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Pros and Cons of Epic Level Play?
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<blockquote data-quote="Vaprak001" data-source="post: 6283243" data-attributes="member: 6775623"><p><em>"At first level, the party fled a tidal wave that washed away more than a 1/3rd of a city of 40,000 people and caused widespread devastation up and down a 50 mile stretch of coast line. They later learned that the tidal wave had been caused by a malfunction of an artifact of the legendary art mages from the age of wonders. After that, they participated in a massive night time battle between the city survivors and an invading army of deep ones."</em></p><p></p><p>Crucial to this victory was the party's role in wearing out the deep ones with their constant 'running away'. Whether the party were aware of the poorly developed lung-capacity of the deep-ones is unknown, but by the time the Old Woman who lived in a shoe turned up with her feral offspring the invaders were on their last legs and made for easy pickings.</p><p></p><p><em>"Then at 2nd level, they defeated an awakening centuries old draco-lich by destroying his phylactery."</em></p><p></p><p>It was all Dave the Paladin's fault! There he is wandering around the market place when his bl**dy detect evil 'spidey-sense' starts tingling again. Drawing his sword he charged across to the market stall that was the source of the evil. There, on display was an ancient alabaster snuff box that exuded malignancy; Dave swung his sword but no connection was made. The snuff box owner was quite fond of his snuff and the pretty box it was being kept in so what was a 70 year-old ex soldier supposed to do? Once Dave had regained consciousness he wisely chose a different tactic and bartered for the offending box. Dave wasn't to know that giving away his Plate Mail and magical +1 sword was to cost him dearly later in the campaign. Anyhow, back at base Greg the party Dwarf quickly destroyed the box with his hammer. The DM gave a happy Dave 500 XP's for his efforts, unfortunately the DM also adjudicated that no XP's would be given for the ancient draco-lich for which this box was a phylactery as he resided on a different continent altogether.</p><p></p><p><em>"Since that time they've ventured into the depths of catacombs that had been sealed closed by the settings most legendary hero on the trail of a necromancer in search of a weapon that had been crafted to fight the gods and which threatened to destroy the continent or the world, and penetrated the secrets of the tomb of Menes III - in my setting the grandfather of Acerak the Eternal of Tomb of Horrors fame,"</em></p><p></p><p></p><p>Greg this time! The bartender had dared to tell him that 15 pints was enough and that they'd run out of beer. Greg demanded that Bob, the party wizard open the rune-covered cellar door but being only 2nd level he didn't have the knock spell yet. Greg, being Greg (and drunk) took his hammer and smashed a hole in the wall beside the door instead, then leapt through. It was only later once the party had caught up with the enraged dwarf that they realised this was no cellar but ancient catacombs. Most importantly for Greg there wasn't any more beer. </p><p></p><p><em>"fought a 900 year old curse manifestation related to the founding of the nation they lived in"</em></p><p></p><p>Helping the UN with a widespread innoculation campaign</p><p></p><p><em>"participated in a massive naval battle between 11 warships mounting collectively hundreds of siege weapons",</em></p><p></p><p>Well, of course Greg couldn't afford to pay for the damages to the pub so the judge sentanced the party to six months hard-labour 'at the oars'. The food was terrible and the blisters were painful, but there were great views of the river from that angle.</p><p><em></em></p><p><em>"boarding and taking a ship in one case"</em></p><p></p><p>They had no choice, it was the only life-craft available</p><p></p><p><em>"and helping to burn down another by dive bombing it on the back of hippogriffs"</em></p><p></p><p>It was very brave of Greg to offer to exchange commuting the rest of his sentance for a one time gig as live ammunition. We think he assumed he'd be fired from one of the ships catapaults - one of his favourite drunken party tricks. He looked very worried as he was being strapped to the back of that Hippogriff, and we thought setting him alight before being dropped was a bit harsh considering how co-operative he'd been up to that point.</p><p></p><p><em>"slew a dragon"</em></p><p></p><p>It's what saved Greg in the end. The gods must have been watching, Greg went straight through the deck of that ship and killed the dragon that was sleeping on the river-bed underneath. It gave Greg just enough XP to raise him the level and the extra HP meant he just about survived the fall - what luck!</p><p></p><p><em>"and have been taken to the Astral Plane by a mysterious alley cat in order to learn about the power of the cosmic 'lightning' storms that flash between the positive and negative elemental planes." </em></p><p></p><p>Thats the last time they try Jim, the party's Druid, "special" mushroom pizzas!</p><p></p><p><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. My point is that epic can be great fun and parties can certainly participate in epic events at lower levels, even 'turn the tide', but for me having novice characters 'issued' with hippogriffs or slaying dragons just doesn't leave enough leg-room for building momentum and evolution in campaigns.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Vaprak001, post: 6283243, member: 6775623"] [I]"At first level, the party fled a tidal wave that washed away more than a 1/3rd of a city of 40,000 people and caused widespread devastation up and down a 50 mile stretch of coast line. They later learned that the tidal wave had been caused by a malfunction of an artifact of the legendary art mages from the age of wonders. After that, they participated in a massive night time battle between the city survivors and an invading army of deep ones."[/I] Crucial to this victory was the party's role in wearing out the deep ones with their constant 'running away'. Whether the party were aware of the poorly developed lung-capacity of the deep-ones is unknown, but by the time the Old Woman who lived in a shoe turned up with her feral offspring the invaders were on their last legs and made for easy pickings. [I]"Then at 2nd level, they defeated an awakening centuries old draco-lich by destroying his phylactery."[/I] It was all Dave the Paladin's fault! There he is wandering around the market place when his bl**dy detect evil 'spidey-sense' starts tingling again. Drawing his sword he charged across to the market stall that was the source of the evil. There, on display was an ancient alabaster snuff box that exuded malignancy; Dave swung his sword but no connection was made. The snuff box owner was quite fond of his snuff and the pretty box it was being kept in so what was a 70 year-old ex soldier supposed to do? Once Dave had regained consciousness he wisely chose a different tactic and bartered for the offending box. Dave wasn't to know that giving away his Plate Mail and magical +1 sword was to cost him dearly later in the campaign. Anyhow, back at base Greg the party Dwarf quickly destroyed the box with his hammer. The DM gave a happy Dave 500 XP's for his efforts, unfortunately the DM also adjudicated that no XP's would be given for the ancient draco-lich for which this box was a phylactery as he resided on a different continent altogether. [I]"Since that time they've ventured into the depths of catacombs that had been sealed closed by the settings most legendary hero on the trail of a necromancer in search of a weapon that had been crafted to fight the gods and which threatened to destroy the continent or the world, and penetrated the secrets of the tomb of Menes III - in my setting the grandfather of Acerak the Eternal of Tomb of Horrors fame,"[/I] Greg this time! The bartender had dared to tell him that 15 pints was enough and that they'd run out of beer. Greg demanded that Bob, the party wizard open the rune-covered cellar door but being only 2nd level he didn't have the knock spell yet. Greg, being Greg (and drunk) took his hammer and smashed a hole in the wall beside the door instead, then leapt through. It was only later once the party had caught up with the enraged dwarf that they realised this was no cellar but ancient catacombs. Most importantly for Greg there wasn't any more beer. [I]"fought a 900 year old curse manifestation related to the founding of the nation they lived in"[/I] Helping the UN with a widespread innoculation campaign [I]"participated in a massive naval battle between 11 warships mounting collectively hundreds of siege weapons",[/I] Well, of course Greg couldn't afford to pay for the damages to the pub so the judge sentanced the party to six months hard-labour 'at the oars'. The food was terrible and the blisters were painful, but there were great views of the river from that angle. [I] "boarding and taking a ship in one case"[/I] They had no choice, it was the only life-craft available [I]"and helping to burn down another by dive bombing it on the back of hippogriffs"[/I] It was very brave of Greg to offer to exchange commuting the rest of his sentance for a one time gig as live ammunition. We think he assumed he'd be fired from one of the ships catapaults - one of his favourite drunken party tricks. He looked very worried as he was being strapped to the back of that Hippogriff, and we thought setting him alight before being dropped was a bit harsh considering how co-operative he'd been up to that point. [I]"slew a dragon"[/I] It's what saved Greg in the end. The gods must have been watching, Greg went straight through the deck of that ship and killed the dragon that was sleeping on the river-bed underneath. It gave Greg just enough XP to raise him the level and the extra HP meant he just about survived the fall - what luck! [I]"and have been taken to the Astral Plane by a mysterious alley cat in order to learn about the power of the cosmic 'lightning' storms that flash between the positive and negative elemental planes." [/I] Thats the last time they try Jim, the party's Druid, "special" mushroom pizzas! :D I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. My point is that epic can be great fun and parties can certainly participate in epic events at lower levels, even 'turn the tide', but for me having novice characters 'issued' with hippogriffs or slaying dragons just doesn't leave enough leg-room for building momentum and evolution in campaigns. [/QUOTE]
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