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Truth. I'm not quite going for that; I think the best way to implement that approach would be to treat glass swords as minor artifacts that dealt some obscene amount of bonus damage (somewhere in the hundreds) with a single blow, and encourage the DM to place them near situations where she knew...

(Inspired by the Ultima CRPGs. Note that the rules assume that the weapon's base damage die is 1d8; if you use 3.5e weapon sizing rules, assume that these rules only apply to Medium versions of the weapon, which might be the only versions that exist.) Glass sword: A glass sword is a +5...

Nyaricus: The numbers all go to 100. Look, right across the board, 100, 100, 100 and... Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most systems go up to 20? Nyaricus: Exactly. Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's more epic? Is it any more epic? Nyaricus: Well, it's eighty higher, isn't it? It's not twenty. You...

See, I thought that was one of the few things the ELH did really well. Hundred-armed abominations spawned from the corrupted blood of deities? What's not to like?

Not only broken (never make a class with nonstandard attack bonuses and saves), but also pointless, because you can represent a phalanx soldier perfectly well as a fighter who chooses feats appropriate for his style of combat. Given the importance of bonus feats in the class's progression, this...

I'd actually have an epic system in the general mold of OD&D (where there was an absolute cap at 36th level, at which point the only thing to do was try to become a god), in the sense that I'd pay a lot of attention to the kinds of stories you can tell about very, very powerful characters, and...

This looks like a really specialized book, and sixty bucks seems absurd. Even the book is gorgeously presented and perfectly balanced, would having huge amounts of information about predatory animals really improve most games? I think most people pay for utility -- quality products are...

Look at the wizard. After years of dedicated study, he's mastered eldritch secrets that lesser minds can't even dream about. Look at the fighter. He's a master of a broad range of weapons and armor, who can quickly learn any fighting style he puts his mind to. Look at the rogue. He's clever...

It's a reference to the best version of epic rules D&D ever had.

Wow. This is really excellent. I'm not sure if it's balanced -- I suspect the only way to determine that is with lots of playtesting -- but it certainly doesn't seem broken at first glance, and it's certainly a very appealing take on classic fantasy spellcasting.

I'd have alignment, but include variant rules in the DMG for playing without it. I think I'd move away from the increasing importance placed on alignments you see in the BoED or Magic of Incarnum, though, and try to emphasize moral complexity and ambiguity.

Okay, so there've been a range of responses, and people don't seem to agree whether I'd be giving or taking away too much. I thought I'd clarify the original post by talking a bit about what I think the current version of the cleric does right, and what it does wrong. I think it's good that the...

As follows. Remove divine favor, divine power, and righteous might from the cleric spell list. Remove proficiency with heavy armor. Increase skill points per level to 4 + Int modifier. Add Knowledge (local) and Sense Motive to the list of cleric class skills.Thus, the "buff and bash" cleric is...

The archivist? Best new class I've seen in a WotC book. It might just replace the cleric in any campaign I run, horror-themed or not. (Though perhaps I'd change the name, and base spellcasting on Wisdom instead of Intelligence.)

These builds are not optimal builds in either case. When you're balancing prestige classes, you need to consider the strongest character, within reason, you could create using the prestige class. Otherwise, you won't know if it's possible to use the class to break the system. So, Kristavas is...

It's not clear in the rules whether unarmed strikes are natural weapons. However, it seems plausible that if slam attacks are natural weapons, and can be improved with the Improved Natural Attack feat, then unarmed strikes can too. But, again, I think there is nothing in the rules that takes...

"Starting over" is what keeps the war mind balanced. The required ranks in Knowledge (psionics) mean that it's very difficult to qualify for war mind with most non-psionic classes, so almost all warminds have some levels in a manifesting class that don't do them much good. This makes sense...

I think it's actually probably best to use the standard rules for determining weapon proficiencies from classes, but to apply feats like Weapon Focus or Exotic Weapon Proficiency to groups.

It's not as famous, but the single best fight scene in any movie I've ever seen was the extended spear duel between Toshiro Mifune and (I think) Susumu Fujita in The Hidden Fortress, the movie Lucas famously ripped off for Star Wars. Watch it; you'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time.

Really weak, although True Mastery is interesting. But being able to cast a few spells at one level lower, one spell as a spell-like ability, and spells with one free weak metamagic feat is not worth seven levels of caster progression. Not even close. I'd provide spellcasting progression at all...