As I never get tired of saying, wizards are my favorite character to play and DM but I do not under any circumstances consider them to be superior to any other character class. Well, er, until I take epic levels into consideration that is! I'm not sure what the ELH designers had in mind when they assigned epic spells to Spellcraft and therefore intelligence. Granted, epic spells are much better at doing 'weird stuff' than just blowing things up but ya hafta admit wizards have the potential to totally and completely dominate an epic level game thanks to the mechanics of epic spellcasting.
So I'm thinking of alternate epic spell mechanics: 1) make Spellcraft DCs into caster level checks instead or 2) allow sorcerers and divine casters to use Cha or Wis instead of Int to modify their epic spellcraft checks. Option 1 has the benefit (?) of allowing all those DC modifiers to be moderated so that epic spells can be useful for blowing things up in addition to raising islands and instantly reanimating a death-magicked enemy. I'm not sure if this really would be a benefit; it would sure make all epic casters more powerful. Option 2 would allow all casting classes to be balanced in epic spells; I think this is a benefit but do you? (maybe wizards are just supposed to kick ass in this way)
P.S. I'm obsessed with mystic theurges and I've created an epic spell (using RAW) that only a theurge can use. Critique, critisize, comment or ignore at will:
Miraculous Wish
Universal
Spellcraft DC: 54
Components: None
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: See text
Target, Effect or Area: See text
Duration: See text
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: Yes
To Develop: 486,000 gp; 10 days; 19,440 XP. Seed: universal spell (DC 28). Factors: 1 action casting time (+20 DC), no verbal or somatic components (+4 DC), 1 spell level boost (+2 DC).
Upon casting this spell, you utter a silent prayer of fervent piety so that your patron might aid in making your wish reality. Your eyes shine with blue radiance as your miraculous wish produces any one of the following effects.
• Duplicate any cleric, wizard or sorcerer spell of 9th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
• Duplicate any other spell of 7th level or lower, provided the spell is not of a school prohibited to you.
• Duplicate any cleric, wizard or sorcerer spell of 8th level or lower, even if it’s of a prohibited school.
• Duplicate any other spell of 6th level or lower, even if it’s of a prohibited school.
• Duplicate any effect that a miracle or wish could. This use of a miraculous wish incurs the XP cost detailed in those spells’ descriptions.
Special: You must use two epic slots to cast each miraculous wish, one cleric-based and one wizard/sorcerer-based.
It does seem strange that a spell caster would use a seperate stat to cast spells and design spells, hadn't noticed that before you mentioned it. Taking the cleric for example, it seems logical that since he has used his wisdom to cast spells his entire life that he would also use his wisdom to create spells. Of the two suggestions you posted, I prefer the one that allows other spell casters to add in their spell casting linked attribute into spell design rolls.
It occurs to me, granted I know little of the Epic Level Handbook, that while wizards (and probably bards) make a lot of sense making their own spells, that its hard for me to imagine many of the other classes doing so. Clerics, for example are granted powers from their gods in answer to prayer--the folks who make new clerical spells would seem to be, well gods. Likewise paladins seem hardly the types to cloister themselves up in the pursuit of making a custom paladin spell when they should be out overthrowing evil kingdoms and keeping orc gods from possessing the bodies of dracoliches and laying waste to dragonkind. Granted sorcerers are entirely different, and in a perfect world, everything they do should be custom--but that would kill me and about every other DM on earth; but suffice to say, they don't research spells they just unleash the power they channel into forms that have worked in the past from trial and error (hmm...maybe sorcerers as low power seed casters?)
The wizard alone seems to be the tinkerer with magical effects, the one who sits in a laboratory and crunches the magical formulae. That is what an archmage IS after all, is a mage who has risen to the level where he doesn't learn magic--he makes his own (THAT's why they call me an ARCH-mage, because I don't hide things behind BOOKCASES!!)
While the Sorcerer and Cleric use different stats to actually cast the spell and power its effects, crafting new spells is all about design and your applicable knowledge of magic. That's the realm of intellegnce. So really the mechanic isn't based on favoring one class or another. It's simple to have a consisant basis for all such skill sets and checks. If epic clerics started using Wis instead of Int for spellcraft, my freshly-made cleric would want to do the same. But the skill just ain't built to work that way; a cleric or sorcerer might not have any real applicable knowledge of how their spells are cast, but that doesn't stop them from wielding magic just as effectively as the estudious wizard.
Oh, and does the stat really matter as much at Epic Levels? Generally, it's much harder to raise a stat than a skill rank. So at 30th level where max ranks is 33, does the extra handful of points really make that much of a difference? Epic Skill Focus can eliminate that gap nicely, I'm sure.
-Just some thoughts.
P.S.- I tend to disagree somewhat with Grimcleaver, however. I think a cleric and sorcerer should design and innovate as much as the wizard- and certainly the creative bard! I just wanted to stress the difference between a Stat and a Class- the two are not linked, no matter what archtypes we play.
Can I tell you by the way, how frustrated I am with magic in an epic level campaign? Most spells have a save which either negates the spell entirely or halves the damage. High level characters have such huge HP that even the full 10d8 that the most powerful spells generate is only a meaningful amount of damage if the damage was maxed, but not that even that would really kill the characters. By this point the saves are so high anyway that they far outstrip any DC's the spells might have--often without the character even rolling. Effects that might make for really interesting, cool moments just fall flat. All that's left is straight combat magic--specifically the spells that forgo a save. How dull is that? But then the alternative is NPC's who wave their hands around and nothing happens and then whammo--they get smushed. Doesn't help that the magic users advance on a d4 where many of the fighters are d10s and d12s so the badguys have like a third the HP of the combatants. That's not even going into the magic that's meant to help your side or hinder your enemies--where the penalties hardly rise higher than a -4. When the hero's melee bonus is a 25/20/15/10/5 and their stats are vast, really there's no way to adequately damage that to avoid just being broken over some frothing fighter's knee.
My advice? Be a fighter guy with magic items to emulate the spells you'd waste your life learning were you to try. Granted I guess mages are still okay for frying guys who are just starting out. That would explain all the evil wizards in the typical D&D world--bitterness.
As I posted on the Rant Thread moments ago, I can't begin to describe how angry it makes me that wizards are actually so weak in comparison to other classes. The order of the day with the current edition seems to be "balance" over realism or coolness, and in the muddle, I think spells have become far too easy to resist. I advocate either upping the number per day, the power of each spell, or the difficulty to resist it.
Number per day- blah, just threw this one out there for the heck of it. This is a poor solution, as it doesn't increase the effectiveness of any given spells, and has the real potential to unbalance the game.
Increase the power of all spells- Good idea, but potential game-breaking and an extreme amount of work, even if you come up with formulas and templates.
Increase the difficulty to resist- The winner. Just up the spell DC so that 50% of all enemies don't make whatever save is required. As is, wands, scrolls, etc., are considered near-useless in my campaign if they produce an effect with a save, considering they all use the lowest one possible. Even a wizard PC has to take a series of feats to get his signature school of magic to the point where he can count on most enemies not making the save. And I love to use enemy wizards- but you're right. They almost always have to use straight damage spells to have much of a chance to do anything, and even that is reduced substantially by the ominpotent saves.
How anti-climactic is that? In a version of the game espousing cinematic action sequences, how un-cinematic is it for all the wizard's stuff to flub? Increasing the base save DC of spells by a few points isn't going to make everyone play wizards, or even make those alongside a wizard feel underpowered. I can't tell how many times I've seen (or been the player doing this) a wizard's player's face just fall when their brillaint spell failed... and it was the only one they had... now they're down to weaker spells, many of them failing... meanwhile, the fighter just laughes and hacks away, pulling off most of his attacks to devastating effect.
Especially when, as Grimcleaver said, some of the effects are actually fairly weak, anyway. I'm not so sure the base DC shouldn't be 12 + spell level + relevant ability modifier, or perhaps more (though even I, in all my wizard-loving, think that 15 + spell level + relevant ability modifier would most likely be too much). That way, enemy wizards have the "oomph" to make up for their laughable survivability, and players actually feel good about their wizards, instead of having to be told, "Well, in the long run, the statistics point out you're just as powerful as the fighter, maybe a teensy-bit better, even."
I want high level mages, as I said on the Rant Thread, who can really call down fire from the sky- not just in a 20-foot burst, but meteorites falling across a battlefield, a city, a country. I want wizards who stand on mountain tops calling down magic in the form of spells with a casting time measured in hours, days, maybe even years for the most powerful magic. I detest large area, powerful magic that can be cast in "1 standard action." Make it a ritual, a big deal, and make it really spectacular.
And I want wizards in my world to be able to do that without being 30th level, as I also detest Epic play.
Now, I know that enemy wizards can always be given some "artifact" or "strange magical lore" they've discovered, but that seems like it's cheating to me, coming up with a contrived way to get what I want from the enemy while denying it to the party. I hate that feeling, and I can see in my players' eyes that they think it's cheesy, as well.
Also, I agree with Grimcleaver that clerics making new spells has never made sense to me, since their power is granted by the gods. Sorcerers- it makes more sense that they could craft their own spells (metagame) to take at level up, as they "focus their energy" to learn how to create that effect. Bards I can see using their creativity to learn new spells, similar to sorcerers. But, wizards remain the true masters of magic in my mind; only they can, at any time, stop and formulate a new spell, item, etc. of great magic for themselves or anyone else. When I do use the "secret lore of the NPC" trick, I almost always use it with wizards, as they seem to be the right ones, and maybe the only ones, that would actually be capable of using it.
Ok I have a lot of points to make so here we go:
1. Grimcleaver, only characters that can cast 9th level magic already can use epic magic. No bards, paladins or rangers.
2. I agree that it doesn't make sense that divine casters need to research new spells. In my games I houserule that any non-epic divine spell that I allow at all is automatically available to any appropriate divine caster. With epic spells though, balance is a major issue. Epic spells need to be restrictive to divine casters too or else they would be just too good.
3. I don't really care to talk about how each caster class operates on an intuitive level. If we're going to nitpick about this stuff, the sorcerer would either not exist at all or would use an ability other than Cha--how can one's social skills be applicable to the eldritch mechanics of the universe that all casters manipulate?!
4. As I said, I'm not interested in making intuitive sense out of the casting classes or of the epic spell rules--I'm interested in game balance.
5. Haerthguard, at epic levels ability scores can vary hugely. The best score of an 'optimized' 40th level character will be 43 (+16), while the second best will be 31 (+10) at best. A difference of six bonuses is not to be overlooked, and the higher level we go, the more that gap will widen. (again, I'm interested in balance)
6. I totally understand everyone's angst with high level and epic spell DCs. It seems that the game designers were bent on making high level PCs, dragons and outsiders completely immune to magic! When a spellcaster fights one of these foes, all she can really do is buff up her allies and use magic missiles. If I were to attempt a fix for this, I'd set all DCs at 10 + 2x Spell level and then apply a flat /caster level bonus at epic levels.
7. After all this, I think the best fix for epic magic is to allow divine casters and sorcs to use wis or cha instead of intelligence (only for Spellcraft checks specifically rolled to cast epic spells mind you!).
Then you may be interested in the spell "Apocalypse from the Sky" from the book of vile darkness. It's 10d6 energy damage of the type of your choice in a 10-mile/level radius and takes 1 day to cast, problem is it's a corrupt 9th level spell that most wizards probably can't survive casting.
Ok I have a lot of points to make so here we go:
1. Grimcleaver, only characters that can cast 9th level magic already can use epic magic. No bards, paladins or rangers.
2. I agree that it doesn't make sense that divine casters need to research new spells. In my games I houserule that any non-epic divine spell that I allow at all is automatically available to any appropriate divine caster. With epic spells though, balance is a major issue. Epic spells need to be restrictive to divine casters too or else they would be just too good.
3. I don't really care to talk about how each caster class operates on an intuitive level. If we're going to nitpick about this stuff, the sorcerer would either not exist at all or would use an ability other than Cha--how can one's social skills be applicable to the eldritch mechanics of the universe that all casters manipulate?!
4. As I said, I'm not interested in making intuitive sense out of the casting classes or of the epic spell rules--I'm interested in game balance.
5. Haerthguard, at epic levels ability scores can vary hugely. The best score of an 'optimized' 40th level character will be 43 (+16), while the second best will be 31 (+10) at best. A difference of six bonuses is not to be overlooked, and the higher level we go, the more that gap will widen. (again, I'm interested in balance)
6. I totally understand everyone's angst with high level and epic spell DCs. It seems that the game designers were bent on making high level PCs, dragons and outsiders completely immune to magic! When a spellcaster fights one of these foes, all she can really do is buff up her allies and use magic missiles. If I were to attempt a fix for this, I'd set all DCs at 10 + 2x Spell level and then apply a flat /caster level bonus at epic levels.
7. After all this, I think the best fix for epic magic is to allow divine casters and sorcs to use wis or cha instead of intelligence (only for Spellcraft checks specifically rolled to cast epic spells mind you!).
I don't think there is any problem with letting epic sorcerers and clerics use their relevant ability modifiers for the Spellcraft DC. Either go for it, or if you're still worried about game balance, make it a feat that allows them to do this.
Also, just FYI, Charisma isn't social skills. It often manifests itself that way, but if you look, you'll find tons of creatures (particularly demons) who have massive Charisma scores and no social skills. So that definition falls short. I follow this one: While it can take the form of social know-how and physical attractiveness, Charisma is, in actuallity, a measure of a creature's "spirit", the amount of impact they have on the world around them simply by existing and interacting with it.
First off, perhaps there is a happy middle ground that could be found with regards to non-wizard spell casters making their own spells. Perhaps narrating that the gold cost involved means different things for different types of casters. A wizard spends his money on books and research materiel, a sorcerer spends his money on spell components expended to get the effect he wants "just right" and the cleric expends money on offerings to his diety praying to be granted a particular spell. Perfect solution? Well, no... But then again nothing I do is even close to perfect, but it might work.
Second, Perhaps adding in half caster level to spell DC resistance might solve the problem of characters become resistant to magic. This way, a casters spell resistance DC would progress at about the same rate as the targets "good" saves. Thus, the target will have a good chance to resist one type of magic, but a cunning wizard will always have back up spells to play to his enemies weaknes. "haha, Ubak! You may the fortitude of a druken ox, but lets see how your will is doing!"
Thirdly, powerful wizards have always been a staple of the fantasy genera. Both as protagonists and antagonists. Kinda losses its clout when your average sword swining goon can take them out with impunity. Seed magic helps as it can be quite potent. I'm not sure if there is any ritual style magic out there (not too familiar with epic magic I'm affraid)
Fourthly(?), I liked the miraculous wish spell. Wishes have always been fun, both for players and GMs alike. Bring 'em on I say! Combining a wish with with devine casting could be fun, what the wish does could be heavily influenced by the diety of the caster. The same wish directed at Herronious or Hexetor would probably have wildly different effects, thus adding to the abiguity that makes wishes so much fun. But with this in mind no cleric of Bethsaba should EVER use that spell! A story called "The Monekey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs comes so mind...
Fiftly(??), Yes Grimmcleaver, Archmages don't hide things behind bookcases ;)
Are you proposing adding 1/2 caster level to the save DCs of a caster's spells? Or checks to overcome spell resistance? That actually sounds pretty good for spell save DCs.
Well, the thing about this is that it gives me a much more focused idea about elements I'd like to include in my homebrew, and thus rules that I should try working on.
First off is adding special effects to energy types that deal damage (such as Dex damage or movement penalties due to chills from Cold spells, and possible burning, with a low DC to overcome, from Fire, or a penalty to attacks from the pain of the burns; a similar thing for Acid, Deafness from Sonic, and possible Dex damage or Stunned condition from Electric due to the jarring of one's nerves and muscles). If they were all counter-balanced, more or less, to each other, it would add a nice, but not overblown (I think) "oomph" to a spellcaster's arsenal (as well as being my realistic, dynamic, and possibly the vaunted "more cinematic").
Secondly is coming up with some ritual spells that take a long time. Luckily, the DMG II already provides some nice guidlines under their "magical events" section.
I think I saw something for ritual magic somewhere regarding d20 modern, maybe you could implement that system if you want ritual magic in your games? I think it was in Urban Arcana or something.
And yeah, even the ELH has an option for changing the ability for spellcraft, because at twentieth level it's probably a +10 modifier on your primary spellcasting ability.
The justification for epic spellcasting is that the character supposedly achieves a higher understanding of the universal, primal nature of magic.
I believe the resistance problem is there to decrease the hazards of save-or-die spells, which can really slow the game down if every turn the enemy kills off yet another PC.
I'll look into that ritual magic reference, thanks!
Good point on the save or die, but still, I'm going to work to make spellcasters even stronger. I've seen too many warrior types built that have a 75-80% chance to hit anything (once an 8th level party of mine fought a troglodyte priest who boosted his AC to 30 and they never missed) and dish out damage that (given, it was a single foe) would make a fireball-throwing wizard ashamed. Given a limited number of spells per day and what is actually a limited effectiveness (given that most spell die rolls are unmodified), they need a boost. I want mages to be feared and powerful in my games, both by the PCs and the enemy. If they come out a little stronger than the warrior types in the end, good! I want it that way.
(sings) It's my world and I can do what I want to.... :)
Too true, I think the Rituals might have been in something on the WotC d20 Modern website by the way. It was one or the other. I'm just gald that warriors have their uses at high levels, since a wizard can bake like fifteen people at once in a single fireball. And at epic levels you have things like the intensify spell feat, which is pretty much 4x average damage, so even a fireball does like 120 damage.
Sorry to double post, but I found the thinga-ma-bob. They're called Incantations and they're in Urban Arcana and at this address http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20modern/fb/20031021a
Someone on the WotC boards pointed out that 'my' wis/cha substitution solution for epic spells is an optional rule written right into the ELH. I slapped myself when I read that. I slapped myself even harder when I looked it up in my ELH.
As to charisma representing some sort of spiritual energy, I've never bought it. If we're going to asign spirit to one of the abilities, it should be wisdom if anything. Charisma, no! Charisma is confidence, bearing, tact and basic social know-how, period. At least that's the way I see it.
Yes, epic spells can be modified so that they require rituals to cast, thereby lowering the Spellcraft DC. Couple that with the fact that nearly every epic 'seed' has a casting time of 1 minute, and there you have your ritual magic!
In my total d&d revamp, I'm doing magic much differently. Firstly I'm assigning each damage type a common effect like Saern. Fire spells always catch the target on fire, assuming a successful Spellcraft check. Acid spells deal 1d4s instead of d6s but have durations so that over time they deal more damage. Unnamed damaging spells never cause instant death (like disintegrate) but have save for half just like blaster spells. Secondly, almost every spell has minor effects when the target makes their save. Thirdly, spell level (or its equivalent in my system) has no bearing on a caster's save bonus (which is rolled agains the target's save DC). The caster's save bonus is just a Spellcraft check, modified by Wisdom (magic is much more intuitive for me). I'm still undecided as to exactly how potent magic should be; should a poor save DC stop the Spellcraft check 25% of every time while a good save DC stop the check 50% or should the poor DC stop the check 50% of every time while the good DC stop the check 75%? I'm trying to use the d&d system as my baseline reference, but it's sooo blurry!
Sel, thanks for the comment on my spell! Because I love mystic theurges, I've houseruled that they get full double caster progressions at epic levels (because they don't in the 3.5 patch). However, they have to buy a separate Epic Spellcasting feat for each of their progressions if they want to cast epic divine and arcane spells. The DCs still suck of course...that 1/2 caster level bonus to DCs sounds interesting. I'm just worried that it would throw non-magic-immune monsters (like dragons) out of balance. Also wouldn't it then follow to give other class abilities higher DCs? Like allowing monks to add their full level to stunning fist DCs? Whould that throw the game out of whack? Ugh...why do I even worry and not just stick with my separate revamp?!
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
|
2. I agree that it doesn't make sense that divine casters need to research new spells. In my games I houserule that any non-epic divine spell that I allow at all is automatically available to any appropriate divine caster. With epic spells though, balance is a major issue. Epic spells need to be restrictive to divine casters too or else they would be just too good.
This is an argument I see frequently regarding clerics and I generally don't buy it. The problem is that this line of reasoning inevitably leads to people questioning the necessity of even having clerics prepare spells. After all, if their serving the will of their god and are pious enough to have spells in the first place, shouldn't they be able to get that remove poison when they really need it? Why should they prepare it in advance? A lot of 2e games used to house rule that clerics could cast any spell from the phb w/o having to memorize by using exactly this line of reasoning.
The justification for cleric epic spells is easy. One way a god tests the faith of its servants is by allowing them to unlock rituals that grant powers beyond the norm (e.g., epic spells). Yeah, Thor could grant any of his clerics the ability to cast Big-Ass Lightning Bolt Storm of Deadly Death, but he only chooses to grant that insight to those willing to take the time and effort to learn the ritual - he doesn't just hand the ability out to any cleric that could cast the spell.
But then again, one of my pet peeves is people messing with the magic rules. It's tempting, lord knows that I always want to do it myself, but invariably it's because of their own personal view on how magic _should_ work. Considering that I haven't found two people to agree on that statement, the best stance IMO is to go with a neutral third party (WotC and game balance).
Now that I've wasted a ton of time ranting about this, I don't really have anything susbtantive to add to your dilemna TS. I haven't played an epic campaign. I guess one solution would be to have clerics use knowledge: religion or such. That would represent becoming closer to your diety and learning the ritual as I discussed above rather than spellcraft which is about the nature of magic itself. Similarly, druids would use knowledge: nature.
F~$% sorcerers. The class isn't about rituals, it's about fireballs. Let em suck it up in charisma.
This is an argument I see frequently regarding clerics and I generally don't buy it. The problem is that this line of reasoning inevitably leads to people questioning the necessity of even having clerics prepare spells. After all, if their serving the will of their god and are pious enough to have spells in the first place, shouldn't they be able to get that remove poison when they really need it? Why should they prepare it in advance? A lot of 2e games used to house rule that clerics could cast any spell from the phb w/o having to memorize by using exactly this line of reasoning.
2. I agree that it doesn't make sense that divine casters need to research new spells. In my games I houserule that any non-epic divine spell that I allow at all is automatically available to any appropriate divine caster. With epic spells though, balance is a major issue. Epic spells need to be restrictive to divine casters too or else they would be just too good.
I don't argue that clerics shouldn't even have to prepare spells, because that would majorly disrupt game balance. I don't see my no-research rule as unbalancing because I'm very strict about the spells I allow in my game. My first time DMing, I made the mistake of telling my players 'if WotC printed it, you can use it!' After that campaign, any noncore option that you want to use has to be run by me first.
|
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
|
I don't argue that clerics shouldn't even have to prepare spells, because that would majorly disrupt game balance. I don't see my no-research rule as unbalancing because I'm very strict about the spells I allow in my game. My first time DMing, I made the mistake of telling my players 'if WotC printed it, you can use it!' After that campaign, any noncore option that you want to use has to be run by me first.
Sorry, looks like I didn't read your original post carefully enough. I was thinking you were saying that divine clerics should have access to epic spells w/o doing research and that's not what you were saying at all. I agree that your rule is not unbalancing (and furthermore, is entirely consistent with the core rules).
That being said, I do think there is room in D&D for divine spells that are not universally available.
Just to chime in on the DCs of 'normal' spells:
I've been toying around with modifying the save DC mechanic myself, thinking that a save DC of 10 + 1/2 Caster Level would be good, and ignore the spell's level. It just never made sense to me that a 20th level wizard isn't much, if any, better at affecting his enemies with a second level spell than a 3rd level wizard (or sorcerer, cleric, whatever).
Sure, this would increase the overall power of spellcasters, but it would encourage high level spellcasters to use something /other/ than their highest level spells in any given encounter. Additionally, since save DCs would continue to go up right along with the save bonuses, there'd be less problem in high level play with various spells becoming essentially worthless (notably save to negate spells, or reflex save spells in the case of evasion or improved evasion).
Speaking of caster related problems, I have one with Mind Fog. What's the point of forcing a will save that incurs a penalty on will saves?! Seriously, if the target has a poor will save why not just cast another spell that actually does something useful? If the target has a good will save, they won't be affected any more by mind fog than by the spell that you eventually want to affect them (dominate person, say)! The spell specifically states that once a target makes the save, they are immune to the fog during further rounds even if they remain inside of it! Does anyone have any insight as to how Mind Fog is not utterly useless?
Does anyone have any insight as to how Mind Fog is not utterly useless?
Softening a powerful opponent so you can dominate them. ;>
Does anyone have any insight as to how Mind Fog is not utterly useless?Softening a powerful opponent so you can dominate them. ;>
So mind fog is the dunce's spell; as in only a dunce would use it...
Mind Fog is useless in the middle of a combat, yes. But not useless in all cases. I've used it against the party in a pre-cast context, i.e. the dragon put a mind fog just inside a set of doors, so that anyone who walked into his lair had to make a will save as they went through the fog. Then, of course, as soon as they walk through the doors the dragon would hit them with some other spell that requires a will save.
The key is to be able to pre-cast it before any initiative is rolled - it lasts 30 minutes. Useful for DM's and smart players, occasionally.
I have used the mind fog spell on separate occasions to great effect. My best use of the spell was a vampire wizard who filled his lair with a casting of the spell. The mind fog gave him a place to hide (in gaseous form) and made the PCs who failed their saves extremely susceptible to his domination gaze. Great fun!
I think the argument that spell save DCs should be increased is spurious. Between magic items that boost your abilities, feats and magic items that increase spell save DCs, and the fact that few creatures have three good saves allows, means that even at high-level/epic-level play spells can have an impact. You just have to read the AOW thread on how parties are defeating Kyuss to realize that.
The epic spell is actually not much better than a normal wish or miracle . I would have designed it so that the caster would not lose XP for casting the spell (since you already lose XP beforehand). Of course, there are some people who think that wish and miracle should be epic-level spells themselves.
I think the argument that spell save DCs should be increased is spurious. Between magic items that boost your abilities, feats and magic items that increase spell save DCs, and the fact that few creatures have three good saves allows, means that even at high-level/epic-level play spells can have an impact. You just have to read the AOW thread on how parties are defeating Kyuss to realize that.
I actually took a look at all the 17-23 CR monsters in the MM. In one extreme we have the formian queen (CR 17) who can't even make reflex saves (though she has a fiesty SR), while on the other extreme we have Balors and Pit Fiends that will fail a caster's best save not even 1/2 the time and SR to boot. Hmm, life does seem to suck for high level casters! Though I'm still not going to mess with spell DCs just yet.
The epic spell is actually not much better than a normal wish or miracle . I would have designed it so that the caster would not lose XP for casting the spell (since you already lose XP beforehand). Of course, there are some people who think that wish and miracle should be epic-level spells themselves.
No, miraculous wish isn't very powerful at all; I made it for an epic NPC of mine (Mythelle, Archmage and Hierophant of Boccob). I was going for the 'divine-arcane fusion' theme which is what the mystic theurge is all about; a signature spell for Mythelle if you will. Miraculous wish is free of XP cost for mimicking other spells as miracle is (don't understand why Wish isn't the same way), but I had to attach the XP cost to its other uses or else it could be majorly abused. As anyone who has ever played one knows, MTs have great versatility but much poorer firepower than single classed casters.