Karsus, absolute legend. Casted the only 12th level spell ever. The equivalent of the person that finds the ultimate exploit in a game and gets it patched immediately.
JR the gods essentially made him into a rock, but that rock bleeds for some reason, and it never stops bleeding. He also became a great old one, so you could sign a pact with him as a warlock if you wanted.
The player Karsus overloaded the server. He was banned immediately. And the exploit was fixed. Thank you for playing Forgotten-Realms and enjoy your magic.
One of the best examples of Epic-level spells is the "Familicide" spell from the Order of the Stick series, which automatically kills all those who share a bloodline of any kind related to the target. It was used by a wizard to a Black Dragon (old or so in age) and it killed nearly 1/4 of the Black Dragons of the entire planet, from true dragons to half dragons. Good old times.
Patch 1.1 *Rebalanced magic system Hi everyone, Mystra here. After the unfortunate passing of the previous magic designer, I have been given their shoes to fill, and boy are they big shoes! Now I know that a rebalance of how magic works is going to cause a few waves in the community, but we found out that so many players were using magic to exploit the system that our servers simply can't keep up! The people up top didn't want anyone to know just how hard it was to keep running maintenance, but it has reached the point where we need to let you know that things need to change out of necessity. I hope we do you proud with this new system!
*_" Have you ever heard the story of Archmage Karsus the Wise? He could become a God but in the end he could not safe himself from dying and destroying everything he tried to protect. "_* *_" But ain't there are a way to learn these powers? "_* *_" Certainly there are. But not from a Cleric. "_*
even tho its a mispronunciation, it sounds epic like that. But we can easily tell what the word is thru context and your pronunciation. I kinda wish that was a different word.
I want a campaign with six party members, all wizards, who all follow quests to become liches. Once undead, they come together and perform a six-way co-casting of the Wish spell, sacrificing themselves with it in an effort to restructure/revert the universe in some way. Of course, they are all liches, so they would not be permanently killed by this ritual.
Pretty sure permeant death would be required to fundamentally restructure the universe. If I was DMing I'd make their phylacteries spell components probably. I mean, it largely depends on what they're trying to do, but just going "I'm a lich, so I can sacrifice my life to cast epic magic without actually dying!" seems like kind of cheating. Then again, liches usually sustain their life via consuming souls so if they had enough souls in their phylacteries they might be able to survive it. It would take a LOT of souls though. Again, depends on how big change their trying to make. Just thinking out loud here. I like your idea, and I wanted to give my take on it.
These are great but they need a disclaimer. *Heads up for any new D&D players watching these videos: THIS IS JUST FORGOTTEN REALMS LORE.* Keeping that in mind, Forgotten Realms is just one of very many possible mythological settings and your GM might use a different campaign setting, such as Dragonlance, Greyhawk, or even their own universe.
and even if you use one as a basis for a campaign, if you and your players want spells beyond 9th, make it so. D&D is not beholden to what's written down - do what makes everyone most happy.
Don't spells above 9th level officially not exist for player in 5e because you can't officially advance beyond 20 level anymore in 5e as mortal? From what I know- in 5e there are no more epic levels at all. 20 is just maks what mortal can achieve.
I recently re-read Drangons of Autumn Twilight and magic was OP as fuck. Raistlins low level magic missle was just straight killing people who hadnt been touched yet. But it also took a toll physically. After reading through the books its obvious that the rules for magic in Krynn differ then the rules of magic in forgotten realms :/
From my knowledge, Karsus' Avatar killed Mystral due to the massive strain it caused to both her and the weave. In addition differing accounts depict Karsus as a power mad megalomaniac or a man pushed to the brink and left with no choice. Apparently his soul still exists and can be made a patron.
I always preferred Mystryl over her successors. As far as I can see, she remains the only magic deity to have truly embodied the nature of magic. Mystra and her ilk turned magic into something far more harsh and mechanical- certainly good for stability, but a great loss as well. The fact that magic remains known as "The Art" in some circles is undoubtedly a holdover from Mystryl's days, rather than the result of her successors.
I believe this applies even better to the first Mystra, the one who chose Elminster. The third, Mystra - Midnight deity doesn't represent The Art for me as well.
I agree! I mean, I understand why Mystra implemented the changes she did. It's probably not a good idea to let mortals go around stealing the powers of gods just so they can win a war. But if that's the case, she could have just banned magic of rank 12 or higher. She didn't have to cut off 10th and 11th rank, too. Also, she didn't have to make it so that only the sufficiently talented were able to use magic, because I think that would have actually INCREASED the risk of magical abuse! She took a power that was freely available to everybody, and restricted it to the hands of only a wealthy and educated class of people, or those who were born into a special bloodline.
People seem to miss the fact that whoever is the Deity of magic at the time, has to fix weave every time someone uses that kind of magic. New Deities just made it so their job is easier and less likely to backfire due to lesser creatures greed for power.
Toreens It’s hardly greed when you are fighting a war with magic eaters. It’s human nature to do pretty much everything they can in order to survive the war.
This also explains why sometimes the wish spell would disappear permanently after cast under certain conditions. Mistra probably saw that person as a possible liability and took the spell from them.
From what I remember of the Cormanthyr book, Karsus was called something like ”the ape who could fly" by the elves. And then I read in the romances how Evermeet was created and thought "you guys have no right to point fingers!"
Yea, I like the Elves alot, but they are such hypocrites at times. In our d&d games their arrogance sometimes tread the lines of stupidity: "We are fully aware that a 'dark god' has been awakened, but we have decreed that it is not for us to intervene in." There was another time where we recovered an elven artifact from a lich, and they demanded we hand it over or they threatened to go after one of my party members; of course it was the half orc wizard that really got under the skin.
i love how this 5year old video gives me some much needed context for the stuff thats going on in Baldur’s Gate 3 shows the love and handy work putninto the game and the world.
@@lichbard3930 It's a nice variation. I like playing both. It's based on 3.5 as you probably know. What I prefer in pathfinder is how deep the customization is (compared to 5e) and all the different classes you have.
Back during the FR novel period, the War of the Spider Queen had an instance of High Magic use. A group of wizards used a HM spell to make the entire world forget Kiransalee’s name snuffing the goddess out on the spot.
Kinda underwhelming when considering the possibilities you could achieve with a council of 9th level casters. Like.... Transporting a continent to another plane
Guys the true epic level spell is conjure animals. Why? Lizards don’t have a cr. So you can summon literally infinite lizards. They are all under you commands and each do 1 piercing damage per round. That is infinite damage each round, and a massive lizard army to ride on in a single giant wave.
@@kilroy6429 Infinite lizards couldn't all simultaneously attack a finite surface area. That's right, I'm the guy who talks about the logistics of infinite lizards.
if you're interested in epic level magic look up larloch, he's a lich from netheril and has access to such magic and has an army of a few hundred lich servitors and other powerful undead under his thrall, he's also pretty chill not doing very much except killing people who call him a warlock close enough to hear, studying and making more magic and magic items
@@theapexsurvivor9538 he might just do that, if he isn't annoyed at you and sees it as a learning experience, though he might not if it will trigger one of his many contingencies spells, oh yeah he's from a time when you can have more then one contingency spell, just don't touch him directly else his automatic curses will be inflicted on you by accident, I mean he can remove them but it could be rough going for a bit and if he is annoyed at you he might send you on a quest under a geas for him to remove the curse on you
@@a0point0of0view1 so what I'm hearing is: run around having plenty of adventures in the multi-plane, chatting with Gods, killing tarrasques, playing tag with greater ancient red dragons, and finding relics. Then give one such relic to him as a gift (using a nubile slave boy to give him said relic lest someone touch someone else in the wrong way), then offer him access to the rest of your relics to study, and to share what little information you gained on your adventures over a nice hit of astral Kush...
@@theapexsurvivor9538 OR you just find some Astral Kush and talk about wanted to smoke it with him a lot eventually on of his servitors will be scrying at the same time as it watches. going on an extraplanar adventure has the disadvantage of not being easily observed since scrying only works on the same plane, and there being many threats on the outer planes that could put you out of commission for good like spending to long in Elysium or soul destorying/stealing enemies, though if you are looking for an artefact he would be interested in he's always looking to finsh his collection of the nether scrolls (magic scrolls which posses nearly all magic knowledge within them and teach the readers (more) about magic)
I hate it because every edition change means they have to fuck up the entire world AGAIN. 1st edition started with Karsus' Folly, 2nd edition was the Time of Troubles when the Gods were cast down to Toril, 3rd edition may be the only one where everything wasn't completely fucked up but it did bring Bane back and the Shadovar, 4th edition was the worst (the Spellplague never happens in my game), and 5th was the end of the Abeir-Toril merged world nonsense.
Don't forget about the lost realm of Miyeritar and how the sun elves literally nuked it which left the area a ravaged wasteland for eons to come and it is still visible on the world map. This might be a contributing factor to the abandonment of the art, even if a great many high mages united to eternally curse the survivors of the disaster and their Illythiri allies. Of course, it wouldn't surprise me if the art was kept alive in the underdark with the ambition of the drow. Twice in recent centuries have followers of Eilistraea and Vhaeraun woven such rituals with remarkable results and in the latter case the art seems to have been modernized.
Imagine someone figuring out time and space magic in a universe with an infinite multiverse. You could create a spell linking to limitless different versions of yourself at the exact moment they cast a certain spell in their timeline making it possible to redirect an unlimited number of all available spells in all versions of reality at your target and borrow the combined magic potential of all your other selves to do so.
8:50 Tarrasque blood as a material component? By the time you're even considering epic magic that's really a trivial issue. There's plenty of blood in your average tarrasque, they regenerate at a healthy clip and can be tapped basically forever, and if you can't find one locally to play donor, just hire a spelljammer crew to go get one from that one planet where they're the ecological equivalent of sheep. Very large armor-plated sheep. :)
While it may be trivial to someone attempting epic magic, it may suck for the rest of the world while they trample around the planet killing everything.
I’m pretty sure there’s a classic module where an entire city is built around a tarrasque that was immobilized by some epic spell centuries beforehand, steadily mutilating it at the same speed as it regens to get as many super-powerful magic items and material components as they can and sell them in major interplanar markets. IIRC, it ends...poorly...for the city when the gods trick some adventurers into infiltrating the city and releasing it. And it ain’t a pretty sight when a Tarrasque is a few centuries behind schedule on its whole “destroying the world” bit.
If you are considering a Tarrasque as a "trivial" monster even at max level, your DM is either portraying monsters wrong, or you are cheating at D&D to make your characters never die and always win. Every Monster, even low level fucking goblins, should STILL be deadly to your character in the right situation (or wrong depending how you look at it)
Too Many DM's these day play carebear, friendship is magic style.... AD&D was the Original "Rogue-like" you should be going through new characters at a fairly normal interval
Now it makes sense why the wizards of the coast won't make epic level handbooks. Is in the lore, and was possibly implemented due to homebrew canpaigns being savagely destroyed. This taught me a lot
Check out Pathfinder. Notably the Mythic Adventure book. It's super high tier play that offers Mythic Tiers that take PC power way beyond lvl 20, boosting all sorts of classes to insane levels of abilities. Mythic versions of spells included. Paizo doesnt disappoint, as there are mythic bestiaries to provide a challenge. Having been in these mythic fights, you really need to know your character and critically think in combat and out. All this is accomplished well, and doesn't break the game.
Most notable was 4 lvl 20 tier 10 players taking on Cthulhu himself (he has a stat block, CR 30, Bestiary 4) at the end of a Lovecratian style campaign filled with occult stuff. Lots of qlippoth. Took an hour. Barely made it.
Context as well as 10th level Spells are Psionic Enchantments in Darksun and Immortal Magic Elsewhere The Weave inteface is actually unique to Forgotten Realms as well causing All kind of problems for plane hopping spellcasters from there used to "Mystra's training wheels" if I remember correctly
@@djtigonthis is how I imagine it going Ot "you dare defy the gods!" Me "from where I am standing their is only one Deity the overdeity of creation, the others however I care not. They can either help me, appose me, or stay out of my way." Ot "you must be insane, dont you understand why their is a limit of magic. Why we cant have that kind of magic." Me "understand? Yes I do. I just happen to disagree with the conclusion." Ot "why are you trying this, it's impossible" Me "than I guess I will just have to make it possible. I will take the rules of reality and magic and change them. All of them if I must. I will not be held back because of the mistakes of a single man, nor will I be stopped until magic is free." Ot "...you play a dangerous game, you know that right?" Me "is their any other kind of game?"
Glad to see Karsus getting talked about! I’m actually playing a Binder that shares his name and bloodline in a 3.5e game, and it’s so fun mantling vestiges.
...Is it bad that my first thought when you explained Ioulaum's Longevity was "What is the range, and could I deplete an entire city with one casting?"
I think it has to be a being of equal type to the user (ie, another humanoid) for the spell's effect to work. You might get an entire year out of a single anthill, but not one for each ant... or indeed a mosquito. The problem with the mosquito one is that you wouldn't be wiping out the mosquito population, just a fair portion within that swamp (and you'd likely miss some, which would then breed like crazy and re-populate). You'd also be killing off a bunch of other creatures too.
Just a suggestion, but I think you should cover how Ioulaum went from being a Netheril Arcanist, to a Litch, then an undead elder-brain called the Oracle of Ellyn'taal, also I love listening to your videos!
When I heard the bit about multiple people casting wish at once, I couldn't help but think about being a wizard, casting simulacrum on yourself however many times, then having them all cast wish for you
I have been dealing with writer's block for a campaign I was writing. Now I have inspiration again. Thank you very much. If anyone would like to know some of the details I would be happy to share.
Hit my inbox or something too, I'm DMing a heavily homebrewed world with theoretical access to lvl10+ spells at some point, somehow, so hit me up if you have more ideas to share.
I'd love to hear your ideas! I'm putting together some enemies and possible 10th level spells that will be possible for my players to find, and one day cast (if they're lucky). It's always great to hear ideas and get some new inspiration
Very interesting, not the reason why I clicked this video but still, I did learn a bunch. Was kind of hoping "10th level spells Revealed" was about an official announcement of actual 10th level spells coming to 5e. But now I know who to blame for the whole spell slot nonsense, and it is a very interesting story/lore. Epic spells in Neverwinter Nights were like my favorite things to use/play. If I remember correctly I used the heck out of Epic Spell: Hellball.
You can choose which dragons to allow into Waterdeep with the magical item that blocks them. It's a staff, I'm trying to remember what it's called, I'll type it later.
The most powerful spell I've seen was from an expansion. It was a level 9 Evocation / Necromancy and created a magical fire that grew, lasted longer and did more damage the more people it killed. It costed 1500 gp per casting and was about as devastating as the most powerful conventional bomb.
No, true dweomers are something different and they were a default setting type magic meaning they could be introduced in any setting. Officially, in Forgotten Realms, there is true dweomers, 10th level, 11th level, and the one 12th level spell. In addition there is elven high magic and dwarven rune magic capable of similar feats.
@@craigtucker1290 What about what I said wasnt true? You listed facts that dont argue with why I said. There were 10th level spells, they were crazy powerful, they were called true dweomers. Edit: They were in the 2.5 magical supplement book, listed as 10th level spells and called them true dweomers, can't remember the books exact name but it was the one with the wonky magical duel rules.
What an awesome video and a way to tie each successive D&D edition mechanics with the reality-altering events such as a death of magic deity! Keep up with the D&D content, I've just subscribed as well!
My DM used these spells but you would have to use multiple spells slots adding up to the level of the spell plus 10 to be fair though we also had levels past 20. My character (a level 20 bard level 7 sorcerer) casted karsus’ Avatar to become grumsh and kill Vecna
I had an epic level caster back in 3e who created an origin of species epic spell... Nobody wanted to mess with a guy who could create a Tarrasque. He was promptly retired.
The "Bonfire of Insanity" is my favorite epic spell.... it just has all the right chaotic notes for an unhinged caster who wants to watch the world tear itself apart. (its the one that has rain drop that causes undead plague, anyone touched by the rain becomes undead, it raises up undead from the ground, anyone bit by one of these undead becomes undead, etc. Basically a zombie plague to go) its of course not even an evil spell... its beyond that, its classified as "Vile" so even evil casters would be like "WTF bro, not cool"
I love the ideas the tenth and eleventh level spells have given me. I created a mithal in my campaign. Essentially when they first arrived there the city wide magic did two things. Keeps all things out and forbids violent urges or actions
Wow, I remember when this series started and my first time watching this video, now there's 100 vids in the D&D lore playlist. Best Dungeons and Dragons lore on TH-cam. Keep up the great work brother
In the lore of my world, there are three types of magic; Mortal, Draconic and Celestial. Beings of mortal souls can access tiny fragments of the force that moves all the celestial spheres and channel it in different forms, their bodies and souls too weak to channel vast amounts at once, putting a cap on what they can achieve. That is Mortal Magic. Beings of powerful souls can channel more energy and draw upon the power of their own soul, accessing extremely high level of spells. Dragons are the founders and most proficient users of it. That is Draconic Magic. At the dawn of time, Old Gods created a clique of angels, whose power was second only to their own. These angels could grow vast wings of crystal feathers, each one possesing enormous magical energy. Single tiny feather could be used to cast a powerful Wish spell. Each Angel had tens of thousands of them and could always grow more. Power beyond imagination or reason. That is Celestial Magic. During the rise of the first Abyss Overlord, demon powerful enough to rule the infinite layers of Abyss, make Demon Lords it's minions and threaten the Multiverse as a whole, all but three angels were killed by the Overlord itself. The Old Gods had to give their ego to cast the most powerful Wish in existence, so strong, even the demon could not resist it. Old Gods became forces of nature and the remaining angels disappeared or were killed in the millenia to follow. Their magic became a story. Story became legend. Legend became myth, which was then forgotten. Crystal feathers still exist, as well as ancient devices that use them as power cores. One feather is worth a fortune. The one who finds a way of producing them will rule the world.
@@tobyharrison4702 Sadly, my group fell apart after 3 sessions. Friends from uni got jobs, girlfriends and better things to do. I still develop the lore of my world as a pet project, but it's going to become a book or a comic before another D&D group rolls over.
Literally taking so many notes. Holy shit this video literally saved me. I needed this so badly, and this video just handed me everything I could have asked for. I'm trying to create a lot of big ass lore about old magic and having this canon information helps me SO much. Awesome video!
the point is that they avoid re living those memories of past lives via tracing, I mean maybe dying to the ritual is insanely painful and though might be tolerated as a once time only, every time you go back to remember how the magic tore at your being, it's no wonder elves don't sleep, also going by the scope of the power the spells might destroy the elf's soul and therefore render the user beyond their natural reincarnation
@@Darknight4434 nah, might erase that particular lifetime, but elves souls are literally just a fragment of a God, so it'll keep being reused to create new elves, even if it gets broken apart or dissolved it just re enters the hive soul.
I have a feeling you may be able to access Epic Magic through fiendish pacts, it would definitely require the souls of others and your own soul but I’m sure Asmodeus has some ways to skirt around Mystras restrictions.
Idk. Asmodeus is a lord of the hells, but mystra is literally the god of magic. She controls all aspects of, and access to, the weave - she can stop anyone from casting if she wanted to - God or no.
HOLY FUCK. RHEXX. I'VE BEEN WATCHIN YOUR LET'S PLAYS FOR AGES BACK IN THE DAYS THEN LOST ANY CONTACT WITH YOU (Your Videos). Now this Video pops up in my TH-cam feed, made my day alot sweeter. Glad you're still around buddy.
I'm a high elf arch-wizard and I have mastered forbidden spell. By obtaining rarest of magic component a tear of a snow flake I can now cast.... The Microagression.
What stops you from using the clone spell to replace your body after a sacrificial spell? (ofc talking about arms or other biological stuff, not the soul)
@@freakyskull516 Material components, gods, DM, NPCs, DM, Nat 1's, DM and did I mention DM? In all seriousness though as long as you're sneaky, pull the wool over the DM's wait.... The video mentions getting Lv 20 sacrifices? or at the very least casters that can cast Lv 9 spells so good luck I guess?
Probably, supposedly Astral Dragons could cast 10th+ level spells since they lived in the astral sea so I don't see why an entity roughly equal in power to a god couldn't cast 10th+ level spells.
Thanks for answering, i was thinking about it because the main antagonist in my campaign is a Great Old One (tbh i don't actually know if Hadar is an actual GOO or not :P), the thing is: Hadar would be bringen to the material plane by a long lasting ritual, being "manifested" in a alien like body/vessel, it's because of this situation that i want to know if the vessel's capable of such thing as casting level 10+ spells. Ps: sorry about the bad english.
@@Charlie.G506 Whether or not he'd be able to in the material plane is a good question, whether or not you should allow it is an entirely different one. I would advise, for balancing reasons, to not give him this power. At best, you could give him the ability to do this once as a settup for the story, but letting him cast such such spells would otherwise mean you'd need your party to really power up high. Since you're asking whether it'd be possible, I'll assume you play fairly lore friendly, and I don't believe your party would stand much of a chance against someone able to cast 10th level spells. If they had to defeat him, there'd only be three plausible ways: Either make the party unbalanced, which is pretty lame and will make it all feel forced. Secondly they could look for a way to weaken it, but what stops him from stopping them from doing so. And lastly, they could try sending it back to its plane, which has the same flaw as option two. TL'DR: I'd recommend you max at 9th level
If you go back to the old Greyhawk setting there was reference to the Rain of Colorless Fire which destroyed everything it touched, ground included. Also Invoked Devastation, no description. These were used by two great empires to destroy each other before the time of normal gameplay.
One question I have about all this is how it affects other worlds? Mystra/Mystral is Forgotten Realms focused so do these restrictions only apply to Abir/Toril? Otherwise that would imply that there is either a greater being over all of magic in lore or other deities followed suit so that the same thing didn’t happen in their worlds.
If we look at it from another dnd world say one from magic the gathering they are merrily planes or other worlds tied to different ideology. Take ravnica for example they have no god/goddess but clerics take power from the mana around them therefore different style. Magic takes from is world.
There are plenty settings in DnD with different way how magic works or different borders simmilar to those set by Mystra. My favorite one is Dark Sun. Planescape was kind of multiverse-setting, to allow the transmission between worlds: different prime material planes (and their cosmology) using the magic portals (through multi planes travels) or spelljamming. But many worlds (same as FR) has developed bans on those kind of travels. Part of them was set by their gods of magic, or becouse of other stuff. For now FR is protected by this kind of travels (but it was once allowed to reach FR by for example by spelljamming: Beholders). Another one is for example Krynn from DragonLance, it is also "protected" from outside intervention. In some novels there is the situation, when AO speaks to higher being about conclusion of the Time of Troubles. My friends say he speaks to DungeonMaster-incarnation as a being with the power over the AO.
Cezary Zimoląg Yeah I’ve seen the stuff on the Luminous Being and whole that is an absolutely fascinating topic, I’m more so wondering about how magic works on a multiversal scale. The concept of certain crystal spheres being cut off and having their own systems make sense. Although at this point in time the only setting we’ve had major focus on is FR. Ravenloft has some interesting flavor-text with magic and Ravnica is from a completely different game so that doesn’t count as much. I can’t help but wonder just what’s going on in other worlds/settings and how things are affected. After all, transitions between editions often involved multiversal changing things while the spellplague and time of troubles seems to be isolated to FR. (Although I may be incorrect in this)
The way I take it, Mystra is only the keeper of the Weave. It is very possible that the Weave exists with different restrictions in other worlds. It's why connecting thw restrictions to Mystra is... A bit of a mistake. The only way that it can be explained is if Mystra's restrictions on the Weave use expand beyond Abeir-Toril. That would mean that whetever Mystra does in the realms she has power in, have repercussions into others that draw their power from the Weave. That could make her even more powerful than Ao... And honestly, she's always been a Mary Sue so there's that. Interesting fact, when Mystra died killed by Cyric and Shar, Deneir is quick at work on transcribing the Metatext and basically writing himself into the Weave, becoming part of the Weave (The Cleric's Quintet). He passed from known existence but I wonder what repercussions did this have. It seemed he was brushed under the rug by those that wanted to bring Mystra... Yet again... It honestly would have been cool to have Deneir as the new avatar of magic. He would literally embody the Weave not just tend to it and there is a strong background for it that includes sacrifice. Also... The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica didn't change how wizards and clerics learn their spells or the slot stuff... All of that is just fluff to explain a mechanic. So... Back to my first explanation I guess? (shrug)
The thing I love the most about DnD is that my personal desire to attain these levels of magical prowess can and will directly translate themselves into my character.
As someone who poured through the Epic Level Handbook, I enjoyed this video but the ELH says there are no spells higher than 10th Level, because anything stronger than a 9th Level spell is simply 10th Level, regardless of power. From Epic Mage Armor which grants a +20 to armor class to Genesis, which creates a new living creature, it is all considered 10th Level. They are separated by the difficulty in working such magic, often overcome by involving multiple spell casters, sacrificing additional spell slots, making the spell take far longer to cast, the caster (or casters) taking magical backlash damage, or some combination of these effects to make the spell easier to cast. I don't recall reading about sacrificing the lives of casters, but maybe I just missed that? I'd be interested in your source lol. Seems like an interesting read.
In my campaign settings, the ritual of lichdom, while I never thought of it as a "10th level spell", was always well and truly above the cuff of anything else in the book.
Request: spellscale been watching you d&d videos for 2 days straight now. and love every moment of it. excellent lore and perfect enthusiasm for the subject :)
Great video. Thanks for this. It explained just what I wanted to know. Nice use of illustrations with the in-depth commentary explaining the lore. Well done.
@@ElectroKinesisMan I would tell you but fellow members of a D&D discord group that I'm in would see it because one of the members posted a link to this video in the discord an hour or so after I made the comment.
@@Cy3qi **sighs** Sure, I might as well. The idea that I had was to have a great evil from another plane of existence try and trick the party into killing the descendants of an ancient, and secret, order that sealed the aforementioned great evil from the world. The descendants of this order were tasked with casting a wish spell as a group to ensure that the seal doesn't break, but the players would have attacked/killed them during this ritual, causing the great evil to be unleashed upon the world once more.
It should probably be noted that the weave only exists in the Forgotten Realms, and thus nothing described here applies to the Known World of Mystara, Oerth, Krynn, the Demiplane of Dread, the Phlogiston, Athas, Sigil, etc. Athas has its own 10th level spells, Psionic Enchantments, and the True Dweomers presented in DM Option: High-Level Campaigns are a version of 10th level magic more applicable to Greyhawk and other worlds without the Weave.
@@Silvershield88 3.5 "you remember when we actually HAD rules for creating magic items" the artificer was the proverbial SHIT cause it was AWESOME!!!! the idea of breaking down and re creating magic items was ALL a party EVER NEEDED. if you took ALL the feats that revolved around magic item creation the reduction of price, time, and needed XP, you could really make out using low level items to break and rebuild better and NEEDED items without breaking the game!!!
@@Silvershield88 oh, no wories - i played them right. I had my fare share of fun. But they are mechanically bad and illogical on SO MANY LEVELS. You can have fun with it - You can have fun with everything. But Artificer (as he is for the moment) neither has the right amount of damage, of utility, or mechanicaly interesting things imo. Sorry, if what I said previously was... well - rude. I just meant, that while he is called an artificer, he is more like a child of a sorcerer and a wizard.
Greater Gods can bypass the level 9 restriction by bestowing level 10 and 11 spells to their clerics. Those spells are extremely powerful and aren't actually cast by the cleric but instead are invoked as they are like a piece of the Gods power put into a mortal form. To gain such a high level spell a high level divine caster would make a plea directly to their God about a plight or other issue that needs resolved, should the deity hear them and agree they would order the cleric to go on some sort of quest or pilgrimage to obtain something that acts as the catalyst for the spell. This is something an entire campaign gets based around and results in the cleric getting to do some really crazy cool stuff, but only at the discretion of their deity.
This gives me an idea for a Character: a Bard from the College of Lore, who desires to research the magic wiped from history, Epic Level Spells, and would one day discover the mystery of the magic and cast an Epic spell of his own one day.
I would just like to clarify that this is Forgotten Realms Lore, not general Dungeons & Dragons Lore. Even though Forgotten Realms is now the official setting for Dungeons & Dragons, the game itself is not limited to this setting, and until 5th edition came out, this setting was not even the default setting for D&D. So, this lore video applies to this specific setting only. Just something to keep in mind, I'm not judging the video itself.
The most powerful spell is not talked about or known because it was used to go back and remove it before it was created. It's a time spell allows time to be go forward backward or stop altogether. It can also be used for instant teleportation etc. It was so powerful the wizard who created the time spell decide to go back and never have made it afraid if it ever got into the wrong hands.
The major difference were the weavers of reality. The Omni Wizard Chris Cocks limits the flow of the weave until such time as he can bind spells in semi thought out rules, these are usually found in a compendium (about $39.95). Thus is the land faerun protected from vile stagnation as the wizards have a job on Monday.
I ran Icewind Dale, Baldurs gate 1&2, Siege of Dragonspear and all that . Listennin’ to you makes me want to leave the hood to have a DnD sesh in the subburbs. Keep preachin’
Knowing my character.. (she's based off of Megumin from konosuba).. She'd probably just cast a massive near world ending *EXPLOSION!* She would probably die happy
Back when I played pen and paper i'd heard it explained that after using up your spell slots, sure you could do the same motions, hold the same focus or material components... but the energies prepared that morning to cast the spell would no longer be there as you had used it. Unless the newer editions of D&D specifically say you "forget how" after using the spell you memorized, that was never explicitly said beforehand. Like a significant part of the Wizard "spell" is prepared that morning and they cast the "triggers" of it when needed. Like preparing ammunition and only having what you made to shoot, later that day.
Old School D&D had the immortal rules. (Golden Books). 1st edition had mortal magic and then Immortal magic. Even some off shoot stuff in Role Aids had Level 10 to 16th Level. Then Oriental Adventure had the Wu Jen. They had Wish with no ill effects to the caster unless you worded it purposefully wrong. Also you have the ability to create your own spells with research in a development in a school of magic or on your own as a mage or Arch Mage. Getting into beyond in several levels to become a Lich or actually immortality. It of coarse also depends on your Game Master/Dungeon Master beyond just Hack and Slash. There is still more...
Mystra reincarnating is a recurring theme. During the time of troubles, Elminster and his rangers protected Midnight when Mystra gave her power before Mystra fell. Midnight became the new Mystra.
I'm still new to d&d but I look at it like clerics, instead of coming from a God's power (which you still could do with nature dieties) it can come from nature itself.
The weave is for all spellcasters. All spellcasters use the weave to draw in magic, the magic drawn in is then used to produce a spell's effects. To my understanding at least.
One loophole I thought of was You assemble several immovable rods. And you use those to recreate the effect of A temp level spell that essentially let you levitate mountains. At least as far as my understanding Went. Since one of the properties with immovable rod is that once you press the button, The rod will just stay in place even if that place is up in the air. And you could theoretically use this effect if you have enough immovable rods to create floating settlements.
If a mortal or mortals tried to now gain Level 10 or above, Mystra would come down, bend the weave and kill all casters. This is based on Ed Greenwood's tweet from March 2019.
Karsus, absolute legend. Casted the only 12th level spell ever. The equivalent of the person that finds the ultimate exploit in a game and gets it patched immediately.
What hapen to Karsus? Did the gods slay him becuse he try to take ther plays or what?
JR the gods essentially made him into a rock, but that rock bleeds for some reason, and it never stops bleeding. He also became a great old one, so you could sign a pact with him as a warlock if you wanted.
@@loganhawkes9521 New question what is a "great old one"
@@kirgan1000 basically Lovecraftian gods, ancient beings, Cthulhu for example.
The player Karsus overloaded the server.
He was banned immediately. And the exploit was fixed.
Thank you for playing Forgotten-Realms and enjoy your magic.
"enemies are magic resistant."
"can pick litterally any god to fight them"
"I'll pick the magic god."
Well,if handguns don’t work may as well try nuking the enemy instead
resistant doesn't mean immune. =D watches on the sideline "Go my Magical Godly Beast!!!!"
@@arsenelupin5424 "If a handgun doesn't work, then use a bigger bullet!"
- A player
A Random Rock I love alchemical rounds.
I would have chosen the god of beasts/nature and attacked with swarm tactics.
One of the best examples of Epic-level spells is the "Familicide" spell from the Order of the Stick series, which automatically kills all those who share a bloodline of any kind related to the target. It was used by a wizard to a Black Dragon (old or so in age) and it killed nearly 1/4 of the Black Dragons of the entire planet, from true dragons to half dragons.
Good old times.
Yael Martínez loved that scene from OoTs!!
The scene where the Wizard found out the true consequences of that spell was incredible, too!
The dragon's age was ancient.
Epic teleport was a decent spell too.
Vaarsuvius
@@Sgrunterundt Didn't catch that the dragon was ancient. Well, it makes more sense for the consequences then.
Patch 1.1
*Rebalanced magic system
Hi everyone, Mystra here. After the unfortunate passing of the previous magic designer, I have been given their shoes to fill, and boy are they big shoes! Now I know that a rebalance of how magic works is going to cause a few waves in the community, but we found out that so many players were using magic to exploit the system that our servers simply can't keep up! The people up top didn't want anyone to know just how hard it was to keep running maintenance, but it has reached the point where we need to let you know that things need to change out of necessity. I hope we do you proud with this new system!
Things you read in Jeff Kaplan's voice.
How does this not have more likes... Underappreciated comment.
Zrin the perfect comment doesn’t exi-
Zrin Magic 2.0
If the gods were d&d devs lol
"Why not make 10th level spells more powerful?"
"But these go up to 11"
They go to twelve actually, with Karsus' spell.
Vorpal Vox what a rare reference! You have my respect!
Dude props to you for the Spinal Tap reference holy shit.
That was the spell that turned him into a god for a little right?
"Guitar Amp of Power" Spell (Turn everything up to 11)
*_" Have you ever heard the story of Archmage Karsus the Wise? He could become a God but in the end he could not safe himself from dying and destroying everything he tried to protect. "_*
*_" But ain't there are a way to learn these powers? "_*
*_" Certainly there are. But not from a Cleric. "_*
Don’t worry I’m the *D M*
Mysthic Theurges, True Necromancers and Ultimate Mages object.
And Ur Priests quietly observe taking notes.
Star wars reference
Wish to cast karsus avatar 😂
Villains usually use rituals sacrificing a lot of 1st level acolytes.
Thats how mafia works
7 out of 10 comments in here are about my mispronunciation of "epitome" xD I have learned my lesson guys
MrRhexx Hello my child I see your making good content
even tho its a mispronunciation, it sounds epic like that. But we can easily tell what the word is thru context and your pronunciation. I kinda wish that was a different word.
Hello dad, just giving it my best
MrRhexx ok now go back to what you were doing
META: for this category mispronunciation is ez mode content creation and increases engagement.
I want a campaign with six party members, all wizards, who all follow quests to become liches. Once undead, they come together and perform a six-way co-casting of the Wish spell, sacrificing themselves with it in an effort to restructure/revert the universe in some way. Of course, they are all liches, so they would not be permanently killed by this ritual.
I'll go make my wizard right now.
Pretty sure permeant death would be required to fundamentally restructure the universe. If I was DMing I'd make their phylacteries spell components probably.
I mean, it largely depends on what they're trying to do, but just going "I'm a lich, so I can sacrifice my life to cast epic magic without actually dying!" seems like kind of cheating.
Then again, liches usually sustain their life via consuming souls so if they had enough souls in their phylacteries they might be able to survive it. It would take a LOT of souls though. Again, depends on how big change their trying to make.
Just thinking out loud here. I like your idea, and I wanted to give my take on it.
I made it.
@@zichithefox4781 I'm in!
KnowDude Gaming Show homebrew allowed? 🌚
These are great but they need a disclaimer. *Heads up for any new D&D players watching these videos: THIS IS JUST FORGOTTEN REALMS LORE.* Keeping that in mind, Forgotten Realms is just one of very many possible mythological settings and your GM might use a different campaign setting, such as Dragonlance, Greyhawk, or even their own universe.
and even if you use one as a basis for a campaign, if you and your players want spells beyond 9th, make it so. D&D is not beholden to what's written down - do what makes everyone most happy.
Don't spells above 9th level officially not exist for player in 5e because you can't officially advance beyond 20 level anymore in 5e as mortal? From what I know- in 5e there are no more epic levels at all. 20 is just maks what mortal can achieve.
I recently re-read Drangons of Autumn Twilight and magic was OP as fuck. Raistlins low level magic missle was just straight killing people who hadnt been touched yet. But it also took a toll physically. After reading through the books its obvious that the rules for magic in Krynn differ then the rules of magic in forgotten realms :/
I was about to make a post stating the same, thank you.
@@honestbenny After level 20 players get to take boons if the dm allows which is supposed to be the equivalent of a level
From my knowledge, Karsus' Avatar killed Mystral due to the massive strain it caused to both her and the weave. In addition differing accounts depict Karsus as a power mad megalomaniac or a man pushed to the brink and left with no choice. Apparently his soul still exists and can be made a patron.
No the video is correct, Mystryl sacrificed herself so magic would fail and Karsus would not have access to the weave.
@@MannyBrum where is that explanation found? I got my understanding from mostly word of mouth. Is there a specific book or article with karsus' folly?
@@Vance_Danger Grand History of the Forgotten Realms
@@Vance_Danger forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Karsus%27s_Folly
Actually I got that same info.
tfw you caused the 5e spell nerf trying to save a city
@@morgothable imagine how op wizards would be being able to spam Fireball at 9th level
I always preferred Mystryl over her successors. As far as I can see, she remains the only magic deity to have truly embodied the nature of magic. Mystra and her ilk turned magic into something far more harsh and mechanical- certainly good for stability, but a great loss as well.
The fact that magic remains known as "The Art" in some circles is undoubtedly a holdover from Mystryl's days, rather than the result of her successors.
I believe this applies even better to the first Mystra, the one who chose Elminster. The third, Mystra - Midnight deity doesn't represent The Art for me as well.
i actually brought mystryl back in my game, which loosened some of the restrictions on magic
I agree! I mean, I understand why Mystra implemented the changes she did. It's probably not a good idea to let mortals go around stealing the powers of gods just so they can win a war. But if that's the case, she could have just banned magic of rank 12 or higher. She didn't have to cut off 10th and 11th rank, too. Also, she didn't have to make it so that only the sufficiently talented were able to use magic, because I think that would have actually INCREASED the risk of magical abuse! She took a power that was freely available to everybody, and restricted it to the hands of only a wealthy and educated class of people, or those who were born into a special bloodline.
People seem to miss the fact that whoever is the Deity of magic at the time, has to fix weave every time someone uses that kind of magic. New Deities just made it so their job is easier and less likely to backfire due to lesser creatures greed for power.
Toreens It’s hardly greed when you are fighting a war with magic eaters. It’s human nature to do pretty much everything they can in order to survive the war.
This also explains why sometimes the wish spell would disappear permanently after cast under certain conditions. Mistra probably saw that person as a possible liability and took the spell from them.
From what I remember of the Cormanthyr book, Karsus was called something like ”the ape who could fly" by the elves. And then I read in the romances how Evermeet was created and thought "you guys have no right to point fingers!"
Yea, I like the Elves alot, but they are such hypocrites at times. In our d&d games their arrogance sometimes tread the lines of stupidity:
"We are fully aware that a 'dark god' has been awakened, but we have decreed that it is not for us to intervene in."
There was another time where we recovered an elven artifact from a lich, and they demanded we hand it over or they threatened to go after one of my party members; of course it was the half orc wizard that really got under the skin.
i love how this 5year old video gives me some much needed context for the stuff thats going on in Baldur’s Gate 3
shows the love and handy work putninto the game and the world.
Can we stop for a second to appreciate how awesome that pic at 0:45 makes Magic Shield look ?
I think that's an abjurers ward. Looks dope as all hell though.
@@lichbard3930 Looks very close to magic shield in Pathfinder Kingmaker (tho in game it doesn't stay visible for long)
@@KalaamNozalys Ooooooh I've never played pathfinder only DnD.
@@lichbard3930 It's a nice variation. I like playing both. It's based on 3.5 as you probably know. What I prefer in pathfinder is how deep the customization is (compared to 5e) and all the different classes you have.
That is an illustration of Harry Dresden of the book series The Dresden Files using his shielding spells.
Back during the FR novel period, the War of the Spider Queen had an instance of High Magic use. A group of wizards used a HM spell to make the entire world forget Kiransalee’s name snuffing the goddess out on the spot.
Thats metal
Imagine a council of wizards casting Fireball together at 9th level
Tsar Bomb.
I bet that's how they made proof of concept for Meteor Swarm.
Evasion no damage.
Mordaedil I HATE THIS COMMENT 😂😂😂
Kinda underwhelming when considering the possibilities you could achieve with a council of 9th level casters. Like.... Transporting a continent to another plane
Guys the true epic level spell is conjure animals. Why? Lizards don’t have a cr. So you can summon literally infinite lizards. They are all under you commands and each do 1 piercing damage per round. That is infinite damage each round, and a massive lizard army to ride on in a single giant wave.
Ori Haber you’re like Fidel Castro executing my fun.
@@kilroy6429 Infinite lizards couldn't all simultaneously attack a finite surface area. That's right, I'm the guy who talks about the logistics of infinite lizards.
A Duck ever heard of a fractal?!?!?!?
You obviously never tried the clown apocalypse spell have you?
@@kilroy6429 not fractal, more like that lizard tessellation pattern
if you're interested in epic level magic look up larloch, he's a lich from netheril and has access to such magic and has an army of a few hundred lich servitors and other powerful undead under his thrall, he's also pretty chill not doing very much except killing people who call him a warlock close enough to hear, studying and making more magic and magic items
This lich sounds like a mood
This sounds like the kind of lich you meat up with to smoke a bowl from the pipe of greater tranquility. Total bro.
@@theapexsurvivor9538 he might just do that, if he isn't annoyed at you and sees it as a learning experience, though he might not if it will trigger one of his many contingencies spells, oh yeah he's from a time when you can have more then one contingency spell, just don't touch him directly else his automatic curses will be inflicted on you by accident, I mean he can remove them but it could be rough going for a bit and if he is annoyed at you he might send you on a quest under a geas for him to remove the curse on you
@@a0point0of0view1 so what I'm hearing is: run around having plenty of adventures in the multi-plane, chatting with Gods, killing tarrasques, playing tag with greater ancient red dragons, and finding relics. Then give one such relic to him as a gift (using a nubile slave boy to give him said relic lest someone touch someone else in the wrong way), then offer him access to the rest of your relics to study, and to share what little information you gained on your adventures over a nice hit of astral Kush...
@@theapexsurvivor9538 OR you just find some Astral Kush and talk about wanted to smoke it with him a lot eventually on of his servitors will be scrying at the same time as it watches. going on an extraplanar adventure has the disadvantage of not being easily observed since scrying only works on the same plane, and there being many threats on the outer planes that could put you out of commission for good like spending to long in Elysium or soul destorying/stealing enemies, though if you are looking for an artefact he would be interested in he's always looking to finsh his collection of the nether scrolls (magic scrolls which posses nearly all magic knowledge within them and teach the readers (more) about magic)
So mistra just swung the Nerf Hammer at everything?
Same thoughts
i love how they use the Forgotten lore to change the game mechanics
I hate it because every edition change means they have to fuck up the entire world AGAIN. 1st edition started with Karsus' Folly, 2nd edition was the Time of Troubles when the Gods were cast down to Toril, 3rd edition may be the only one where everything wasn't completely fucked up but it did bring Bane back and the Shadovar, 4th edition was the worst (the Spellplague never happens in my game), and 5th was the end of the Abeir-Toril merged world nonsense.
WoTC did the same with Magic: The Gathering. Though in a different way.
@@zichithefox4781 Ah yes, the "end" of the phyrexian invasion.
@@aduffyguy Yep
I thought the spellplague was amazing, and by extension, the spellscars, to the point where our dm is gonna try and work it into our 5e campaign
1 step guide on how to do 10+ level spells
1. Be The DM
Nah
That's 20th+ level spells
Don't forget about the lost realm of Miyeritar and how the sun elves literally nuked it which left the area a ravaged wasteland for eons to come and it is still visible on the world map. This might be a contributing factor to the abandonment of the art, even if a great many high mages united to eternally curse the survivors of the disaster and their Illythiri allies.
Of course, it wouldn't surprise me if the art was kept alive in the underdark with the ambition of the drow. Twice in recent centuries have followers of Eilistraea and Vhaeraun woven such rituals with remarkable results and in the latter case the art seems to have been modernized.
That was elven high magic, not wizard arcane magic.
Imagine someone figuring out time and space magic in a universe with an infinite multiverse. You could create a spell linking to limitless different versions of yourself at the exact moment they cast a certain spell in their timeline making it possible to redirect an unlimited number of all available spells in all versions of reality at your target and borrow the combined magic potential of all your other selves to do so.
Zelretch front Fate basically. Not quite that op but at least up to the borrow power from parallel universes bit
8:50 Tarrasque blood as a material component? By the time you're even considering epic magic that's really a trivial issue. There's plenty of blood in your average tarrasque, they regenerate at a healthy clip and can be tapped basically forever, and if you can't find one locally to play donor, just hire a spelljammer crew to go get one from that one planet where they're the ecological equivalent of sheep. Very large armor-plated sheep. :)
While it may be trivial to someone attempting epic magic, it may suck for the rest of the world while they trample around the planet killing everything.
@@micah2288 The spelljammer crew could tap the tarrasque on planet Falx and just ship the blood back to wizards who would buy it.
I’m pretty sure there’s a classic module where an entire city is built around a tarrasque that was immobilized by some epic spell centuries beforehand, steadily mutilating it at the same speed as it regens to get as many super-powerful magic items and material components as they can and sell them in major interplanar markets. IIRC, it ends...poorly...for the city when the gods trick some adventurers into infiltrating the city and releasing it. And it ain’t a pretty sight when a Tarrasque is a few centuries behind schedule on its whole “destroying the world” bit.
If you are considering a Tarrasque as a "trivial" monster even at max level, your DM is either portraying monsters wrong, or you are cheating at D&D to make your characters never die and always win. Every Monster, even low level fucking goblins, should STILL be deadly to your character in the right situation (or wrong depending how you look at it)
Too Many DM's these day play carebear, friendship is magic style.... AD&D was the Original "Rogue-like" you should be going through new characters at a fairly normal interval
Iolaum's longevity: start massive ant farm, cover self with honey, wait, cast, profit.
Do ants have souls tho?
@@poseidon4g I would say they do.
They make homes, work for the survival of their families, and will defend their home when threatened.
Now it makes sense why the wizards of the coast won't make epic level handbooks. Is in the lore, and was possibly implemented due to homebrew canpaigns being savagely destroyed. This taught me a lot
Check out Pathfinder. Notably the Mythic Adventure book. It's super high tier play that offers Mythic Tiers that take PC power way beyond lvl 20, boosting all sorts of classes to insane levels of abilities. Mythic versions of spells included.
Paizo doesnt disappoint, as there are mythic bestiaries to provide a challenge. Having been in these mythic fights, you really need to know your character and critically think in combat and out.
All this is accomplished well, and doesn't break the game.
Most notable was 4 lvl 20 tier 10 players taking on Cthulhu himself (he has a stat block, CR 30, Bestiary 4) at the end of a Lovecratian style campaign filled with occult stuff. Lots of qlippoth.
Took an hour. Barely made it.
Well, if you go back to good old 3.5, they did actually produce an epic level handbook. It is literally titled as the Epic Level Handbook
Context as well as 10th level Spells are Psionic Enchantments in Darksun and Immortal Magic Elsewhere
The Weave inteface is actually unique to Forgotten Realms as well causing All kind of problems for plane hopping spellcasters from there used to "Mystra's training wheels" if I remember correctly
Welp I am now going to make a wizard with the goal of surpassing the limit.
Oooh, me too. But a Sorcerer instead. :D
@@Anon-s8n magic must be free.
You'll be met with a lot of resistance, not to mention... Don't screw up that spell. You'll never know what will happen in consequence
@@djtigonthis is how I imagine it going
Ot "you dare defy the gods!"
Me "from where I am standing their is only one Deity the overdeity of creation, the others however I care not. They can either help me, appose me, or stay out of my way."
Ot "you must be insane, dont you understand why their is a limit of magic. Why we cant have that kind of magic."
Me "understand? Yes I do. I just happen to disagree with the conclusion."
Ot "why are you trying this, it's impossible"
Me "than I guess I will just have to make it possible. I will take the rules of reality and magic and change them. All of them if I must. I will not be held back because of the mistakes of a single man, nor will I be stopped until magic is free."
Ot "...you play a dangerous game, you know that right?"
Me "is their any other kind of game?"
@@irontemplar6222 i never mentioned Gods
Glad to see Karsus getting talked about! I’m actually playing a Binder that shares his name and bloodline in a 3.5e game, and it’s so fun mantling vestiges.
...Is it bad that my first thought when you explained Ioulaum's Longevity was "What is the range, and could I deplete an entire city with one casting?"
Why not just use a couple anthills?
Halfjack Why not just go into a swamp and wipe out the mosquito population and do everyone a favor?
I think it has to be a being of equal type to the user (ie, another humanoid) for the spell's effect to work. You might get an entire year out of a single anthill, but not one for each ant... or indeed a mosquito.
The problem with the mosquito one is that you wouldn't be wiping out the mosquito population, just a fair portion within that swamp (and you'd likely miss some, which would then breed like crazy and re-populate). You'd also be killing off a bunch of other creatures too.
If Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is anything to go by...yes. Yes you could.
@@TheKazragore It's a great thought, but I have no want to meet God... or be condemned to live behind the doors of Truth...
Just a suggestion, but I think you should cover how Ioulaum went from being a Netheril Arcanist, to a Litch, then an undead elder-brain called the Oracle of Ellyn'taal, also I love listening to your videos!
still not a match versus the combo of Greater Hardening and Penetrate Up.
Greater dexterity
@@chairulimran9205 but your hardening won't be great nor your penetrate would go up, smh
What?
Is this an Overlord reference?
Ahh, I see you are a man of culture as well...
ALL GLORY TO AINZ OAL GOWN! ALL HAIL THE SUPREME ONE!
When I heard the bit about multiple people casting wish at once, I couldn't help but think about being a wizard, casting simulacrum on yourself however many times, then having them all cast wish for you
I have been dealing with writer's block for a campaign I was writing. Now I have inspiration again. Thank you very much. If anyone would like to know some of the details I would be happy to share.
hell yeah, hit me with the deets
Sure I could always go for some good ideas, inspiration off of inspiration only spreads.
I concur! Regale us with thy deets!
Hit my inbox or something too, I'm DMing a heavily homebrewed world with theoretical access to lvl10+ spells at some point, somehow, so hit me up if you have more ideas to share.
I'd love to hear your ideas! I'm putting together some enemies and possible 10th level spells that will be possible for my players to find, and one day cast (if they're lucky). It's always great to hear ideas and get some new inspiration
Very interesting, not the reason why I clicked this video but still, I did learn a bunch. Was kind of hoping "10th level spells Revealed" was about an official announcement of actual 10th level spells coming to 5e. But now I know who to blame for the whole spell slot nonsense, and it is a very interesting story/lore. Epic spells in Neverwinter Nights were like my favorite things to use/play. If I remember correctly I used the heck out of Epic Spell: Hellball.
Wait, dragons are not allowed in waterdeep?
Then what about the Waterdeep dragons, the Steel dragons?
You can choose which dragons to allow into Waterdeep with the magical item that blocks them. It's a staff, I'm trying to remember what it's called, I'll type it later.
It's called The Dragonstaff, and it's held by Aurinax the Dragon in Waterdeep at this time, but it's hidden.
@@greengoblin48 ah
@@greengoblin48 good to know cause my group just started a waterdeep game
Blue eyes white power you want me to give you big tips?
The most powerful spell I've seen was from an expansion. It was a level 9 Evocation / Necromancy and created a magical fire that grew, lasted longer and did more damage the more people it killed. It costed 1500 gp per casting and was about as devastating as the most powerful conventional bomb.
10th level spells have been in D&D. They were in 2.5 and called true dwemers. They were crazy powerful and could destroy or save worlds.
The lore is to explain the balance changes in new editions.
2nd ED. Dark Sun.....pre 2.5.
in darksun 10th level spells were psionic enchantments ie mixture of psionics and magic
No, true dweomers are something different and they were a default setting type magic meaning they could be introduced in any setting. Officially, in Forgotten Realms, there is true dweomers, 10th level, 11th level, and the one 12th level spell. In addition there is elven high magic and dwarven rune magic capable of similar feats.
@@craigtucker1290 What about what I said wasnt true? You listed facts that dont argue with why I said. There were 10th level spells, they were crazy powerful, they were called true dweomers.
Edit: They were in the 2.5 magical supplement book, listed as 10th level spells and called them true dweomers, can't remember the books exact name but it was the one with the wonky magical duel rules.
What an awesome video and a way to tie each successive D&D edition mechanics with the reality-altering events such as a death of magic deity! Keep up with the D&D content, I've just subscribed as well!
Mystra, the Goddess of Game Balancing.
My DM used these spells but you would have to use multiple spells slots adding up to the level of the spell plus 10 to be fair though we also had levels past 20. My character (a level 20 bard level 7 sorcerer) casted karsus’ Avatar to become grumsh and kill Vecna
That's awesome
I had an epic level caster back in 3e who created an origin of species epic spell... Nobody wanted to mess with a guy who could create a Tarrasque. He was promptly retired.
The "Bonfire of Insanity" is my favorite epic spell.... it just has all the right chaotic notes for an unhinged caster who wants to watch the world tear itself apart. (its the one that has rain drop that causes undead plague, anyone touched by the rain becomes undead, it raises up undead from the ground, anyone bit by one of these undead becomes undead, etc. Basically a zombie plague to go) its of course not even an evil spell... its beyond that, its classified as "Vile" so even evil casters would be like "WTF bro, not cool"
I love the ideas the tenth and eleventh level spells have given me. I created a mithal in my campaign. Essentially when they first arrived there the city wide magic did two things. Keeps all things out and forbids violent urges or actions
Wow, I remember when this series started and my first time watching this video, now there's 100 vids in the D&D lore playlist. Best Dungeons and Dragons lore on TH-cam. Keep up the great work brother
In the lore of my world, there are three types of magic; Mortal, Draconic and Celestial.
Beings of mortal souls can access tiny fragments of the force that moves all the celestial spheres and channel it in different forms, their bodies and souls too weak to channel vast amounts at once, putting a cap on what they can achieve. That is Mortal Magic.
Beings of powerful souls can channel more energy and draw upon the power of their own soul, accessing extremely high level of spells. Dragons are the founders and most proficient users of it. That is Draconic Magic.
At the dawn of time, Old Gods created a clique of angels, whose power was second only to their own. These angels could grow vast wings of crystal feathers, each one possesing enormous magical energy. Single tiny feather could be used to cast a powerful Wish spell. Each Angel had tens of thousands of them and could always grow more. Power beyond imagination or reason. That is Celestial Magic.
During the rise of the first Abyss Overlord, demon powerful enough to rule the infinite layers of Abyss, make Demon Lords it's minions and threaten the Multiverse as a whole, all but three angels were killed by the Overlord itself. The Old Gods had to give their ego to cast the most powerful Wish in existence, so strong, even the demon could not resist it. Old Gods became forces of nature and the remaining angels disappeared or were killed in the millenia to follow. Their magic became a story. Story became legend. Legend became myth, which was then forgotten.
Crystal feathers still exist, as well as ancient devices that use them as power cores. One feather is worth a fortune. The one who finds a way of producing them will rule the world.
MizantropMan that is a really cool backstory for your world, good job dude! Did your campaign go well?
@@tobyharrison4702 Sadly, my group fell apart after 3 sessions. Friends from uni got jobs, girlfriends and better things to do.
I still develop the lore of my world as a pet project, but it's going to become a book or a comic before another D&D group rolls over.
Dude that sucks. I hope you at least get that into a cool book at least because that sounds like a really nice background for a fantasy world dude.
So, hows the book going
Literally taking so many notes. Holy shit this video literally saved me. I needed this so badly, and this video just handed me everything I could have asked for. I'm trying to create a lot of big ass lore about old magic and having this canon information helps me SO much. Awesome video!
How can any elven tradition or craft go extinct if all of them are constantly reincarnating and re living their memories from past lives
the point is that they avoid re living those memories of past lives via tracing, I mean maybe dying to the ritual is insanely painful and though might be tolerated as a once time only, every time you go back to remember how the magic tore at your being, it's no wonder elves don't sleep, also going by the scope of the power the spells might destroy the elf's soul and therefore render the user beyond their natural reincarnation
Or they soul is destroyed and they can't return
@@Darknight4434 nah, might erase that particular lifetime, but elves souls are literally just a fragment of a God, so it'll keep being reused to create new elves, even if it gets broken apart or dissolved it just re enters the hive soul.
If even the gods can die, why a part of its soul can't?
@@Darknight4434 Because even the Gods can be reborn as well
managing the weave just sounds like game design with extra steps
I have a feeling you may be able to access Epic Magic through fiendish pacts, it would definitely require the souls of others and your own soul but I’m sure Asmodeus has some ways to skirt around Mystras restrictions.
Idk. Asmodeus is a lord of the hells, but mystra is literally the god of magic. She controls all aspects of, and access to, the weave - she can stop anyone from casting if she wanted to - God or no.
HOLY FUCK. RHEXX. I'VE BEEN WATCHIN YOUR LET'S PLAYS FOR AGES BACK IN THE DAYS THEN LOST ANY CONTACT WITH YOU (Your Videos). Now this Video pops up in my TH-cam feed, made my day alot sweeter. Glad you're still around buddy.
I'm a high elf arch-wizard and I have mastered forbidden spell.
By obtaining rarest of magic component a tear of a snow flake
I can now cast....
The Microagression.
ive forgotten how much I love your videos. I played them in the background while I was studying. I didn't get much study done lol.
What stops you from using the clone spell to replace your body after a sacrificial spell? (ofc talking about arms or other biological stuff, not the soul)
It takes time and money to do that, but for the lower epic spells that don't destroy souls or something you might be able to do it
DM and the material components.
Nothing.
Also, Regeneration exists. Just a cheaper, better option for regrowing limbs and such.
better question.
what stops you from sacrificing other people?
@@freakyskull516 Material components, gods, DM, NPCs, DM, Nat 1's, DM and did I mention DM?
In all seriousness though as long as you're sneaky, pull the wool over the DM's wait.... The video mentions getting Lv 20 sacrifices? or at the very least casters that can cast Lv 9 spells so good luck I guess?
This is very much a Forgotten Realms setting. Dark Sun also had level 10 spells but those were psionic/spell hybrids
The thing is: a being like a Great Old One could cast a 10th+ level spel?
Probably, supposedly Astral Dragons could cast 10th+ level spells since they lived in the astral sea so I don't see why an entity roughly equal in power to a god couldn't cast 10th+ level spells.
Thanks for answering, i was thinking about it because the main antagonist in my campaign is a Great Old One (tbh i don't actually know if Hadar is an actual GOO or not :P), the thing is: Hadar would be bringen to the material plane by a long lasting ritual, being "manifested" in a alien like body/vessel, it's because of this situation that i want to know if the vessel's capable of such thing as casting level 10+ spells.
Ps: sorry about the bad english.
Well their on same tier as gods, which can cast what ever the hell they want
@@Charlie.G506 Whether or not he'd be able to in the material plane is a good question, whether or not you should allow it is an entirely different one. I would advise, for balancing reasons, to not give him this power. At best, you could give him the ability to do this once as a settup for the story, but letting him cast such such spells would otherwise mean you'd need your party to really power up high. Since you're asking whether it'd be possible, I'll assume you play fairly lore friendly, and I don't believe your party would stand much of a chance against someone able to cast 10th level spells. If they had to defeat him, there'd only be three plausible ways: Either make the party unbalanced, which is pretty lame and will make it all feel forced. Secondly they could look for a way to weaken it, but what stops him from stopping them from doing so. And lastly, they could try sending it back to its plane, which has the same flaw as option two.
TL'DR: I'd recommend you max at 9th level
It'd be something like this tbh, like levitate the entire tower or something like that.
If you go back to the old Greyhawk setting there was reference to the Rain of Colorless Fire which destroyed everything it touched, ground included. Also Invoked Devastation, no description. These were used by two great empires to destroy each other before the time of normal gameplay.
First of this guys videos i've watched. Seriously fascinating and excellently delivered
They had a spell to tell what color your gummy bears were, even in the darkest movie theaters.
One question I have about all this is how it affects other worlds? Mystra/Mystral is Forgotten Realms focused so do these restrictions only apply to Abir/Toril? Otherwise that would imply that there is either a greater being over all of magic in lore or other deities followed suit so that the same thing didn’t happen in their worlds.
If we look at it from another dnd world say one from magic the gathering they are merrily planes or other worlds tied to different ideology. Take ravnica for example they have no god/goddess but clerics take power from the mana around them therefore different style. Magic takes from is world.
There are plenty settings in DnD with different way how magic works or different borders simmilar to those set by Mystra. My favorite one is Dark Sun.
Planescape was kind of multiverse-setting, to allow the transmission between worlds: different prime material planes (and their cosmology) using the magic portals (through multi planes travels) or spelljamming. But many worlds (same as FR) has developed bans on those kind of travels. Part of them was set by their gods of magic, or becouse of other stuff. For now FR is protected by this kind of travels (but it was once allowed to reach FR by for example by spelljamming: Beholders). Another one is for example Krynn from DragonLance, it is also "protected" from outside intervention.
In some novels there is the situation, when AO speaks to higher being about conclusion of the Time of Troubles. My friends say he speaks to DungeonMaster-incarnation as a being with the power over the AO.
Cezary Zimoląg Yeah I’ve seen the stuff on the Luminous Being and whole that is an absolutely fascinating topic, I’m more so wondering about how magic works on a multiversal scale. The concept of certain crystal spheres being cut off and having their own systems make sense. Although at this point in time the only setting we’ve had major focus on is FR. Ravenloft has some interesting flavor-text with magic and Ravnica is from a completely different game so that doesn’t count as much. I can’t help but wonder just what’s going on in other worlds/settings and how things are affected. After all, transitions between editions often involved multiversal changing things while the spellplague and time of troubles seems to be isolated to FR. (Although I may be incorrect in this)
The way I take it, Mystra is only the keeper of the Weave. It is very possible that the Weave exists with different restrictions in other worlds. It's why connecting thw restrictions to Mystra is... A bit of a mistake. The only way that it can be explained is if Mystra's restrictions on the Weave use expand beyond Abeir-Toril. That would mean that whetever Mystra does in the realms she has power in, have repercussions into others that draw their power from the Weave. That could make her even more powerful than Ao... And honestly, she's always been a Mary Sue so there's that.
Interesting fact, when Mystra died killed by Cyric and Shar, Deneir is quick at work on transcribing the Metatext and basically writing himself into the Weave, becoming part of the Weave (The Cleric's Quintet). He passed from known existence but I wonder what repercussions did this have. It seemed he was brushed under the rug by those that wanted to bring Mystra... Yet again... It honestly would have been cool to have Deneir as the new avatar of magic. He would literally embody the Weave not just tend to it and there is a strong background for it that includes sacrifice.
Also... The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica didn't change how wizards and clerics learn their spells or the slot stuff... All of that is just fluff to explain a mechanic. So... Back to my first explanation I guess? (shrug)
@@ElrohillLW It's something called Luminous Being. The entity Ao is talking about.
Imagine how cool it would be to have a D&d campaign centered around obtaining the components and spellcasters to cast a level 10 spell
Man thank you for telling us this amazing lore. I'm speechless
The thing I love the most about DnD is that my personal desire to attain these levels of magical prowess can and will directly translate themselves into my character.
9:23 Ohai Lunar Cultists. Didn't know Terraria was part of the Forgotten Realms, haha.
12:34 "You could raise an island from the sea"
*Shows Moses parting the Red Sea*
An in-lore explanation for a nerf
1:28 (Steps into hornet infested greenhouse) *_Come at me you bug bastards!_*
As someone who poured through the Epic Level Handbook, I enjoyed this video but the ELH says there are no spells higher than 10th Level, because anything stronger than a 9th Level spell is simply 10th Level, regardless of power. From Epic Mage Armor which grants a +20 to armor class to Genesis, which creates a new living creature, it is all considered 10th Level. They are separated by the difficulty in working such magic, often overcome by involving multiple spell casters, sacrificing additional spell slots, making the spell take far longer to cast, the caster (or casters) taking magical backlash damage, or some combination of these effects to make the spell easier to cast. I don't recall reading about sacrificing the lives of casters, but maybe I just missed that?
I'd be interested in your source lol. Seems like an interesting read.
This is 5e not 3.5
And apone futher inspection this comes from a 2E book.... I'm as confused as you now actually
@@connorschultz380 no its not. its the history throughout dnd almost all the information he uses is from previous editions
@@shadowlord1418 i find mixing lore from multiple additions more often then not comes out with gibberish unless your following a specific setting
@@connorschultz380 its dnd my world is completely different to these settings but i sometimes take things i find interesting
In my campaign settings, the ritual of lichdom, while I never thought of it as a "10th level spell", was always well and truly above the cuff of anything else in the book.
Aang and Zuko at 4:00 lol
Request: spellscale
been watching you d&d videos for 2 days straight now. and love every moment of it. excellent lore and perfect enthusiasm for the subject :)
Summon barrel is the most OP level 11 spell
Great video. Thanks for this. It explained just what I wanted to know. Nice use of illustrations with the in-depth commentary explaining the lore. Well done.
This video gave me a brilliant idea for my next campaign.
What is it?
@@ElectroKinesisMan I would tell you but fellow members of a D&D discord group that I'm in would see it because one of the members posted a link to this video in the discord an hour or so after I made the comment.
Hell yeah it does
@@ShadowMage it's been five months, is it time to tell us yet?
@@Cy3qi **sighs** Sure, I might as well. The idea that I had was to have a great evil from another plane of existence try and trick the party into killing the descendants of an ancient, and secret, order that sealed the aforementioned great evil from the world. The descendants of this order were tasked with casting a wish spell as a group to ensure that the seal doesn't break, but the players would have attacked/killed them during this ritual, causing the great evil to be unleashed upon the world once more.
It should probably be noted that the weave only exists in the Forgotten Realms, and thus nothing described here applies to the Known World of Mystara, Oerth, Krynn, the Demiplane of Dread, the Phlogiston, Athas, Sigil, etc. Athas has its own 10th level spells, Psionic Enchantments, and the True Dweomers presented in DM Option: High-Level Campaigns are a version of 10th level magic more applicable to Greyhawk and other worlds without the Weave.
Except for artificers... they just shit out magic items cuz they are awesome
Edmond666777 artificers are shit on so many levels...
@@akreid4614 well someone's never played artificer well
@@Silvershield88 3.5 "you remember when we actually HAD rules for creating magic items" the artificer was the proverbial SHIT cause it was AWESOME!!!! the idea of breaking down and re creating magic items was ALL a party EVER NEEDED. if you took ALL the feats that revolved around magic item creation the reduction of price, time, and needed XP, you could really make out using low level items to break and rebuild better and NEEDED items without breaking the game!!!
Artificers bind the weave to their items with enchantments so they’re still bound by it
@@Silvershield88 oh, no wories - i played them right. I had my fare share of fun. But they are mechanically bad and illogical on SO MANY LEVELS. You can have fun with it - You can have fun with everything. But Artificer (as he is for the moment) neither has the right amount of damage, of utility, or mechanicaly interesting things imo. Sorry, if what I said previously was... well - rude. I just meant, that while he is called an artificer, he is more like a child of a sorcerer and a wizard.
Greater Gods can bypass the level 9 restriction by bestowing level 10 and 11 spells to their clerics. Those spells are extremely powerful and aren't actually cast by the cleric but instead are invoked as they are like a piece of the Gods power put into a mortal form. To gain such a high level spell a high level divine caster would make a plea directly to their God about a plight or other issue that needs resolved, should the deity hear them and agree they would order the cleric to go on some sort of quest or pilgrimage to obtain something that acts as the catalyst for the spell. This is something an entire campaign gets based around and results in the cleric getting to do some really crazy cool stuff, but only at the discretion of their deity.
4:08 i love the smell of burning trolls
This gives me an idea for a Character: a Bard from the College of Lore, who desires to research the magic wiped from history, Epic Level Spells, and would one day discover the mystery of the magic and cast an Epic spell of his own one day.
I would just like to clarify that this is Forgotten Realms Lore, not general Dungeons & Dragons Lore. Even though Forgotten Realms is now the official setting for Dungeons & Dragons, the game itself is not limited to this setting, and until 5th edition came out, this setting was not even the default setting for D&D. So, this lore video applies to this specific setting only. Just something to keep in mind, I'm not judging the video itself.
Sadly a lot of people forgot the other settings(Ravenloft,Planescape,Mystara,Greyhawk and lastly Dark Sun)
I started a D&D campaign with some friends recently, so these lore videos are really great for someone without much knowledge of the world.
The most powerful spell is not talked about or known because it was used to go back and remove it before it was created. It's a time spell allows time to be go forward backward or stop altogether. It can also be used for instant teleportation etc. It was so powerful the wizard who created the time spell decide to go back and never have made it afraid if it ever got into the wrong hands.
The major difference were the weavers of reality. The Omni Wizard Chris Cocks limits the flow of the weave until such time as he can bind spells in semi thought out rules, these are usually found in a compendium (about $39.95). Thus is the land faerun protected from vile stagnation as the wizards have a job on Monday.
Loulaums longevity seems easy to glitch out... Get a few hundreds of ant colonies... Cast it... Puff, there you go?
I ran Icewind Dale, Baldurs gate 1&2, Siege of Dragonspear and all that . Listennin’ to you makes me want to leave the hood to have a DnD sesh in the subburbs. Keep preachin’
Knowing my character.. (she's based off of Megumin from konosuba).. She'd probably just cast a massive near world ending *EXPLOSION!*
She would probably die happy
Sounds like my usual evoc wizard
Back when I played pen and paper i'd heard it explained that after using up your spell slots, sure you could do the same motions, hold the same focus or material components... but the energies prepared that morning to cast the spell would no longer be there as you had used it. Unless the newer editions of D&D specifically say you "forget how" after using the spell you memorized, that was never explicitly said beforehand. Like a significant part of the Wizard "spell" is prepared that morning and they cast the "triggers" of it when needed. Like preparing ammunition and only having what you made to shoot, later that day.
Old School D&D had the immortal rules. (Golden Books).
1st edition had mortal magic and then Immortal magic.
Even some off shoot stuff in Role Aids had Level 10 to 16th Level.
Then Oriental Adventure had the Wu Jen. They had Wish with no ill effects to the caster unless you worded it purposefully wrong.
Also you have the ability to create your own spells with research in a development in a school of magic or on your own as a mage or Arch Mage.
Getting into beyond in several levels to become a Lich or actually immortality.
It of coarse also depends on your Game Master/Dungeon Master beyond just Hack and Slash.
There is still more...
Yes more lore videos! I'm so happy to see this! Back to watching the video :P
This being all specific to Forgotten Realm, what about other settings?
D&D in general?
Birthright had amazing spells in Realm Magic.
9:30 Ah yes, let us use the almighty level 13 spell to summon the moonlord.
Why do you keep using the Interrupting the Cultists Terraria painting?
Mystra reincarnating is a recurring theme. During the time of troubles, Elminster and his rangers protected Midnight when Mystra gave her power before Mystra fell. Midnight became the new Mystra.
I understand that the weave is for warlocks and wizards... but what about spellcaster druids?
I'm still new to d&d but I look at it like clerics, instead of coming from a God's power (which you still could do with nature dieties) it can come from nature itself.
That makes sense... but wouldn't that also mean that the nature gods are also part of the weave along with the goddess of magic? 🤔
The weave is for all spellcasters.
All spellcasters use the weave to draw in magic, the magic drawn in is then used to produce a spell's effects.
To my understanding at least.
I see... thank you
@@jezreelmartinez9800 I'm pretty sure the weave is only arcane
One loophole I thought of was You assemble several immovable rods. And you use those to recreate the effect of A temp level spell that essentially let you levitate mountains. At least as far as my understanding Went. Since one of the properties with immovable rod is that once you press the button, The rod will just stay in place even if that place is up in the air. And you could theoretically use this effect if you have enough immovable rods to create floating settlements.
If a mortal or mortals tried to now gain Level 10 or above, Mystra would come down, bend the weave and kill all casters.
This is based on Ed Greenwood's tweet from March 2019.
bro, it's march 2019 *right now*
Loved this lore video. Thank you. Earned a sub. Looking forward to more like this