78th-level Epic Wizard, fully table-ready. See the note at the bottom of this page for exactly how a First Edition archmage ended up here.
| Ability | Base (1e/3.5) | Level Increases | Magic Items | Final Score | Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 12 | N/A | N/A | 12 | +1 |
| Dexterity | 12 | N/A | N/A | 12 | +1 |
| Constitution | 10 | N/A | N/A | 10 | +0 |
| Intelligence | 18 | +15 (levels 20–76) | +6 (Headband) | 39 | +14 |
| Wisdom | 16 | N/A | N/A | 16 | +3 |
| Charisma | 18 | N/A | N/A | 18 | +4 |
Arcane Familiar, Scribe Scroll, Summon Familiar, High-Level Wizard Bonus Feats.
| Level | Feat |
|---|---|
| Human | Craft Wondrous Item |
| 1st Level | Improved Initiative |
| Wizard 1 | Scribe Scroll |
| 3rd Level | Combat Casting |
| Wizard 5 | Craft Wand |
| 6th Level | Spell Focus (Evocation) |
| 9th Level | Greater Spell Focus (Evocation) |
| Wizard 10 | Craft Rod |
| 12th Level | Spell Penetration |
| 15th Level | Greater Spell Penetration |
| Wizard 15 | Forge Ring |
| 18th Level | Quicken Spell |
| Wizard 20 | Maximize Spell |
| Level | Feat |
|---|---|
| 21st | Epic Spellcasting |
| Wizard 23 | Epic Spell Focus (Evocation) |
| 24th | Spell Opportunity |
| 27th | Automatic Quicken Spell (0–3rd) |
| Wizard 26 | Improved Spell Capacity (10th) |
| 29th | Improved Spell Capacity (11th) |
| 30th | Epic Spell Penetration |
| Wizard 32 | Improved Spell Capacity (12th) |
| 33rd | Automatic Quicken Spell (4th–6th) |
| Wizard 35 | Epic Skill Focus (Spellcraft) |
| 36th | Great Intelligence (+1) |
| 39th | Automatic Quicken Spell (7th–9th) |
| Wizard 41 | Epic Skill Focus (Knowledge: Arcana) |
| 42nd | Multispell |
| 45th | Multispell |
| Wizard 47 | Enhance Spell |
| 48th | Epic Toughness |
| 51st | Epic Spell Mastery |
| Wizard 53 | Improved Spell Capacity (13th) |
| 54th | Craft Epic Wondrous Item |
| 57th | Epic Spell Mastery |
| Wizard 59 | Epic Spell Mastery |
| 60th | Great Intelligence (+1) |
| 63rd | Multispell |
| Wizard 65 | Epic Spell Mastery |
| 66th | Epic Spell Mastery |
| 69th | Great Intelligence (+1) |
| Wizard 71 | Epic Spell Mastery |
| 72nd | Great Intelligence (+1) |
| 75th | Epic Spell Mastery |
| Wizard 77 | Epic Spell Mastery |
| 78th | Great Intelligence (+1) |
805 total ranks, allocated roughly 40% Spellcraft, 40% Knowledge (Arcana), 20% Craft (item creation).
| Spell Level | Slots per Day |
|---|---|
| 0 Level | 4 |
| 1st Level | 8 |
| 2nd Level | 8 |
| 3rd Level | 8 |
| 4th Level | 8 |
| 5th Level | 8 |
| 6th Level | 7 |
| 7th Level | 7 |
| 8th Level | 7 |
| 9th Level | 7 |
| 10th–13th Levels | 2 slots each (via Improved Spell Capacity) |
After losing his original raven at level 18, William bound a rare albino raven at level 28.
Tiny Magical Beast · Hit Dice 78 (195 hp, half master's hp) · Armor Class 44 (+2 size, +2 Dex, +30 natural armor) · Speaks Common, Alertness, Improved Evasion, Share Spells, Empathic Link, Deliver Touch Spells, Spell Resistance 83, Scry on Familiar.
100,000 XP creation budget spread across six custom spells, built from the Animate Dead, Destroy, Energy, Creation, and Transform seeds.
Casting Time 1 minute · Target one pristine humanoid corpse · Duration Permanent · XP to Develop 20,000. Animates a target corpse into a fully realized, loyal Vampire Lord, permanently bound to William's command and retaining all former class levels up to 20th.
Casting Time 1 swift action · Area 1,000-ft.-radius sphere within 2 miles · Reflex half (DC 53) · XP to Develop 25,000. Deals 50d6 fire and 50d6 untyped divine damage to everything in the area; non-magical structures are disintegrated into fine ash.
Casting Time 10 minutes · Range 300 ft. · Duration Permanent · XP to Develop 15,000. Pulverizes stone and earth to instantly raise a fully fortified obsidian castle, up to 200 cubic feet per caster level, complete with functioning doors, walls, and drawbridges.
Casting Time 1 day · Range 10 miles · Duration Permanent · XP to Develop 20,000. Converts up to 10 square miles of open water or barren void into fertile land, complete with flora, water veins, and stable subterranean rock layers.
Casting Time 1 standard action · Area 2-mile radius · Duration 20 rounds · XP to Develop 10,000. Calls down an apocalyptic blizzard dealing 20d6 cold damage per round to everything caught in it, freezing water sources and burying the landscape under 10 feet of ice.
Casting Time 1 standard action · Range 1,200 ft. · Up to 10 targets or objects · Fortitude partial (DC 49) · XP to Develop 10,000. Fires ten targeted beams of annihilation, each disintegrating a creature or object instantly, or dealing 40d6 damage on a successful save.
A homebrew conversion. 5e has no official rules for a level past 20th, so this uses the game's own Epic Boons framework, reflavored, to carry the "78 levels of nonsense" joke across editions without breaking 5e's math.
5e's ability score cap sits at 20 without magic; the Headband of Intellect (here, +6 in 3.5e terms) is treated as pushing Intelligence to the practical epic-tier ceiling of 30. Everything else stayed close to the 3.5e array, scaled to fit 5e's tighter math.
Prepares spells from the full wizard list. Standard Wizard 20 slots (1st–5th at full, 6th–9th at one each), topped off by his Archmage's Boons below, which is where the "78th level" flavor actually lives in this edition.
Once per long rest, cast any wizard spell of 9th level or lower without expending a spell slot.
Advantage on Intelligence and Wisdom saving throws. Immune to being charmed.
Can see and hear through Corvus, his raven familiar, at any distance, with no concentration required and no limit on duration.
Immune to exhaustion. Doesn't require sleep in the ordinary sense, four hours of study serves the same purpose.
| Spell | Attack/DC | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Fireball | DC 24 Dex | 8d6 fire damage, half on save |
| Disintegrate | +16 to hit / DC 24 Dex | 10d6 + 40 force damage; reduces a slain target to dust |
| Wall of Force | N/A | Immovable, invisible wall; nothing gets through uninvited |
| Teleport | N/A | Instant relocation, no mishap on a roll this practiced |
Selected, not exhaustive, he's a 20-level prepared caster with an unreasonable Intelligence score, assume he has an answer for most things.
This is, more than anything, a dry joke about how editions handle experience points.
Archmage William S. Silverrose spent a lifetime surviving the unforgiving campaigns of First Edition AD&D, amassing over 3,000,000 XP through slain horrors, retrieved hoards, and high-level planar expeditions. In the archaic era of 1e, this monumental total was only enough to achieve 18th level, due to:
When translated into the unified, triangular mathematical structure of D&D 3.5e, where every standard and epic level scales strictly as Current Level × 1,000 XP, and Level 20 requires only 190,000 XP total, William's lifetime earned total of 3,003,000 XP immediately propels him through all 20 standard levels and deep into the cosmos of epic magic, landing him squarely at 78th Epic Level:
In-universe, the raw combat experience and ancient trials that barely elevated him past archmage status under the old laws of magic make him a demigod-tier force of nature under the modern weave. Same character, same lifetime of scars, wildly different math depending on which rulebook happened to be open at the time.