strict RAW, and you didn't specifically comment on the permanent bit, but other than that: pretty much.That is DM call. It's also largely irrelevant, as you're going to need to do some really massive mitigation, and about the only way to do that is with various forms of rules abuse.

I mean, your Eternal Magic Prohibition(or whatever you wanted to call it) spell is so insane(in terms of effect) that anyone using it is going to get a rulebook thrown at them anyways. And summoning a buttload of Solars is entirely possible, both RAW and story-wise(if the caster of the spell has enough resources, that is). This is good enough for me.

Well, except for one thing: Is there a way to adjust the area so that it evenly covers the planet and thus can be more or less the same size, instead of making it almost ten times bigger? 'Cause otherwise it would be rather inefficient.

[Jack_Simth]

I mean, your Eternal Magic Prohibition(or whatever you wanted to call it) spell is so insane(in terms of effect) that anyone using it is going to get a rulebook thrown at them anyways. And summoning a buttload of Solars is entirely possible, both RAW and story-wise(if the caster of the spell has enough resources, that is). This is good enough for me.

Well, except for one thing: Is there a way to adjust the area so that it evenly covers the planet and thus can be more or less the same size, instead of making it almost ten times bigger? 'Cause otherwise it would be rather inefficient.
Multiple castings in different spots allow for a much smaller radius (If you do six castings, one at the north pole, one at the south pole, and four along the equator at equidistant points, then you only need about half the radius), or cast it from the center of the planet (in which case, you only need about half the radius, again).

[TheCorsairMalac]

Rather than instantly killing casters, what if it was a magical disease?

Inflict someone--anyone!--and then the curse spreads. In most people it's harmless, but if a victim casts a spell above a certain level it deals hefty damage to their casting stat.

Because of its huge save DC and the difficulty of breaking epic spells, this disease would probably spread uncontrollably. Current epic spellcasters could probably keep themselves safe, but it would kill off a lot of newcomers.

[Alistaroc]

The problem with murdering them all directly:
Some might make the save (and have Evasion/Mettle). Some might be out of range when it happens. It almost certainly doesn't keep more from coming.

So here's what you do, assuming you don't mind massive cheddar:
Start with the Ward (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/seeds/ward.htm) (DC 14) seed, specifically (emphasis added)

You then ramp it up to 41st level spells (+400) (in case of DMM Heighten and similar, plus you want to exclude Epic spells... which are treated as 10th level by default), Under transparency, this should also take out manifesting and anything similar.

You then use the "Increase area by 100%" +4 a zillion times, enough so that the sphere covers the entire material plane - assuming you're casting it on the surface of an earth-like planet, you need an 8,000 mile radius on your sphere (Earth has a 3,959 mile radius, but you're on the surface, so you need the radius of your spell to encompass the diameter of the planet, plus a bit, and round numbers are easier to multiply), and at 10 feet per +4, you need 4,224,000 instances for +16,896,000 Spellcraft DC.

You then make it permanent (*5).

So before mitigation, that's 84,482,070 to mitigate away.

There's a lot of ways to fix that, but they're cheddar, and mostly revolve around ritual participants. Gating in Solars, Permanently Summoning Planetars or Solars (with a different Epic spell), and a few other methods. Permanent Summons is my preferred method, as they'll be suppressed right along with all the other magic... but they'll be back at your beck and call if someone else manages to take the spell down.

Note that you may want to use Extraordinary Spell Aim to exclude yourself from the event.
If you want to cover the Earth plus low-Earth orbit, casting it from the center of the planet would be Spellcraft DC 45,410,070 and cost 408,690,630 gp, taking 8,174 days and 16,347,626 XP. Each Solar you Gate in gives a 488 DC mitigation, requiring ~95,053 Solars and 95,053,000 XP to cast said Gates. Instead of payment, as there are no rules for a task this long, instead make a DC 52 Bluff check to convince each Solar you're casting a spell to fortify the planet against demonic invasion(as it aligns with their goals, no Bluff check is required to lie about payment).
So that's a LOT of XP... but since we're going full cheese here, let's instead spend 798,445,200 gp to buy Candles of Invocation, thereby bypassing the XP cost of Gate.

So you need:
408,690,630 + 798,445,200 = 1,207,135,830 gp
16,347,626 XP (Thought Bottle loops or any other infinite trick you like)
8,174 days (~23 years)

So you've got a 778 foot diameter circle of gleaming white candles, above which are staggered almost 100,000 gleaming celestials, chanting in unison for 23 years, at the end of which every magical thing on the planet vanishes. If you're worried about casting said spell from the center of the Earth, let's be real, with a couple Wishes to create a space to teleport in and out of (and fire immunity if you're really picky), that's the least of your worries. So for the bargain price of 1.21 billion gold, 16.4 million xp, and 23 years of your life, you can commit suicide and mass genocide against every magical being on the planet. :smallsmile:

Although I love the idea that this once happened, and once humans built up to our current technological level and went out into space, they discovered magical powers awakened, leading to the development of a moon colony of magic-users and the Earth-bound mortals. It'd be quite the intriguing campaign, perhaps searching for a way to dispel this magic? Who knows? :smallbiggrin:

[Jack_Simth]

If you want to cover the Earth plus low-Earth orbit, casting it from the center of the planet would be Spellcraft DC 45,410,070 and cost 408,690,630 gp, taking 8,174 days and 16,347,626 XP. Each Solar you Gate in gives a 488 DC mitigation, requiring ~95,053 Solars and 95,053,000 XP to cast said Gates. Instead of payment, as there are no rules for a task this long, instead make a DC 52 Bluff check to convince each Solar you're casting a spell to fortify the planet against demonic invasion(as it aligns with their goals, no Bluff check is required to lie about payment).
So that's a LOT of XP... but since we're going full cheese here, let's instead spend 798,445,200 gp to buy Candles of Invocation, thereby bypassing the XP cost of Gate.

So you need:
408,690,630 + 798,445,200 = 1,207,135,830 gp
16,347,626 XP (Thought Bottle loops or any other infinite trick you like)
8,174 days (~23 years)

So you've got a 778 foot diameter circle of gleaming white candles, above which are staggered almost 100,000 gleaming celestials, chanting in unison for 23 years, at the end of which every magical thing on the planet vanishes. If you're worried about casting said spell from the center of the Earth, let's be real, with a couple Wishes to create a space to teleport in and out of (and fire immunity if you're really picky), that's the least of your worries. So for the bargain price of 1.21 billion gold, 16.4 million xp, and 23 years of your life, you can commit suicide and mass genocide against every magical being on the planet. :smallsmile:

Although I love the idea that this once happened, and once humans built up to our current technological level and went out into space, they discovered magical powers awakened, leading to the development of a moon colony of magic-users and the Earth-bound mortals. It'd be quite the intriguing campaign, perhaps searching for a way to dispel this magic? Who knows? :smallbiggrin:

You know, I've always thought that a given participant could only supply one spell slot per Epic spell... ah, there it is:

Epic spells can be developed that specifically require additional participants. These spells are called rituals. An epic spell developed as a ritual requires a specific number of additional participants, who each must use up one spell slot of a specified level for the day. During an epic spell’s development, the spell’s creator determines the number of additional participants and the level of the spell slots to be contributed. If the exact number of spellcasters does not partake in the casting, or if the casters do not each contribute the proper spell slot, the epic spell automatically fails. To participate, each participant readies an action to contribute his or her raw spell energy when the primary caster begins the epic spell. Additional participants in a ritual spell reduce the Spellcraft DC, as shown on Table: Additional Participants in Rituals. Each additional participant may only contribute one spell slot. It doesn’t matter whether the additional participants are arcane or divine spellcasters; only the level of the spell slot contributed matters. A contributed spell slot is treated as if normally cast. A wizard may contribute either a prepared, uncast spell slot, or an open, unprepared slot. The Spellcraft DC adjustments for each additional participant stack. (emphasis added)

I mentioned my favorite method was permanent summons? Here's why....

Suppose you have a Wizard-21, let's call said wizard Alex, with a base Charisma of 8.

Alex does not start by casting the spell in question. Instead, Alex starts with Planar Binding. Let's assume Alex just uses base wizard spell slots for planar binding, keeping any specialty slots and bonus lots for personal defense while 'warming up'. This gives Alex four spell slots of each level each day to play with. Alex prepares: Magic Circle Against Law, Dimensional Anchor, Dismissal, Planar Binding, and Moment of Prescience; four copies each (3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th). Alex also invests in a Luckstone and an Orange Prism Ioun Stone for this project. All non-Epic gear, price is mostly trivial, and a Wizard likely has good use for both items anyway. Alex's target? Couatl's. Alex can attempt to bind 4 per day. SR is meaningless, so it's just the Couatls' saves and Charisma checks. As an Epic Wizard, the Couatls should only save on a nat-20, so 95% end up bound. With the preparations (+22 Insight from Moment of Prescience and +1 Luck from the stone), the Wizard is rolling +23 vs. the Couatls' +3 on the Charisma check - which means the Wizard is really only concerned with rolling a nat-1 on the Charisma check (Wiz rolls a 1, gets a 24; Couatl rolls a 20, gets 23, so it's JUST the nat-1 clause that gets Alex). So the Wizard gets the Couatl 95% of the time on the Charisma check. Between the two, that's a 90.25% capture rate. Let's assume Alex is slightly unlucky, and only gets 80% of the Couatls under control; the rest get Dismissed when they break loose, or never arrive in the first place. The Bind can last 22 days. At 4 attempts per day for 22 days, with an 80% success rate, that's 70.4 Couatls under control (and note that it's more likely a 90% success rate, for 79 Couatls... and this can be made almost 95% with just a single Luckblade to reroll the occasional one on the Charisma check).

A Couatl casts as a 9th level Sorcerer, so 4th level spell slots. Each of those is good for 7 points of mitigation. With 70 of them donating spell slots, that's 490 points. They stick around for a while, and have enough spell slots to get both of Alex's Epic slots covered. Now, 490 isn't actually much. Nowhere near the 45,410,070 you want. So we're not there yet. Alex starts permanently Summoning minions via the Summon seed. Base DC 14 for a CR 2 outsider; +2 DC for each +1 CR. A Planetar is CR 16, and casts as a Cleric-17. Base Summon DC is thus 42; we want that to be Permanent, though, so it's five times that, or 210. Oh, hey: We have room for 2 per casting, right off the bat. Alex expends 60 of the Couatl spell slots for 420 points of mitigation, and gets two Planetars per casting, two castings per day. Note that, as the spell is mitigated to 0 this way, there's no development time, XP cost, or GP cost for the Epic spell.

Each Planetar can donate a 9th level spell slot, for 17 points of mitigation each. Alex gets four per day; after three days, that's 12 Planetars. At this point, Alex develops a new epic spell, which takes 12 9th level spell slots and 61 4th level spell slots, for 631 points of mitigation. Three Planetars Permanently Summoned would be 630 base DC. So now Alex gets three planetars per casting, two castings per day, so six Planetars per day. After two more days, Alex has another 12 Planetars - at which point, Alex develops a new Epic spell to Permanently Summon Planatars at a rate of four per casting.

This cascades. After 1.5 more days, Alex summons five per casting. After one more day, it's six per casting. And so on. Even with the Couatl warm-up, Alex can mitigate the entire 45,410,070 DC you named in well under a year. No XP expenditure needed, just a couple of items that most Wizards will likely have anyway.

[Endarire]

Could you be a Dweomerkeeper and make this epic spell a Supernatural ability to negate all EXP costs?

Also, where is the simulacrum of a Solar (a "Sim Solar") that makes a Sim Solar army? Each one should have wish and require only a small amount of EXP and GP to get started!

[Jack_Simth]

Could you be a Dweomerkeeper and make this epic spell a Supernatural ability to negate all EXP costs?
What XP costs? I'm not using that drawback, Dweomerkeeper's Supernatural Spell wouldn't apply to research, and I'm mitigating everything to 0 to avoid research costs anyway.

Also, where is the simulacrum of a Solar (a "Sim Solar") that makes a Sim Solar army? Each one should have wish and require only a small amount of EXP and GP to get started!That's doable, but the problem with that is the same as the problem with a wight army: You've got a chain of command, and that is particularly vulnerable. Think about it:
You make a Simulacrum of a Solar that's been advanced enough such that the simulacrum has the abilities of a stock Solar (however your DM requires that to happen). This one is "Tier 1"
You then order your simulacrum to Wish up another simulacrum daily for a while (tier 2), and have it's "children" (Tier 3) and "grandchildren" (Tier 4) do the same.

The catch:
You didn't make the tier-2 Simulacrums, your General (Tier-1) did. You didn't make the tier-3 simulacrums, tier-2 did. You didn't make the tier-4 simulacrums, tier-3 did. You only have 'absolute control at all times' of your tier-1 Solar. The others? You don't command them direclty. If someone comes along and kills your general, you have to start over from scratch. OK, you can maybe have your tier-1 order the tier-2's to obey you (and order the tier-2's to order the tier-3's to obey you, and so on) so that you're not starting completely from scratch... but then you're out of the absolute control zone, and have to be careful that what you do and say doesn't go against the Solar's inclinations too much (they'll find ways to be within the letter of your orders, without being within the spirit of them... or be out of range of new orders while working against you, or...). If you're the summoner for all of them, this isn't nearly as much of a problem.

Mind you: That's actually a nice catch to have in terms of designing a campaign for your players....

[Bronk]

You then make it permanent (*5).

It would be more cost effective to just throw in the heal seed to make it instantaneous...

[Âmesang]

Honestly the sphere of annihilation cost seems really low to me since, based on the epic spell mummy dust, that would infer that the sphere has a market price of 125,000 gp (price ÷ 2,500 = mitigating DC*). This came to mind when I attempted to make an epic version of Mavin's worldweave using the orb of tempests and raiment of the stormwalker as material components (since the original spell listed "M" as a component, but never actually mentioned what the components were).

*Or, as far as I can tell, take the experience cost required to craft an item, like 8,000 XP for a +5 vorpal weapon, and then divide that by 100 based on the burn XP mitigating factor.

[Bronk]

The problem with murdering them all directly:
Some might make the save (and have Evasion/Mettle). Some might be out of range when it happens. It almost certainly doesn't keep more from coming.

So here's what you do, assuming you don't mind massive cheddar:
Start with the Ward (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/seeds/ward.htm) (DC 14) seed, specifically (emphasis added)

You then ramp it up to 41st level spells (+400) (in case of DMM Heighten and similar, plus you want to exclude Epic spells... which are treated as 10th level by default), Under transparency, this should also take out manifesting and anything similar.

You then use the "Increase area by 100%" +4 a zillion times, enough so that the sphere covers the entire material plane - assuming you're casting it on the surface of an earth-like planet, you need an 8,000 mile radius on your sphere (Earth has a 3,959 mile radius, but you're on the surface, so you need the radius of your spell to encompass the diameter of the planet, plus a bit, and round numbers are easier to multiply), and at 10 feet per +4, you need 4,224,000 instances for +16,896,000 Spellcraft DC.

You then make it permanent (*5).

So before mitigation, that's 84,482,070 to mitigate away.

There's a lot of ways to fix that, but they're cheddar, and mostly revolve around ritual participants. Gating in Solars, Permanently Summoning Planetars or Solars (with a different Epic spell), and a few other methods. Permanent Summons is my preferred method, as they'll be suppressed right along with all the other magic... but they'll be back at your beck and call if someone else manages to take the spell down.

Note that you may want to use Extraordinary Spell Aim to exclude yourself from the event.


I've thought about this some more.

I think the trick would be to have the base seed be the weather version of the energy seed, for DC+25, then ward, then heal.

The energy seed's weather version is two mile radius instead of 10 feet.

Then add ward, and jack it up to as many spell levels as you want.

Then, add 100% to the radius enough times to cover whatever volume you need, keeping in mind that as it's stated as '100%' instead of 'a doubling', it uses actual math instead of the weird and lovable DnD doubling rules.

Then add the heal seed to make it an 'instantaneous' spell that can't be dispelled. It would also seriously annoy all the undead in the area.

At the end of all this, you'd A: get the result you wanted (warded magic), B: given everyone living a one time super heal, C: potentially left most undead with a mere 1d4 HP, and D: whatever weather you desired, forever (it would probably put the same weather in space, too!).

[InvisibleBison]

Then, add 100% to the radius enough times to cover whatever volume you need, keeping in mind that as it's stated as '100%' instead of 'a doubling', it uses actual math instead of the weird and lovable DnD doubling rules.

I'm fairly sure you're wrong about this; at least, all the example epic spells in the ELH use the DnD doubling rules when increasing their area.

[Âmesang]

At any rate, Champions of Ruin, which contains the epic spell necromantic singularity, also contains horrendous dessication which has the "area level dependent (+25 DC)" factor; so apply that to the energy (weather) seed, and now you should have an area of 2 mile-radius/caster level.

Of course range is a whole 'nother issue, and recall that the spell would be centered on you. :smalltongue:

EDIT: By the way, what would prevent the gods from stopping you, since magic deities such as Boccob and Mystral would be aware of this weeks in advance?

[Telok]

How hard would it be to just add antimagic fields to all creatures, possibly as a disease? Then you just have to worry about offing the remaining epic casters if you want to.

[Bronk]

I'm fairly sure you're wrong about this; at least, all the example epic spells in the ELH use the DnD doubling rules when increasing their area.

I see that they do, but then again, they're 3.0 material. The 3.5 math rules are in the srd, and are covered under the real world math rules:


Multiplying
Sometimes a rule makes you multiply a number or a die roll. As long as you’re applying a single multiplier, multiply the number normally. When two or more multipliers apply to any abstract value (such as a modifier or a die roll), however, combine them into a single multiple, with each extra multiple adding 1 less than its value to the first multiple. Thus, a double (×2) and a double (×2) applied to the same number results in a triple (×3, because 2 + 1 = 3).

When applying multipliers to real-world values (such as weight or distance), normal rules of math apply instead. A creature whose size doubles (thus multiplying its weight by 8) and then is turned to stone (which would multiply its weight by a factor of roughly 3) now weighs about 24 times normal, not 10 times normal. Similarly, a blinded creature attempting to negotiate difficult terrain would count each square as 4 squares (doubling the cost twice, for a total multiplier of ×4), rather than as 3 squares (adding 100% twice).

[Jack_Simth]

It would be more cost effective to just throw in the heal seed to make it instantaneous...
Yes and no.

Yes, that might theoretically work... but then, Heal doesn't give you fast healing, it just fixes the currently wrong stuff; you may end up simply turning magic off for a moment, if your DM swings that way. Additionally, you'll have an interesting time justifying it as the base seed to an actual DM (ditto for using weather control to set the area).


EDIT: By the way, what would prevent the gods from stopping you, since magic deities such as Boccob and Mystral would be aware of this weeks in advance?
Clearly, you'll have to figure out how to cast it from near the spire through a portal....

[Echch]

EDIT: By the way, what would prevent the gods from stopping you, since magic deities such as Boccob and Mystral would be aware of this weeks in advance?

Because they don't know you are the one doing it. While their portfolio sense does extend into the future, their remote sensing ability doesn't. They know that someone will cast such an epic spell at that point in time in that general area, and that's all the informatio they get. If it's a standard action to cast, you can use a contingent teleport to get in there at a specific time and then use the standard action to cast. As long as neither of them have a no-save death ability (and the two of them don't, even if other deities do), even they can only do so much as a standard action. And if you use Ice Assassins of yourself, you will win anyway, because even greater deities have a limit of 20 remote sensing locations.

EDIT: It is also questionable what constitutes an "event". Krasus casting a level 12 spell to take over Mystras body was't enough to trigger her "portfolio sense", so it's questionable what will.

[Wolfofmibu66]

Rather than instantly killing casters, what if it was a magical disease?

Inflict someone--anyone!--and then the curse spreads. In most people it's harmless, but if a victim casts a spell above a certain level it deals hefty damage to their casting stat.

Because of its huge save DC and the difficulty of breaking epic spells, this disease would probably spread uncontrollably. Current epic spellcasters could probably keep themselves safe, but it would kill off a lot of newcomers.

I find it interesting that the purpose of the thread is simply to kill many/all casters, and that your suggestions is close to verbatim one of the plot hooks form the ELH(page 118, percentile result 45) literally describes an "antimagic plague" which causes arcane casters to sicken and die.