I just dmed my first epic game, and I thought I'd share some of the lessons I learned from the experience. The game was 25th level, although I had never run higher than a 9th level game before- But I had a week's worth of preparation so I got ready.
1) Take into careful consideration the number of players. While in low level games, 5 players instead of 4 doesn't effect the CR's too much, at this level with one more character its a brand new ballgame. Feel free to raise the overall ECL's of your encounters by a good bit when you have more than 4 pcs.
2) Don't give the players anything. At low levels, I often feel obligated to give enough clues so that they can work out the plot. At these levels, they have so many contacts and divinations at their disposal that I should be able to give them just one random attack with virtually no clues and they should be able to figure it out. This is epic after all.
3) Covering your weaknesses is far better than enhancing your strengths. At epic levels, a character's inherent weaknesses really start to show through- and they are fatal. Your monster may be doing 300 damage a round, but if he has little or no SR he's one temporal stasis from death. This goes for the players too.
4) Disjunction is THE most broken spell I have ever seen concieved. No SR, and no dispel check. Its a large area, and instantly ALL your spells and equipment are dispelled. And of course, it can permanently take away your magic items. That one million gold rod is gone in seconds, and unless your playing insane treasure games- it won't be easily replaced. PCs depend on their equipment so badly, without it they are inherently weaker than any near equal CR monsters, and often weaker than CR's 4 or 5 lower. If you use it, you risk permantely crippling your party. If they use it, it risks you using it- and it will almost always be worse for them. My I offer the following suggestions for dealing with disjunction.
a) Ban it outright.
b) Give a good in game reason for only sporradic use of it. For instance, you are permanently destroying a lot of magic. That could very well anger the gods of magic, something no body usually wants (unless you've gotten to 40th or so level
c) Make the permanent effect only a day or so. Then the party is severely weakened for a while- but at least they don't start from scratch.
5) Unless you play the rule where mind blank blocks discern location (which thankfully it does in 3.5) your big bosses are going to be found out quick. If the party ever sees him or gets a name, prepare for them to be knocking on his door. Also, be very careful with having an enemy take a player's possesion. If that object has ever been touched by the spellcaster, the party just found out where the bad guy hid it, as well as perhaps his treasure stash or secret hideout.
6) Be very careful with epic spells, especially the ones that cover a player's weaknesses. Immunity to certain key spells and certain kinds of damage combined with a little bit of magic and that player can become very hard to kill.
7) Epic characters are still only very strong while together. Isolated they can be easy prey.
8) Be careful when using outsiders. 25th level casters can banish or dismissal them very easily. For higher levels outsiders its often not a problem to get back, but that's either an action (gate) or two actions (plane shift then teleport) to return.
9) The prismatic spells can hurt!!
10) Some tips to make combats last longer, as they are often very short in epic games:
a) Its all about the hitpoints. If your guy doesn't have 300+ hp or a really really high AC, fighters will maul him quick.
b) Teleport in, don't move in. This allows those big melee hitters a chance before they get killed from range. Also a quickened TP is the easiest way to get a surprise round on the party (and vise versa).
c) Keep bringing new guys in, don't drop them in all at once. This allows you to keep hammering away.
d) Certain "offensive" protection spells can be useful as delayers, giving the enemy time to buff. Otiluke's Resilient Sphere and Forcecage give near complete protection, allowing a spellcaster to heal itself and buff itself, or at worse draw one more spell for the pcs before it dies.
e) In master's of the wild, there's a druid spell called last breath that can bring someone back from the dead as standard action. Doing that combined with a heal spell, and the character can be good to go again.
f) Having an enemy use the Epic Feat Spellstowaway [Heal or Mass Heal] can make the combat much more intense. Everytime the party gets a heal spell, so does the monster.
11) Always give your more important enemies an escape plan. A team of two wizards or sorcs scrying on your guy can quicken teleport without error (either through higher slots or metamagic rods) or gate to your guy, and then plane shift him out- allowing him to live another day.
12) There are things far worse then death. Get your intelligent creatures in the habit of capturing not killing the pcs. Pcs fear that far more than death, because true res can't do a thing. Spells like temporal stasis or imprisonment can do take out a pc more longer than death can.
13) Use the pc's rep against them. Epic characters are often well known, meaning where they live, who they care about, and their tactics may be easy knowledge to acquire.
14) Mirror of Opposition- always a great way to give it back to the players.
15) Make sure to give each character plenty of spotlight. At this point, every character should be damn good at something, so make sure they get a chance to show it.
1) Take into careful consideration the number of players. While in low level games, 5 players instead of 4 doesn't effect the CR's too much, at this level with one more character its a brand new ballgame. Feel free to raise the overall ECL's of your encounters by a good bit when you have more than 4 pcs.
2) Don't give the players anything. At low levels, I often feel obligated to give enough clues so that they can work out the plot. At these levels, they have so many contacts and divinations at their disposal that I should be able to give them just one random attack with virtually no clues and they should be able to figure it out. This is epic after all.
3) Covering your weaknesses is far better than enhancing your strengths. At epic levels, a character's inherent weaknesses really start to show through- and they are fatal. Your monster may be doing 300 damage a round, but if he has little or no SR he's one temporal stasis from death. This goes for the players too.
4) Disjunction is THE most broken spell I have ever seen concieved. No SR, and no dispel check. Its a large area, and instantly ALL your spells and equipment are dispelled. And of course, it can permanently take away your magic items. That one million gold rod is gone in seconds, and unless your playing insane treasure games- it won't be easily replaced. PCs depend on their equipment so badly, without it they are inherently weaker than any near equal CR monsters, and often weaker than CR's 4 or 5 lower. If you use it, you risk permantely crippling your party. If they use it, it risks you using it- and it will almost always be worse for them. My I offer the following suggestions for dealing with disjunction.
a) Ban it outright.
b) Give a good in game reason for only sporradic use of it. For instance, you are permanently destroying a lot of magic. That could very well anger the gods of magic, something no body usually wants (unless you've gotten to 40th or so level
c) Make the permanent effect only a day or so. Then the party is severely weakened for a while- but at least they don't start from scratch.
5) Unless you play the rule where mind blank blocks discern location (which thankfully it does in 3.5) your big bosses are going to be found out quick. If the party ever sees him or gets a name, prepare for them to be knocking on his door. Also, be very careful with having an enemy take a player's possesion. If that object has ever been touched by the spellcaster, the party just found out where the bad guy hid it, as well as perhaps his treasure stash or secret hideout.
6) Be very careful with epic spells, especially the ones that cover a player's weaknesses. Immunity to certain key spells and certain kinds of damage combined with a little bit of magic and that player can become very hard to kill.
7) Epic characters are still only very strong while together. Isolated they can be easy prey.
8) Be careful when using outsiders. 25th level casters can banish or dismissal them very easily. For higher levels outsiders its often not a problem to get back, but that's either an action (gate) or two actions (plane shift then teleport) to return.
9) The prismatic spells can hurt!!
10) Some tips to make combats last longer, as they are often very short in epic games:
a) Its all about the hitpoints. If your guy doesn't have 300+ hp or a really really high AC, fighters will maul him quick.
b) Teleport in, don't move in. This allows those big melee hitters a chance before they get killed from range. Also a quickened TP is the easiest way to get a surprise round on the party (and vise versa).
c) Keep bringing new guys in, don't drop them in all at once. This allows you to keep hammering away.
d) Certain "offensive" protection spells can be useful as delayers, giving the enemy time to buff. Otiluke's Resilient Sphere and Forcecage give near complete protection, allowing a spellcaster to heal itself and buff itself, or at worse draw one more spell for the pcs before it dies.
e) In master's of the wild, there's a druid spell called last breath that can bring someone back from the dead as standard action. Doing that combined with a heal spell, and the character can be good to go again.
f) Having an enemy use the Epic Feat Spellstowaway [Heal or Mass Heal] can make the combat much more intense. Everytime the party gets a heal spell, so does the monster.
11) Always give your more important enemies an escape plan. A team of two wizards or sorcs scrying on your guy can quicken teleport without error (either through higher slots or metamagic rods) or gate to your guy, and then plane shift him out- allowing him to live another day.
12) There are things far worse then death. Get your intelligent creatures in the habit of capturing not killing the pcs. Pcs fear that far more than death, because true res can't do a thing. Spells like temporal stasis or imprisonment can do take out a pc more longer than death can.
13) Use the pc's rep against them. Epic characters are often well known, meaning where they live, who they care about, and their tactics may be easy knowledge to acquire.
14) Mirror of Opposition- always a great way to give it back to the players.
15) Make sure to give each character plenty of spotlight. At this point, every character should be damn good at something, so make sure they get a chance to show it.
