Epic Spells

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:34 pm

In an orgy of leveling and de-leveling, had a look at all the epic spells last night.

First off, I'm not sure if any of the epics have been customized. Didn't seem like it, but I'm not familiar with the stock summons & it's difficult to really test something like Epic Warding without a high enhancement magic weapon. Anyhow...

Dragon Knight - summons a level 35 red dragon. It's big, it's bad... it might be able to solo Lord Drak, that is if it didn't spend most of the very short summon duration casting wimpy little spells like Magic Missle instead of getting in there and doing some melee damage.

Mummy Dust - summons a 7 undead/13 cleric mummy lord. Not particularly tough. Fighting wimpy goblins near Melencia Pass got him down to about 3/4 hp. The mummy lord summons a secondary critter, which is bugged in that you never get XP from anything the secondary kills. The mummy lord comes with a fear aura, which unfortunately turns out to be counter-productive as most things under the influence of fear run away from the mummy lord faster than he can chase them.

Hellball - supposed to do 10d6 of acid, electrical, fire, and sonic. Used against forest walkers, was doing an average 30 damage, 40 max. Mediocre spell DC, think it was 30, much lower than my average for delayed blast fireball. I THOUGHT the epic spells still went by schools & hellball was evocation, but if this is so, my various spell focuses aren't doing diddly. 110-160ish damage isn't horrible, but I wouldn't waste an epic feat on it.

Greater Ruin - supposed to do 36d6 damage (positive energy, I think). Was consistently in the 130-160 range. Same issues as Hellball. And again, not sure if I'd use an epic feat for a single use/day spell.

Epic Warding - 50/+20 damage reduction. Think it lasts for 2k in damage. Hard to test for the +20 damage reduction, but definitely a decent choice.

Epic Mage Armour - supposed to give +20 AC. Unfortunately, the Bioware implementation breaks that up into +5 bonuses to dodge, deflection, natural, and armour AC. This means it doesn't stack with stuff like AC on cloaks or the PM Boneskin feat for example (both deflection AC, though why Boneskin should be deflection is beyond me. Annoying. Should stack, hint-hint), so only the dodge bonus stacks and the result is a less than 20 AC bonus. BUT since NS4 limits AC boni on items to 3 or 4, it's still a significant boost to AC. A decent choice.

Throst54 · Post by **Throst54** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:16 am

my guess:
teh good dmg spells are nerfed mainly b/c of the wave of ppl whining about mages whipping tanks.

lord_modred · Post by **lord_modred** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 1:38 am

mummy dust sounds like it's been changed to me... i seem to rememeber it summoning a undead fighter.... not a cleric. and on a side note... a summon should never summon another creature... and when this is compounded with the fact that you dont get XP from the second summon, well now it's just a pain in the [censored]...

dragon knight im not sure of... never got a chance to use it in combat... but in my opinion... a summon of that strength should not be casting spells at all, why the hell would a wizard summon something to cast spells for him? what the wizard needs is something made so smash his enemies up close and personal, and thats what a dragon should be doing anyways...

hell ball is a moderately good spell... it's basically like having one extra empowered timed fireball... nothing too special...

greater ruin... same as hell ball... nothin special...

seems that the only two epic spells that are really worth their salt are the protective ones... now if your going to be using up a feat to gain access to these epic spells... they should be moderatley more powerful than they currently are.

Terminal Insanity · Post by **Terminal Insanity** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 2:47 am

ive seen Demon Knight and Epic Mage armor and Greater Ruin myself... first two are prety good... Greater ruin sucks =/ its not worth it considering its a once per day spell... id rather use the feat on mage armor or a summon or better yet... Greater Cha/int

and i do have one problem with Demon Knight...

A Cleric gets 9 dragons per day - the mage gets one... but that is 100% acceptable and understandable because of what a cleric is... but it would be nice if the mage dragon would last at least as long as the clerics... my lvl 27 sorcs dragon lasts about 2 minutes =/

Also, it probably wont happen but i think since Dragon Knight is a once-per-day spell mabe it should be a little stronger then the clerics? at least in the utility sense... crank up its spot/listen a bit more... make it use more physical attacks instead of magical... seeing a great fighting summon go down the drain cos it wants to cast flame arrow is prety depressing heh

Mabe give it Mass Heal spell or two... to keep allong the lines with the dragons cleric connections... and a fear aura would definatly be nice considering it IS a dragon... (that aura should definatly go onto the clerics version also)

Mold the Mages dragon so that it works best with a mage... and all a mage needs is a big physical tank... mabe make the clerics dragons more magical since the cleric is usualy a heavy melee anyways

The dragons right now cast fireball, flame arrow, magic missile and stuff... mabe up it to (Greater?) Stoneskin, spell mantle? a fear aura, and add a nice breath weapon it would use when its nearing death

Post by **Lokey** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:15 am

Um clers get dragon knight too...so does 15 PM with 8 wis/6 int/6 char :roll:

Dragon Knight will continue the planar summoning line...still have balancing to do on the things. It'll take a little server down time to get it in anyway, so after the weekend at the soonest. Plus the what does what info, and finding hearing protection for the nerf cries.

-----

Protection from Elements (almost all casters get) will soak 90% of Bio hellball damage most of the time anyway...almost certainly if you make the save.

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 12:10 pm

Any chance of changing the skin for dragon night to summon something that looks like tenser's transformation.
Just to get the size down a bit...

DrakhanValane · Post by **DrakhanValane** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 6:33 pm

Lokey wrote:Dragon Knight will continue the planar summoning line...still have balancing to do on the things.

Hey Jester, does that answer you? (Hint: this is from the post immediately before yours.) By planar he is referring to the Planar Binding spells.

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 10:55 pm

No, because I haven't absolutely no clue what those spells summon.

DrakhanValane · Post by **DrakhanValane** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:05 am

Lantern Archon, Hound Archon, Astral Deva, and Solar on the good lineup. Those are Lesser, normal, and Greater Planar Binding spells plus dragon knight. The cleric's Planar Ally is the same as Planar Binding for mages.

So Dragon Knight summons a Solar for good and a Pit Fiend and a Death Slaad for Evil and neutral I think.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 12:12 am

The slaad would continue the neutral line... not 100% on the evil.

Post by **Lokey** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 3:48 am

Evil: Imp, Incubus, Vrock, Pit Fiend, Balor from Lesser Planar Binding through Dragon Knight.

Psycho Dordt · Post by **Psycho Dordt** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:57 pm

Bob wrote:Greater Ruin - supposed to do 36d6 damage (positive energy, I think). Was consistently in the 130-160 range. Same issues as Hellball. And again, not sure if I'd use an epic feat for a single use/day spell.

that spell rocks with the counterspell bugg ;p

Spura · Post by **Spura** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 1:07 pm

Epic spells are quite pointless to take unless you are mage, then take Epic warding. I think epic mage armor stacks with boneskin of palemaster. At least it does on local. Did the Devs change boneskin from innate AC to deflection here? I can't test because I don't play here any more 'sides I don't have epic mage anyway.

Neversummer 4 Forum Archive

Epic Spells

Epic Spells

Re: Epic Spells