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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 1915291" data-attributes="member: 1757">In short, I'll just disagree with this. This is the sort of situation that should only crop up if the DM just goes out and buys the ELH when his PCs hit 21st level. "Epic" skill uses and other aspects of play should be found earlier than 20th level.Given what I've heard about AE, and what I've experienced from AU (I use the AU magic system and several other good bits IMC), I can well believe this is true! I'm excited for some alt.epic rules, and I'm sure they'll be well-done. Quite jealous that you got to playtest them...Back to topic: 1) Style of play. I think TheBadElf hit it on the head: Epic (or even near-epic) D&D play stylistically resembles JLA or the Authority much more than it does LotR or Conan. Expect even complex and multi-stage adventure scenarios to be completed in mere days or even hours of game time. Use action-packed framing with MTV-style cuts from scene to scene, limit description to relevant details, and assume that the environment, buildings, traps, and even mooks will be largely there for flavor unless they are exceptional in the extreme (different gravity and time traits, etc.). Make the PCs use those teleportation and divination abilities! IMC, I generally pitch combats to consume 50% or more of the party's resources; if I were to go with the standard 20-30% of a CR = EPL encounter, they'd just teleport, plane shift, or even astrally project home, heal up, regain spells, and head back in. Combats ideally should be composed as one-per-game-session set pieces where the PCs have to let fly with all their abilities or die horribly. Evoking feelings of wonder, dread, and menace becomes very important at these levels, since combat is such an all-or-nothing situation.2) As WizarDru said, tailor challenges (and XP awards) directly to your party. Each PC party has its strengths and weaknesses. The problem at epic levels is that "strength" equals immunity (defense) or ability to destroy instantly (offense), and "weakness" equals deadly vulnerability, since anything that targets a PC's vulnerability and comes from an epic monster or NPC is likely to result in quick death. Picking monsters out of the ELH is simply not workable for these situations; an atropal, for instance, is murder on PCs not protected from ability and level drain, but (relatively) easy meat for a party loaded with positive energy spells. I recommend that if you use a challenge that directly exploits a serious party weakness, you set that challenge substantially below the party's level in terms of CR, and throw in a different monster or two that the PCs can combat with some more effectiveness. Otherwise, you'll have a nuke fight on your hands. Generally, mixed groups of monsters are the most effective. 3) House rules are your friend. I had the good fortune to start my 3e game after the ELH came out (we converted PCs from 2e who required epic rules to play, so I put converting our game on hold until we had official rules). Many of my house rules are influenced by epic considerations; for instance, heal/harm, mind blank, shape change, disjunction, teleportation, and true seeing, among others, work much differently IMC, as do skill-boost items. 3.5 has fixed many of the problems I encountered, but more (disjunction!) are out there. In particular, I've found that moving from all-or-nothing mechanics (like 3e mind blank) are simply less interesting at epic levels that opposed mechanics (like AU mental protection, for instance). 4) Epic Spellcasting. Eesh. I will disagree with the conventional wisdom here that ES is completely useless given the huge XP and GP requirements; I find that it's useless for many applications (for example, dealing damage or summoning creatures) and incredibly useful (read: broken) for buffing. Even "low-epic" characters can get high double-digit AC bonuses, casting stat bonuses, and other scary and difficult stuff for nice low research and casting DCs. Likewise, it's pretty easy to use ES to ward oneself against all sorts of attacks using the reflect and ward seeds. I think that generally, the numbers require a complete revamp. Until then, I've just moved the skill prereqs for ES up to Spellcraft 33 ranks and Knowledge (arcana) 33 ranks, meaning I have five or so levels worth of advancement before my PCs worry about it.</blockquote>

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