Tools for Epic Level DMing

[NexH]

Didn't want to derail the thread Rule-of-Three for May 23, so I opened this new one to share some experiences from my campaign. Hopefully they will be of use to someone, or others could share their experiences/advices for Epic play.

As an honest question, what's left for Epic after you take out demons or undead?

I can only think of other immortals (angels and devils), fey and aberrations. Otherwise you need to get 'crazy' and mess around with parallel universes and such, don't you?

Something I have been using in my campaign since Heroic Tier is the following equivalence: Standard monster = Minion of level +8, Elite of level -4, or Solo of level -9
At epic level I have used this mostly to make minions or standard monsters out of monsters that were once a considerable threat to the PCs, showcasing the growth in power the PCs have experienced since.
So for example you could model a fire giant (level 18) as a level 26 minion, a medusa archer (elite 10) as a level 22 minion, or even an hydra (solo 10) as a level 27 minion.
So you can easily populate epic level with hordes of "paragon level" enemies.

Taking that a step further is another idea from EN World's user Upper_Krust, which suggests that a unit of 10 creatures can be modelled as a single "creature" 6 levels higher. By multiple applications of the rule you have: 100 creatures = +12, 1000 = +18...
I have used this method a few times, the most spectacular (and experimental) being one in which the level 26 PCs protected a sacred dwarven city against an army of seven hundred thousand hobgoblin warriors and legions of goblins. This was represented by a change of space/time scale in the gameboard/turn system, in which the main of the army was a high level solo "swarm" and legions of goblins were considered minions. It went well, but we took various narrative liberties to describe the combat.


Something that I implemented very recently, but I wish I had earlier, is changing the way PC resources are replenished. Basically: what used to be replenished each day is now gradually recovered through progress in the adventure.
This requires the players to submit clear warranties in favor of some DM adjudication... but IME has worked wonderfully to expand narrative liberties in adventure creation. For example: in a 3 month journey through the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos, I was able to put a few flavourful encounters for the PCs along the way, without worrying about these encounters being mechanically irrelevant for the adventure.
I think doing this change is particulary useful for Epic Level, since I find artificial and difficult creating many adventures at this level in which the time limit is mechanically restricting (and trivial encounters aren't fun for anyone).



Well, I think that's it for now. If anyone has other ideas or tools he/she has used successfuly for epic level gaming, please post!

 

[Riastlin]

I haven't reached into epic tier yet so not a lot of practical advice I can give; however, I do like your idea about travel. In fact, this is applicable at any tier really. While you are not specifically limiting your restrictions to travel, I think it does do a good job for if we want to make the journey itself constitute the adventure. If your players start to give you grief about it (and some no doubt will), then simply describe the journey as being so filled with danger that its impossible to get a good night's sleep. Now you can have the journey through enemy territory to get to the hidden temple, or the trek through the Underdark to find lost dwarven mining colony, etc. and not have to worry about your encounters being either a) trivial or b) so difficult that even with a full complement of dailies, etc., there's still a high chance of a tpk, etc.

 

[DragoonLance]

There is a good e-book on the subject, review can be found here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/en-wor...running-epic-tier-d-d-games-michael-shea.html

Good ideas to keep in mind and dirt cheap.
Some other things I've picked up on is:
1) MM3 boosted damage, but feel free to boost it more. Epic PC's can have numerous multi-attack powers, feel free to give the monsters something to compensate.

2) My current DM loves to give monsters player powers. This can be a great way to threaten the party like when the artillery monsters are twin striking your healer to death.

3) Above all, I believe that Epic adventures really REALLY need to be tailored to the individual group. Feel free to borrow the basics from that AP but stuff should matter specifically to each character, tie their epic destinies into the storyline, bring back old friends, allies or enemies, but make it personal! Nothing sucks worse than killing the BBEG and still being treated like low level adventurers by the NPCs.

 

[Aegeri]

Personally I think any DM should sit down and have a good read of what Wizards has done in epic tier. You have some really creative and interesting monsters now, like the immensely high damage Balor, the "I hate healing" Dracolich and the "I don't get dominated, but you do!" star of Ulban. Epic monsters have the most freedom for interesting and creative interactions with the rules, or just being powerhouses at damage/debuffing/buffing. Really you shouldn't restrict yourself anymore so much to what they can do: Make their interactions memorable and dynamic in an encounter to be challenging.

A balor backed up by a creature that reduces damage at range (or even gives him accuracy) is much more interesting as an encounter than 2 balors (despite the damage output).

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey there NexH!

Something I have been using in my campaign since Heroic Tier is the following equivalence: Standard monster = Minion of level +8, Elite of level -4, or Solo of level -9
At epic level I have used this mostly to make minions or standard monsters out of monsters that were once a considerable threat to the PCs, showcasing the growth in power the PCs have experienced since.
So for example you could model a fire giant (level 18) as a level 26 minion, a medusa archer (elite 10) as a level 22 minion, or even an hydra (solo 10) as a level 27 minion.
So you can easily populate epic level with hordes of "paragon level" enemies.

Taking that a step further is another idea from EN World's user Upper_Krust, which suggests that a unit of 10 creatures can be modelled as a single "creature" 6 levels higher. By multiple applications of the rule you have: 100 creatures = +12, 1000 = +18...

I was about to say remember also to combine both ideas...

e.g. 1000 Goblins = +18, then -9 converted to a Solo monster.

1 Goblin = Level 1 Skirmisher
1000 Goblins = Level 10 Solo Swarm

...but I see below you already figured that one out.

I have used this method a few times, the most spectacular (and experimental) being one in which the level 26 PCs protected a sacred dwarven city against an army of seven hundred thousand hobgoblin warriors and legions of goblins. This was represented by a change of space/time scale in the gameboard/turn system, in which the main of the army was a high level solo "swarm" and legions of goblins were considered minions. It went well, but we took various narrative liberties to describe the combat.

Sounds epic.

Something that I implemented very recently, but I wish I had earlier, is changing the way PC resources are replenished. Basically: what used to be replenished each day is now gradually recovered through progress in the adventure.

This requires the players to submit clear warranties in favor of some DM adjudication... but IME has worked wonderfully to expand narrative liberties in adventure creation. For example: in a 3 month journey through the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos, I was able to put a few flavourful encounters for the PCs along the way, without worrying about these encounters being mechanically irrelevant for the adventure.

I think doing this change is particulary useful for Epic Level, since I find artificial and difficult creating many adventures at this level in which the time limit is mechanically restricting (and trivial encounters aren't fun for anyone).

I'm working on an article that make the time limit 'schtick' unnecessary by making each area its own mini-sandbox with various stages of response from the defenders.

So rather than set defenders in rooms 1, 2, 3, etc. Alerting the guard will begin several stages of escalated response.

Well, I think that's it for now. If anyone has other ideas or tools he/she has used successfuly for epic level gaming, please post!

I recently posted a new solo monster, which has slightly different mechanics. I was hoping to get some feedback on (in particular its ability to make 2 standard, 2 move and 2 minor actions per round). Its only Level 10 but its maybe worth taking a look.

Preview 4: Vampire Bestiary Eternity Publishing