Because I'm sitting at home with a head cold, which could be playing silly buggers with my judgement.
I'm not particularly impressed by the ELH, but at the same time I wouldn't mind being able to keep playing characters past level 20. Instead of the various hacks that the ELH introduces to make epic-level play feasible, how would the following setup play out in practice?
- keep the existing level advancement per class, including BAB and save progressions. No more wonkiness like "epic levels", and whatnot.
- limit each character to 20 levels per class, or 10 levels per prestige class (thus if you go beyond 20th level, you'll have to have at least 2 classes). A character who is 21st level gets to choose one additional class as a favoured class.
- _multiply the d20 roll by 2_ for epic-level play. Thus attack rolls become (attack bonus + d20x2), skill checks become (skill bonus + d20x2), and saves become (save bonus + d20x2). This keeps d20's linear scaling from becoming unplayable.
As an alternative to doubling the d20 roll, you could halve all bonuses. This would lead to essentially the same results.
When you get to 41st level, multiply the d20 roll by 3. When you get to 61st level, multiply it by 4, and so on. I'm sure it'll break down eventually, but then I'm not setting out to create something that will scale to infinity.
"Off-stage" situations would be resolved using whichever multiple of d20 the DM decided was appropriate. Eg when deciding if a 1st level expert blacksmith succeeds in making masterwork armour, you might use the regular d20 roll on the Craft (armoursmithing) check. If you were deciding whether a 40th level epic archmage succeeds in making a Summon Epic Foozle spell, you might use 2d20 on the Spellcraft check.
You still get problems where characters can obtain insane bonuses on skills, saves, attacks or AC, but that's something that afflicts the ELH rules too.
A problem that I can see is deciding when to start doubling the d20 roll: eg if you have a party where one character has just made 21st level, and the others are still 20th or 19th (or lower). Perhaps you could make the switch as soon as one character has made the jump. Or perhaps you could delay it until all characters have made it.
I'm not particularly impressed by the ELH, but at the same time I wouldn't mind being able to keep playing characters past level 20. Instead of the various hacks that the ELH introduces to make epic-level play feasible, how would the following setup play out in practice?
- keep the existing level advancement per class, including BAB and save progressions. No more wonkiness like "epic levels", and whatnot.
- limit each character to 20 levels per class, or 10 levels per prestige class (thus if you go beyond 20th level, you'll have to have at least 2 classes). A character who is 21st level gets to choose one additional class as a favoured class.
- _multiply the d20 roll by 2_ for epic-level play. Thus attack rolls become (attack bonus + d20x2), skill checks become (skill bonus + d20x2), and saves become (save bonus + d20x2). This keeps d20's linear scaling from becoming unplayable.
As an alternative to doubling the d20 roll, you could halve all bonuses. This would lead to essentially the same results.
When you get to 41st level, multiply the d20 roll by 3. When you get to 61st level, multiply it by 4, and so on. I'm sure it'll break down eventually, but then I'm not setting out to create something that will scale to infinity.
"Off-stage" situations would be resolved using whichever multiple of d20 the DM decided was appropriate. Eg when deciding if a 1st level expert blacksmith succeeds in making masterwork armour, you might use the regular d20 roll on the Craft (armoursmithing) check. If you were deciding whether a 40th level epic archmage succeeds in making a Summon Epic Foozle spell, you might use 2d20 on the Spellcraft check.
You still get problems where characters can obtain insane bonuses on skills, saves, attacks or AC, but that's something that afflicts the ELH rules too.
A problem that I can see is deciding when to start doubling the d20 roll: eg if you have a party where one character has just made 21st level, and the others are still 20th or 19th (or lower). Perhaps you could make the switch as soon as one character has made the jump. Or perhaps you could delay it until all characters have made it.