Psion said:
"Living ice", eh? Sounds interesting. What characteristics do you think it would have? How would the PCs "accidentally" foul up an uber-silver-dragon?
Heh, that depends on what exactly happened in your campaign. Me, I'm just throwing out thoughts which happened to be an mix derived from boredom, insomnia, Henry's thoughts and yours
The idea of "living ice" is kinda tricky, because you need to determine how it is alive. It could be some primal being like the Xixecal as pointed out by Henry. What better way to seal away some ancient evil/doom than a walking iceberg?
However, several other options are possible depending on what you're aiming for and what's the actual scenario/setting like. Probably will throw more ideas later in another topic when I'm feeling more alive
At the moment, only the need for a long shower and a cup of iced coffee is keeping me awake
As for fouling up the uber-silver dragon, it might not be the one that needs fouling up
This sort of thought extrapolation is what the ELH really needs. Like I said, I think the creature section is the best idea fodder in the ELH, but still, it falls into the same all-too-brief format that the Monster Manual does... but in the case of the MM, many of the creatures we veterans already know about and thus are already conceptually grounded. There are some cretures in there that we have seen before -- like the winter wight and demi-lich. But for the most part, we are conceptually "starting from scratch."
This can be a good thing and a bad thing for the ELH. On the bright side, we can aren't fighting against pre-existing notions. On the down side, we have less to work with. For example, there is a creature called a Gloom (a monstrous humanoid with a very mysterious feel that acts as an assassin and leaps for shadow to shadow) that I would like to conceptually work into my game but am not quite sure where to put it.
Well, guess this is what forums are good for. Throw out stuff, share ideas and such. Problems arise mainly when not everyone has the books involved, so their contributions might be somewhat more limited.
As for the bit regarding pre-existing notions, well, the thing is, what is Epic Level campaigning? One way to look at it is to have tougher monsters, bigger weapons, and spells with bigger bang factors. That could be someone's definition of Epic. Then, there are campaigns like that of SHARK's. While I can't relate to them, I do see them as epic-scale.
The thing is, when buying the Epic Level Handbook, people should get more than just a new set of toys to play with, they need to see the idea behind Epic Level play. They need to understand what makes Epic Level play so different to the point it warrants an extra rulebook. If it's just bigger feats, monsters and items without the mentality, it's just a matter of scale alone, no? Might as well make it a Companion, or Book of Crunchy Goodies of some sort...
