Elfin Ion Cannon

[Drynwyn]

As promised elsewhere
Elfin Ion Cannon(Ritual)
Epic Spell
Final Spellcraft DC: 25
Casting time: 90 days 11 minutes
Ritual participants: 10 9th level spell slots
Range: 2,000 miles
Effect: 10 foot by 30 foot cylinder dealing 100d6 points of damage(Reflex half)
Fluff and research info later, this is just the bare bones.

[Dead_Jester]

Why a Spellcraft dc so low? By the time you can take Epic Spellcasting, you'll have a minimum of 24 ranks in it. But you'll also probably have at least a +10 modifier from your stats, so the realistic lowest level for this is 35. Then again, you are wasting 90 days when you could just use Delay Death (heck, persist it for the lulz) and take the maximum amount of backlash damage. You should also use up the minutes before the days.

If you use these, you can reduce your time by at least 35 days, way more if you get stuff to boost your Spellcraft checks (very easy to do). By epic levels, you could probably get a Spellcraft bonus in the 70s without too much work.

[Yora]

That spell really is only useful when you are absolutely sure you have to destroy a city or fortress gate. You have to decide to destroy it 3 months before destruction which leaves everyone near the target lots of time to move to another location. Even if they don't know someones aiming an epic spell at them, so many things can happen that make the spell unneccessary or useless.

And there are lots of better ways to deal 100d6 damage to a gate or a wall, that don't require 3 months of preperation.

[Silverscale]

If you could get the casting time down to a day or maybe 2-3 days at the most it would be a viable ritual that could be used to break up a siege, or launch a surprise attack before too many people notice what you're doing. 3 months just leaves too much room for circumstances to change or people to find you and kill you before you complete your ritual.

[Leecros]

It would be an interesting way to put a time limit on a campaign as long as the foe is clueless about it. It would also be a good way to start a war. things get messy when a nation's king gets blown up by 100d6 points of damage. The time is a pretty long long to be used effectively.

[Unrest]

<waiting for someone to point out a way to throw ~100d6 spells every other round using MetaMetaMetaMetaMetamagicked Orbs or something>

But, as mentioned, using it as a "time limit" is a cool one. Although it would need to be, let's say, 2000 miles radius, and dead-d-dead dice of damage. Also, what's the point of having a "reflex half" with such a spell? That always struck me as 3.5's idiocy - well, unless you'd be somewhere near the edge of the area bombed.

[Drynwyn]

Hmm.. Every day of casting time reduces the DC buy 2, so...
5-day casting time=215 DC. Could add more ritual participants...
Also, the idea is it targets at the end of the spell, not the beginning.

[ericgrau]

The typical city wall is 10 feet thick requiring 900 damage to breach. So what this is is an epic spell that can only take down a gate.

[Gorgondantess]

<waiting for someone to point out a way to throw ~100d6 spells every other round using MetaMetaMetaMetaMetamagicked Orbs or something>

What? That's not even fair. See, those require a RTA, which is infinitely better than reflex half (damn evasion!) and I can manage something like 100d6 (not actually, coz everything is maximized, but about 300-400 damage per round) every round (i.e. even without celerity) at level 11-12 or so. By epic levels, it just gets silly.
Just get 10 10th level wizards to cast fireball or lightning bolt all at once, anyways. Bam, 100d6 damage.

[ericgrau]

Fire and electricity do 1/2 damage to objects and after that each one gets reduced by hardness, so the 10d6 effectively becomes 3d6 each. But ya you got the right idea. Empower/maximize them, switch energy types, etc.

[Obrysii]

The easiest way to do that kind of damage is to drop a heavy weight.

Falling objects deal +1d6 damage for every 250 pounds they weigh.

So take a creature with a high strength score and a fly speed, such as a Soarwhale, and use it to lift a heavy weight and drop it - bam, instant insane damage.

[ericgrau]

Or, y'know, 100 catapults works too. I know that's a crazy off the wall high optimization solution, and an unfair way to get falling rock damage cheese, but if your DM allows it the local army can do 600d6 damage (effectively 400d6 after hardness) fairly cheaply :smallbiggrin:. Re-usable every other round. Obligatory yes I know this isn't cheese white text.