Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Vatras 10-31-04, 03:15 PM	After my latest D&D campaign has after several years and switches from 2nd to 3rd and 3.5 Edition reached epic levels. Now I am faced with the problem that the epic spells as presented in the ELH are (for me) totally useless. First, the power of the spells is mostly insignificant (who needs a Hellball, when he can easily manipulate the standard spells to do more damage at an earlier level?). Second, the costs are (for my campaign) ridiculous: nobody has half a million pocket money to use on research, and as they stand, the spells are not worth spending a level of experience on them :) So I have created my own epic spells after formulating some guiding principles, of which the most important is, that an epic spell has to be useful to level 100, and does something, which a manipulated spell cannot do. I also changed the system of how to acquire them a bit (most require the favor of immortal beings, after which I named them too...as a former player of MTG, I have used card names for spells, like Yawgmoths Will or Blessing of Serra). So I come to my purpose of posting here: did somebody else change the epic spell system, and what did he do? I am looking for some more ideas to toss at my players, or some other rounded out system to use. Vatras
darczero 10-31-04, 03:36 PM	Biggest problem of all with Epic Spellcasting is the fact that there is no reason to advance beyond a certain point. Epic Spells are all flat, having their specific parameters based on what you research; they do not ever improve, without researching a new version. And, as mentioned, that's usually an investment of several thousands (if not millions or even billions) of GP and an equally obscene chunk of XP just to learn the spell. I'm currently in the works for creating a new spellcasting system that could be thought of as Epic, but so far none of the details have been playtested, so it's most likely not very effective. Basically, I took all the spells in the PHB, ignoring anything related to class, and sifted out the actual effects of spells. Using the Spell Points system in UA as a sort of comparison, I'm currently working out Spell Construction guidelines. This method should, if it works correctly, give any caster the ability to craft a new spell that is "Balanced" with other spells of similar level. I'm specifically excluding XP components and Material/Focus Components, because they don't show any pattern and are the most easily overcome (feats for material, adventuring for XP). Other than that, it is somewhat like the Epic Spell Construction stuff (add mitigating factors, modify V/S components, etc.), just not so flat.