ZombieRoboNinja
First Post
After reading the new magic items Design & Development article, I'm starting to dig the separation between heroic, paragon and epic level-ranges in 4e. It seems like it'll be a very useful breakdown for DMs especially:
At heroic levels, the party is basically a very capable group of people. They have magic at their disposal, but mostly of a tactical nature, so when faced with an obstacle, you can expect them to respond with a "realistic" solution. If you stick a locked gate in front of them, they'll try to unlock it or force it open. If you put a sheer cliff in front of them, they'll try to scale it or find a way around. If you put a quest objective 1000 miles away, they'll buy some horses or find a ship.
At paragon levels, the party is starting to move beyond "realism" at a strategic level. Faced with that locked door, the druid might melt the wall next to it, or the warlock might just teleport to the other side, or the warrior might just go berserk and bend open the steel bars. That sheer cliff? They'll fly over it or just teleport to the other side. Need that Holy Widget in Timbuktu? One teleportation ritual, coming up.
In this range, the party can be expected to overcome pretty much any mundane (non-magical) challenge. It'll take some devious DMing and careful use of magic to create dangerous strategic challenges for them.
Finally, the epic range. Here's where the party is so incredibly powerful that pretty much nothing on the Prime Material plane is gonna make them pause. By this point, the DM is just trying to create the most impossible challenges ever and watching as the PCs somehow pull through.
I don't think I'm saying anything new here, but I really think the hero-paragon distinction especially will be nice. There is a lot of "bleed-through" here in current editions, where, for example, a wizard with the right spells available can trivialize a high cliff at level 5, but if he happens to take the night off, the party's kinda screwed. Adventure creation, especially of premade modules where you can't know in advance the specific party makeup you're up against, might be a lot better off for this more specific delineation.
At heroic levels, the party is basically a very capable group of people. They have magic at their disposal, but mostly of a tactical nature, so when faced with an obstacle, you can expect them to respond with a "realistic" solution. If you stick a locked gate in front of them, they'll try to unlock it or force it open. If you put a sheer cliff in front of them, they'll try to scale it or find a way around. If you put a quest objective 1000 miles away, they'll buy some horses or find a ship.
At paragon levels, the party is starting to move beyond "realism" at a strategic level. Faced with that locked door, the druid might melt the wall next to it, or the warlock might just teleport to the other side, or the warrior might just go berserk and bend open the steel bars. That sheer cliff? They'll fly over it or just teleport to the other side. Need that Holy Widget in Timbuktu? One teleportation ritual, coming up.
In this range, the party can be expected to overcome pretty much any mundane (non-magical) challenge. It'll take some devious DMing and careful use of magic to create dangerous strategic challenges for them.
Finally, the epic range. Here's where the party is so incredibly powerful that pretty much nothing on the Prime Material plane is gonna make them pause. By this point, the DM is just trying to create the most impossible challenges ever and watching as the PCs somehow pull through.
I don't think I'm saying anything new here, but I really think the hero-paragon distinction especially will be nice. There is a lot of "bleed-through" here in current editions, where, for example, a wizard with the right spells available can trivialize a high cliff at level 5, but if he happens to take the night off, the party's kinda screwed. Adventure creation, especially of premade modules where you can't know in advance the specific party makeup you're up against, might be a lot better off for this more specific delineation.
