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Pros and Cons of Epic Level Play?
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<blockquote data-quote="KidSnide" data-source="post: 6283207" data-attributes="member: 54710"><p>I enjoy epic adventures as the capstone in the campaign. </p><p></p><p>When I say "epic", I mean:</p><p>(1) The monsters are epic. The monsters that used to frighten you as mid-level characters become mere speed bumps; you can face dozens or hundreds now. You have already defeated top tier bad guys (major liches, demon lords, etc) and are capable of fighting more than one top tier opponent in a given adventure. The types of opponents that are left are the most dangerous in the campaign world. There's no tier of villains left after this one.</p><p></p><p>(2) The player's characters are epic. The movers and shakers of the world treat the PCs as equals (or at least relative equals). The PCs have access to all the most important strategy meetings of their side and can influence that strategy if they so choose. Major magic items the acquisition of which might once have been the focus of a major adventure are not wielded by several PCs. The players feel like their characters could kick ass and take names in pretty much any adventure they've had so far. Spell casters will have access to some game changing (level 7-9) spells.</p><p></p><p>(3) The adventures are epic. Planar travel, time travel, LotR style armies, cities cleaved off the face of continents -- these are all appropriate in epic level adventures.</p><p></p><p>(4) The consequences are epic. The result of these capstone adventures should shape the game world in a significant way. If you continue playing in the game world with a new set of characters, it should be obvious to all those new players how the previous group affected the world (for better or worse).</p><p></p><p>Mind you, I have never needed epic rules to play this type of game. In my long running 2e to 3.x campaign, the PCs finished at level 16. The final adventures were incredibly epic. The PCs went back in time to the creation of the universe, completely changed the time line and ended up blowing up their home planet so they could replace their existence with a version of history they liked better. </p><p></p><p>But I couldn't imagine using actual epic-level rules for those adventures. Building encounters became increasingly annoying after 11th or 12th level. The idea of having more than half the campaign take place over level 10 blows my mind.</p><p></p><p>To paraphrase Forest Gump, "epic is as epic does." Any high level campaign (and even some mid-level campaigns) can have epic adventures. D&D works better at more moderate levels, so I recommend placing your epic games just above whatever you find to be the sweet spot. That way the players get to experience some broken-in-their-favor rules, but don't spend so much time there that the DM goes crazy. As I see it, the value of epic level rules is primarily in the ability to create super-powerful NPCs for groups of high level PCs to face.</p><p></p><p>-KS</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KidSnide, post: 6283207, member: 54710"] I enjoy epic adventures as the capstone in the campaign. When I say "epic", I mean: (1) The monsters are epic. The monsters that used to frighten you as mid-level characters become mere speed bumps; you can face dozens or hundreds now. You have already defeated top tier bad guys (major liches, demon lords, etc) and are capable of fighting more than one top tier opponent in a given adventure. The types of opponents that are left are the most dangerous in the campaign world. There's no tier of villains left after this one. (2) The player's characters are epic. The movers and shakers of the world treat the PCs as equals (or at least relative equals). The PCs have access to all the most important strategy meetings of their side and can influence that strategy if they so choose. Major magic items the acquisition of which might once have been the focus of a major adventure are not wielded by several PCs. The players feel like their characters could kick ass and take names in pretty much any adventure they've had so far. Spell casters will have access to some game changing (level 7-9) spells. (3) The adventures are epic. Planar travel, time travel, LotR style armies, cities cleaved off the face of continents -- these are all appropriate in epic level adventures. (4) The consequences are epic. The result of these capstone adventures should shape the game world in a significant way. If you continue playing in the game world with a new set of characters, it should be obvious to all those new players how the previous group affected the world (for better or worse). Mind you, I have never needed epic rules to play this type of game. In my long running 2e to 3.x campaign, the PCs finished at level 16. The final adventures were incredibly epic. The PCs went back in time to the creation of the universe, completely changed the time line and ended up blowing up their home planet so they could replace their existence with a version of history they liked better. But I couldn't imagine using actual epic-level rules for those adventures. Building encounters became increasingly annoying after 11th or 12th level. The idea of having more than half the campaign take place over level 10 blows my mind. To paraphrase Forest Gump, "epic is as epic does." Any high level campaign (and even some mid-level campaigns) can have epic adventures. D&D works better at more moderate levels, so I recommend placing your epic games just above whatever you find to be the sweet spot. That way the players get to experience some broken-in-their-favor rules, but don't spend so much time there that the DM goes crazy. As I see it, the value of epic level rules is primarily in the ability to create super-powerful NPCs for groups of high level PCs to face. -KS [/QUOTE]
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