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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mordikenn" data-source="post: 6074367" data-attributes="member: 6704716">I toyed around with creating my own set of epic rules for a long time because I disliked the ELH so much for 3rd edition... After a while and play testing it with a variety of characters I realized a few things from simply a math standpoint: item bonuses get ridiculous if you let them scale up past their regular maximum values.  This throws off ALL KINDS of things about the system.  Even with the x10 epic gold modifier (which I didn't want to use at first, but eventually did), it only delays the inevitable.  The difference between having a particular item and not having one is character-breaking... If you have a Masterwork sword as opposed to a +3 sword your character can still function, but if you have a Masterwork sword as opposed to a +10 vorpal sword your character is intensely crippled.  It'd be surprising for them to deal 1/3rd of the damage they normally could.  It applies to every item with a static bonus in epic levels, especially Cloak of Resistance.  The die range for failing a save is usually somewhere from 1-8 or 1-10, and you have to keep it there as the monsters advance with players so their poison/ breath weapon/ etc doesn't become laughable or too deadly.  The problem is that you have to balance it around the characters having a +10 or +13 cloak of resistance now, so if a character chooses ANY OTHER SORT of cloak, they will start failing all of their saves without exception.It can really benefit your game to simply limit items to their regular bonus maximums forever.  It feels lame though, especially to the players.There's also a real strain on development time because you have to make an appealing option for every character.  Some things don't scale at all into epic levels, like anything that deals a static number of damage dice (some special abilities and especially environmental effects like fire and falling).  I ended up making more than sixty epic feats, and this was for 3.5 where there weren't as diverse roles for characters.Caster scaling is something that needs to be addressed, because leaving them with level 9 spells doesn't scale at all.  Their lower level spells become useless, and eventually level 9 spells become useless (especially nukes).  In Neverwinter Nights 2, in epic levels they let casters have a static +1 spell save DC for every 3 levels over 20 which works out pretty well mathematically.  They still didn't solve the caster level limit on spells or allow higher level than 9th spells.  Level 10 and higher spells require a lot of development and playtesting, if you go that way, so I don't recommend it.  Simply giving them higher level spell slots to metamagic into is probably the easiest solution that doesn't have too many bad consequences.  You may also need to let Intensify Spell stack (I forget whether it already does or not).Good luck working on your system, I eventually decided I probably wouldn't ever use mine above level 25 despite all the time and balancing I put into it.</blockquote>

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