[EPIC LEVEL HANDBOOK] I'm scared

[Kai Lord]

The Epic Level Handbook is just perfect for me. I don't need some author holding my hand and telling me how to create "epic themes" and larger than life adventures. I've been doing that on my own for decades. I'm glad the book subsists mostly of skills, feats, prestige classes, magic and monsters. That's what I need. Official "crunchy bits."

For the first time in the history of D&D, my sadistically powerful evil wizards and entities can contort reality on the fly to satisfy their desires...using the official rules. Sweet.

 

[WildWeasel]

I think part of the "soulless" nature of the ELH is the fact that it is a generic book, and what person A wants to do with an epic level game is wildly different than person B.

It's also a continuation of the (kinda annoying) 3e trend that they don't really need to give oodles of advice like that, cause their players are either A) the kids just getting into RPGs from playing D2 and such, where pages of exposition on the art of gaming would be totally lost or B) old school gamers you've read stuff like this over and over. Yeah, there is a bit of a middle ground, but with the Internet and more and more gaming stores and communities, that' shrinking a bit.

 

[Psion]

I don't think ELH is totally soulless. As I said earlier: look at the monster. "Worm that walks". That's just cool!

But yeah, the classes and feats strike me as "more of the same." Not sure what could have been different, though. I mean, every time you get a new supplement, there are loads of prestige classes that grab my attention by the sheer coolness of the concept. But if you think about it, that really isn't the ELH's job when it comes to classes. They really want to play it straight there.

FWIW, I thought the epic prestige classes in the dragon were more inspired than the ones in the ELH.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I don't think ELH is totally soulless. As I said earlier: look at the monster. "Worm that walks". That's just cool!

It is, indeed, cool.

It's also straight out of Call of Cthulhu.

(Note: That's not inherently a bad thing. I'd love to see D&D borrow even more from Lovecraft. But it's still worth noting.)

 

[Kai Lord]

It is, indeed, cool.

It's also straight out of Call of Cthulhu.

(Note: That's not inherently a bad thing. I'd love to see D&D borrow even more from Lovecraft. But it's still worth noting.)

Just out of curiousity, why is it worth noting?

 

[Lady Dragon]

I will start by saying that I really like ELH.I think it is becoming a victim of all the hype,and people thinking it must be the greatest book ever.

It is basically the 3 corebooks on steroids.It is a rulebook and it is unfair to compare it to Books like Rokugan or OA since they are primarily setting books that talk about people,places and cultures and all the epic level handbook talks about is high level gaming.

I think it has some really remarkable monsters and the spell system is great.I am really hoping that they hurry up and make this book open game content because I would really like to see this remarkable book see some kind of support in the form of both published adventures and more epic crunchy bits,especially since I doubt wizards will support it themselves.There track record is bad,they never supported the high-level book in 2nd edition either.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

I sincerely hope they make the Epic Level Rulebook into Open Content for the D20 System.

 

[William Ronald]

I think it would be great to make it Open Content immediately.

I would LOVE to see an Epic Level and non-epic level treatment of heroes from myth and legend. It would also be great is someone could do a book much like Dragon Magazine's old "Giants in the Earth" series about heroes from fiction, legend, folklore, and myth.

Okay, it would probably require a little effort to secure the rights from publishers for fictional characters but it would be worth it. I learned about a few good characters and the books that they appeared in from the Giants in the Earth feature.

 

[BairnFley]

Epic LevelHandbook = Waste of $40

Alright after getting the book on Friday and breifly looking at it, right off the back we see the following:

- Classes have no new tricks, just a continuation of stuff they know. We were looking for more class exclusive stuff, not just an increase to the mundane class abilities.

- The feats, just add a few over the top amount of ranks for a requirement and a Ability score of 23 and get an ANOTHER improvement to a pre-exisiting item. Why, USELESS!!!!

- Monster, yeah you can see the Lovecraft taste in some of the monsters (we see only one though), however, when you stack abilities upon abilities, and seem for no reason, what the hell?

- Spells. We were hoping that they would be the Salvation of the book. After skipping, than reading the spell section, we were basically appalled. In disbelief at one reason the example they give is a Wizard of 64th level. Wow. That person must really, really love his character. We couldn't comprhend that. Also where is the challenge in fights at such a level? What level would you have to be out to cast Epic Spells with a DC of 319 and 419? No thank you.

Time to take the book back to the store.

BairnFley

 

[tsadkiel]

The Epic book needs to invent the idea of the Epic Rogue, maybe also the Epic Ranger, and then sell it to us.

The trouble with identifying Epic Rogues is that they tend to be gods - Loki, et al, are very good examples, but invoking all the trickster deities in the world seems like cheating. One could argue that Oddyseus is an epic rogue. Autolycus (Oddyseus' grandfather, not the one from Xena) certainly qualifies. Brer rabbit. Mister Punch (he has sneak attack and demonstrates epic levels of the bluff skill.) Dural, culture hero of the Dakeen.