Some epic spellcasting rules

[Fizban]

Spell's name: Wish. Ob: 10. Syllables: Depends on the wish.
This spell is working like Miracle - you may wish what you want, and to cast this spell you just need to speak your wish (and that determines the number of the syllables). The spell works like the D&D spell - it have the same limits.

Epic spellcasting - a character with gray or white shade in both will and the sorcery skill. Characters with such strong abilities may cast any spell immediatly, by will, with no needing for speak or doing anything else. Casting a spell in this way will require to overcome an Ob and Tax 5 points higher. White shaded characters may use 5s to continue rolling as it was 6. I suggest to use this sistem only for NPCs and very old and strong PCs wizards, who devoted his life for magic (it may come up to 55 artha for using this, and years of practices!).

What do you think about the spell and the sistem?

[Kublai]

My only question is "Why?"

My only comment is Obstacle 10 for any Sorcerer is very easy to achieve. An Apprentice with 1 Deed point can pull this off with little difficulty. This is especially true if they case it patiently and carefully.

As for the epic system, I believe it would break BW in half and cause it's author to cry with a mix of sadness and rage.

[Lxndr]

IF you want a Wish spell at all (which I don't) the Ob should be at least 20, and probably much more. I'd have to say 30 Ob. Minimum. Maybe more.... remember, Sorcery is rolled with "Sorcery + Will", and with black shades you could easily have Sorcery B6 + Will B6, or 12 dice. Experienced characters might easily have even more.

Ob 10 (smaller than many abstract spells) is WAAAYYYY too easy, when rolling 12 already-open-ended dice. Artha can easily double that to 24 dice. Which is why "30 Ob" is my off-the-cuff suggestion.

As for the epic system... gray and white are ALREADY powerful enough over black... why are you wanting to see it become even more so?

[Fizban]

My only question is "Why?"
hmm... actually, I'm not sure... ask wizards why they wrote the epic lvl book...
I just thought it will be nice...

- Fiz...

[Kublai]

I see! :shock:

D+D is its own game, as is BW. They work on completely different "levels." I think trying to emulate a D+D style of play in BW will only make little Baby Jesus cry. :cry:

If you like the epic level D+D stuff, then definitely play D+D. Or, at the least, play BW for a while before trying to translate cool aspects of other games into the BW style.

[Lxndr]

Believe me, Gray and White (Heroic and Supernatural) are epic enough as it is. And an "epic-level" sorcerer probably has ALL the Abstraction facets, which is roughly equivalent to a wish (only taking more time to cast, as per the nature of the individual spells). So...

[eruditus]

Yeah, I would say that Abstraction is really a combination of these two concepts, both Wish and Epic spells. What makes the spel epic in BW is the goal - breadth, mass targets, permanence, etc.

In my campaign when a sorcerer goes to gray shade they automatically begin Abstration (or some semblance thereof) based on the spells they already know. Even still all the spells they cast have the same "feeling" as those spells they cast without Abstration. ie. my PC group's resident spell caster is a summoner of the dead and all his spells have the feelinging of the otherside.