Random DM nagging.

[Anastasia]

Rewriting this purely for stylistic reasons, the mechanics here are unaltered.

Side note, for powerful effects that require a high level spellcaster to remove, I've grown to prefer caster level checks rather than x caster level. Jaela, would you prefer as written or 'requires a DC 34 caster level check to remove'? It's not a big deal since I use both in different spells, so go with which you prefer. Hard level requirements work better in low epic, while checks work better in higher epic due to more flexibility.

Generally speaking, the level of the caster to dispel it + 10 is the DC of the caster level check, but not always. Just FYI.

Also, the bit at the end of heresy's reward notes the spell started as a Tyrran secret, but slowly spread. That happens to a lot of spells, though not always. Good deities tend to cooperate, which means sharing happens. In this case it made sense for Tyr to share the spell with other suitable clerics, then to the rest of the Triad. From there, an epic cleric of Ilmater traded it to a cleric of Lathander who helped him, who in turn made a scroll of it, which eventually ended up in the hands of a cleric of Hanali Celanil. So forth and so on.

When the opposite is noted, such as a spell being a closely guarded secret of the faith or whatnot, it's best to assume it's not easily available.

Stigma
Evocation/Divination [Good]
Level: Clr 11
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100ft + 10ft/level)
Area: 40ft radius burst
Duration: Instantaneous and permanent; see text
Saving Throw: Will partial; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell was developed by Jaela of Aurora, building on the work of a powerful archon cleric. The caster calls for righteous to smite devils and ensure that they cannot escape the truth of their defeat. This manifests as a brilliant burst of white energy. Most creatures are unaffected by this, but devils and lawful evil fallen angels are devastated.

Devils and lawful evil fallen angels take 1d10 points of damage per caster level (maximum 30d10). Further, they are branded to show that they were defeated. This brand is on the creature's forehead reads 'Beaten by Jaela of Aurora' and can be read by any creature that can read a language. The creature that reads it is instantly aware of the circumstances on which the brand was received and the result of those circumstances (such as being slain, fleeing or so forth). A successful Will save halves the damage and negates the brand.

The brand is difficult to remove. It remains if the creature is slain and reforms, even if they are demoted to a weaker form. Removing the brand requires a wish or miracle spell by a 24th level spellcaster.

Note

This spell is a variant of heresy's reward.

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I tried to come up with something but sunlance is just too good at everything. If it became a cleric spell as is, which level would it be?

Tentatively 12. That's my super quick and dirty approach to converting a spell to a spell list that doesn't normally get it. That's assuming I allow it and blah blah blah.

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Changelog: Removed the light descriptor, as there's nothing light-related about the spell.  I'm guessing you copy/pasted or it's from an earlier revision? Fixed the range line not having range: in front of medium.

Also, is this supposed to be a ray spell? The way you wrote it suggests yes, but it says the effect is one creature, which is wrong. You were talking about 10th level ray spells anyway, so I'm writing it under the assumption it is. Let me know either way.

Gae Assail
Evocation [Good]
Level: Clr 10
Components: V, S, M, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100ft + 10ft/level)
Effect: Ray
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

The caster grinds the yew wood and summons a ray of holy power shaped like a spear. This spear hurtles from the caster and requires a ranged touch attack. A successful hit deals 1d6 points of damage per caster level (maximum 30d6) to evil creatures, while natives of the Negative Energy Plane, undead and evil outsiders take 1d12 points of damage per caster level (maximum 30d12) and blinds them for 1d4 rounds. This spell does no damage to good or neutral creatures.

Material Component

A piece of yew wood

[Anastasia]

Interested in building a Spellpool into my lair. Maybe combining it with the Living Vault. Living Spellpool Vault or something. I know that vault is still pending.

Sure, so noted.

[Anastasia]

Idle note: I don't like how those full screen lines (ala [.hr] I believe) look. I usually use a triple-dash, though that's purely a style preference. There's no point to this, I just found it interesting while quoting Cor's posts.

Also, reading and editing these spells shows me I spend too much time doing this stuff. Things like a missing action in the casting time line of Cor's DoS spell drives me up a wall. If only everyone's problems were so utterly trivial.

What I want is an aura (as with Teleportation Scrambler) that won't be easily escaped (a mile like those lvl10 spells), and for the spell to be useful against devils stronger than myself. This means no save (which they'd easily beat) as with Dimensional Anchor, and no SR as with Teleportation Scrambler. No need for the damage or long duration of the Teleportation Scrambler or the Dimensional Lock. No need for anything permanent like Sever Astral Links.

Teleport DoS
Abjuration
Level: Clr10, Sor/Wiz 10
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard
Range: Personal
Area: 1 mile radius
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

If I can't get an aura but a stationary mile-wide dimensional block that lasts 1rnd/lvl, can I instead get a (+5 or +10, whichever seems reasonable) bonus to CL for the purpose of opposed checks by anyone who wanted to dispel it? Or a penalty to their CL check for the same?

First of all, a 1 mile radius anti teleport spell wouldn't be a 10th level spell. The miracle spells are patterned around lowish level healing effects of around 3rd level, such as remove disease and remove curse. There's 7+ spell levels to play with since those spells have been available. Conversely, you get things like dimensional lock as an 8th level spell with a 20ft radius spread area of effect. There's not a lot of room to play with a bigger range of effects, since most anti TP spells are higher level and don't go heavy on the range. Hmmm.

The best anti TP spell for area of effect is MoP's zone of respite, which got smashed hard with the nerf bat for the SC. It used to be 30ft cube/level to 20ft radius emanation centered on you. Ouch. On the other hand, forbiddance is a thing. On the third hand, it's expensive as hell, with a base 1.5k gold cost and 1.5k per 60ft cube. Let's assume your goal isn't throwing money at the problem until it goes away.

Since you said on IRC that your goal for this spell is to stop powerful enemies from fleeing and summoning reinforcements, let's focus on that rather than the 1 mile area, which is the troublesome point. 50ft/level radius emanation's fine and covers 1200ft minimum at your level, which is plenty of room to work with unless you stay stationary and let an enemy run around.

Jaela's Teleport Block
Abjuration
Level: Clr 10, Sor/Wiz 10
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 50ft/level
Area: 50ft/level radius emanation centered on you
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell blocks all dimensional travel within its radius. Teleport, plane shift, gate, shadow walk and similar spells all fail, as does travel from the Astral Plane, Ethereal Plane, Plane of Shadow and so forth. Ethereal creatures are unable to enter the area and creatures cannot become ethereal within it (though ethereal creatures already within the area of the spell are not affected). Summoning and calling spells and effects are likewise blocked, though existing called or summoned creatures are not affected, including vanishing when the effects summoning them expire.

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The spell's essentially going all in on a powerful anti TP spell. Powerful and with a big radius but short lived, suited to a duel or small group battle.

[Yuthirin]

I like the idea of the baths, too. I don't think we should shut down the healer's ward, but maybe retro fit them for more specialized things. Rosa's encounter comes to mind. Maybe turn them into a psychic healing ward with Tryll's help or something similar?

Tryll would be pleased to donate his time to helping in the healing wards.

[Anastasia]

Todo: Add new spells to spell collection when it's not 230ish AM.

[Anastasia]

Todo list update.

1. Spells, domain and otherwise.
2. Death/Decay druid for Iddy.
3: Stone colossus.
4. Add Jaela spells to Spell Collection.
5. Rework Duskblade epic casting spell selection. It's early work and it shows.
6. Have Tryll discover Surraruthru's terrifying secret.
7. Post Imix. He's about 75% done.

[Iron Dragoon]

Todo list update.
6. Have Tryll discover Surraruthru's terrifying secret.

Bogus. He hasn't found the hook we talked about yet. You're not supposed to drop hints like that.

Bad DM.

[Yuthirin]

I have no idea what's going on and I try not to meta game so I'm gonna pretend this didn't happen

[Anastasia]

Todo list update.

1. Spells, domain and otherwise.
2. Death/Decay druid for Iddy.
3: Stone colossus.
4. Add Jaela spells to Spell Collection.
5. Rework Duskblade epic casting spell selection. It's early work and it shows.
6. Living Vault.
7. Post Imix. He's about 75% done.
8. Jaela light stuff.

[Nephrite]

I have a bardic music question, and I think I've been running it wrong this entire time.

Let's take Inspire Courage, for example. On Round 1, I use Inspire Courage, and on Round 2, I use Inspire Heroism.

Neither of these abilities state they require concentration or a standard action to maintain, just that allies must be able to hear me and they stop 5 rounds after I stop.

So, my general question is, do they maintain themselves with my continued words of encouragement after I use them? Is one phrase more courageously inspiring then heroically inspiring?

I've been running it basically that they have a 5 round duration and only persist if I continue to use an action to maintain them, which looks like this:

R1: IC(5)
R2: IH(5), IC(4)
R3: Do something, IH (4), IC(3)

and so on.

I'm sure this is clarified somewhere, but It hit me today that I've been kind of assuming all these rules about it without bothering to see if there was an actual stated functionality.

[Corwin]

Here's my take on it, courtesy of the srd:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/bard.htm

* http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/bard.htm#bardicMusic
Relevant section:
Starting a bardic music effect is a standard action. Some bardic music abilities require concentration, which means the bard must take a standard action each round to maintain the ability. Even while using bardic music that doesn't require concentration, a bard cannot cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), spell trigger (such as wands), or command word.

* http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/bard.htm#inspireCourage
Relevant section:
A bard with 3 or more ranks in a Perform skill can use song or poetics to inspire courage in his allies (including himself), bolstering them against fear and improving their combat abilities. To be affected, an ally must be able to hear the bard sing. The effect lasts for as long as the ally hears the bard sing and for 5 rounds thereafter.

It's not explicitly stated, I suppose, but it seems pretty clear to me that bardic music is allowed to be continued if you keep at it (which prevents you from doing other stuff, as stated, since you concentrate as a standard action). Then, once you've stopped, it may last a while depending on the bardic music in question. For Inspire Courage, it lasts 5 extra rounds.

With your example, it'd be more like:

R1: Use Inspire Courage, people hear you. IC(active)
R2: Stop using Inspire Courage, use Inspire Heroics, people hear you. IH(active), IC(5)
R3: Do something that doesn't continue Inspire Heroics nor uses another use of bardic music to start Inspire Courage afresh, IH (5), IC(4)

Edit for Inspire Heroics
* http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/bard.htm#inspireHeroics
Relevant section:
To inspire heroics, a bard must sing and an ally must hear the bard sing for a full round. A creature so inspired gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws and a +4 dodge bonus to AC. The effect lasts for as long as the ally hears the bard sing and for up to 5 rounds thereafter.

Unlike Inspire Competence, this entry states I must first hear you sing/perform for a full round before it takes hold. So your example becomes:

R1: Use Inspire Courage, people hear you. IC(active)
R2: Stop using Inspire Courage, use Inspire Heroics, people hear you. IH(N/A), IC(5)
R3: Do something that doesn't continue Inspire Heroics nor uses another use of bardic music to start Inspire Courage afresh, IH (active), IC(4)
R4: Do something that doesn't start Inspire Heroics or Inspire Courage afresh, IH (5), IC(3)

My two cents.

[Nephrite]

My only disagreement (and this comes probably from the original SRD and not from any wrong interpretation) is that the concentration parts are brought up specifically for things like Fascinate and Suggestion, like so:

"If its saving throw fails, the creature sits quietly and listens to the song, taking no other actions, for as long as the bard continues to play and concentrate (up to a maximum of 1 round per bard level)."

I think that's more of them just forgetting to mention it specifically for each particular skill, but I could see an argument that they're not necessarily meant to be focused on, but if that were the case it would kind of horribly devalue those feats like Lingering song.

But if we go with that interpretation (which, again, I have no issue with) does that mean that once I stop IC to start something else that I can or can't back to maintain it? It feels odd that if it's just words or what have you that inspire people, that I can't just maintain the effect by continuing to use those same words, if that makes sense.

So, to continue the example:

R1: Use Inspire Courage, people hear you. IC(active)
R2: Stop using Inspire Courage, use Inspire Heroics, people hear you. IH(N/A), IC(5)
R3: Do something that doesn't continue Inspire Heroics nor uses another use of bardic music to start Inspire Courage afresh, IH (active), IC(4)
R4: Do something that doesn't start Inspire Heroics or Inspire Courage afresh, IH (5), IC(3)
R5: Resume inspiring courage in people with words and actions, taking my standard action for the turn. IC(5), IH (4)

But in that case, does it take a new use of bardic music, or is it considered to be part of the original?

[Corwin]

By raw you could stab dudes while singing if the bardic music in question doesn't explicitly state 'concentration'. I think it's an unintended exploit, given the intent is to have the bardic music take a standard action per round when the bard focuses on it.

[Nephrite]

One other question to add, if I use Harmonize, can I use the move action + standard action to maintain two bardic musics at the same time? I'm guessing no because that really doesn't make a lot of logical sense, but hey.

[Ebiris]

Stabbing dudes while singing is totally intended. It's stuff like casting spells or using wands that require verbal components that break the flow of the music.

Lyric spell is a feat specifically to address that.