Sorry, but have I been missing out on the ELH analysis?

kibbitz · Oct 10, 2002

It's been a while since I came back to the board, so I just heard of the ELH from friends on mIRC. Popping by the board and sifting through several pages of threads, I seem to have found nothing except mention of the ELH in those threads regarding the BoVD and those demon lord/prince/monarch stats... can someone point me to an analysis of it, or something?

Thanks in advance...

kibbitz · Oct 10, 2002

OK, before anyone decides to point me to the review links, I'm reading, and by the time I next check this, I'd have read all three of them, but I'd just like to hear a little more on this.

Crothian · Oct 10, 2002

There are some revies in the review section, not sure if any are good though.

THe increase in power is okay. attack bonuses and saves even out to the same rate for all classes. The main power increase is with new Epic Feats, but they needed to create more different types of them. There are new epic prestige classes and they are hit and miss. Epic level spells are nice, but with out actually seeing them in play it's hard to really rate them. The epic magical items are mostly crap and just old magical items with bigger bonuses. The monsters are fantastic, though. They are very well done, the art is good, I was very happy with this section.

What else do you want to know? No use looking for old threads when I'm sure many people will be willing to talk about here.

kibbitz · Oct 10, 2002

Flashback

Well, as a reminder, I belong to one of the minorites (I think

) who don't roleplay anymore but occasionally buy RPG material just to look at interesting ideas for mechanics as well as cool stuff, whatever it maybe

RPGs are expensive for me, so I buy rarely, and I'm considering buying a sourcebook of sorts sometime, possibly 3E-related, possibly not. Friends were gushing about the "kewl" factor of the ELH, mainly that bit about "The Vengeful Gaze of God" and some other feat or so, so I wanted to know specifically what to expect.

Out of the three reviews I read, looks like the only crunchy bits I'd might want to look at is probably the Feat and Monster bits, which doesn't particularly strike me as good value for money. Which leads me to here for other opinions as to the contents of the ELH.

Crothian · Oct 10, 2002

The Vengeful Gaze of God is an Epic spell, does 305d6 damage to an opponet, caster takes 200d6. Neither is a misprint. Personally, if you aren't going to be using this save your money, got get Book of the Rightious or Oathbound. Well, I guess it really depends on what you like out of a book.

ColonelHardisson · Oct 10, 2002

Vengeful Gaze of God is one of the things in the ELH that got played up as an indication of how munchkiny the book was. What most of the critics failed to mention is the enormous expense and massive prerequisites needed for it. Basically, even a god would have a hard time casting the spell. If it gets used even once by a PC, I'd strongly suspect that something had gone wrong with the campaign long before the ELH came out.

kibbitz · Oct 10, 2002

Crothian
Well, didn't think it was a misprint, just wondering whether the ELH just provided high-powered variants of existing abilities and gear and monsters. Guess I'll ask around some more. Thanks for the info. I'll go ck out Book of the Righteous and Oathbound.

ColonelHardisson
Well, you know how some people look only at the numbers instead of the overall picture. As of the moment, I've no access to an ELH for browsing, so I'm asking around regarding the ELH to see if it makes interesting reading in terms of mechanics and ideas, since I don't want buy something which which offers nothing new in terms of ideas.

Piratecat · Oct 10, 2002

I think for "low-level" epic play - 21st to 25th level or so - the book will be really useful to me. I dunno about the really high level play, though.

I plan to approve each feat on a case-by-case basis.

Psion · Oct 10, 2002

Aargh... what was I saying now before my post was so rudely edited?

I think I was replying to this:

Well, you know how some people look only at the numbers instead of the overall picture. As of the moment, I've no access to an ELH for browsing, so I'm asking around regarding the ELH to see if it makes interesting reading in terms of mechanics and ideas, since I don't want buy something which which offers nothing new in terms of ideas.

By saying that the monster chapter and a small part of the DM chapter has good ideas, but the rest of the book leaves a lot to be desired in terms of ideas and is pretty much functional but dry mechanics.

Henry · Oct 10, 2002

You know what's funny? I will more likely use Epic Level Handbook than Deities and Demigods.

I prefer a campaign where mortals can aspire to deity-level status. Therefore, my deities will be using powers from the ELH, rather than the abilities from Deities and Demigods. They will have divine powers, but their avatars will be more like epic-level characters than untouchable avatars. Still untouchable, but not by other Epics.

Also, the monsters in the ELH will be usable as both world-destroying terrors and as some of the more primal gods in my campaign setting.