Epic Multiclass Characters: Does 20 total levels count as epic?

[delericho]

Yep, nOObdragon has it right - the word 'level' in the Epic Fighter class description refers to class level.

 

[Quartz]

Sorry, with Epic, everything changes. With your rule nobody intending to go Epic would multiclass or even take a Prestige Class. Let's take two characters, Eric and Fred. Eric is a 20th level Fighter and Fred is a 10th level Fighter / 10th level Knight Protector. Both are BAB 20 etc. For 21st level, both take levels in Fighter. Eric is now a 21st level Fighter and Fred an 11th level Fighter / 10th level Knight Protector. Both take Epic feats for being level 21. So far so good. Both now take their 22nd level in Fighter. Eric is now a 22nd level Fighter and Fred a 12th level Fighter / 10th level Knight Protector. Are you really going to deny Fred an Epic feat when Eric takes one?

 

[n00bdragon]

Yes? That's what the rules say to do. The idea is to reward monoclassing. In theory at least. The fact that either of them is playing a non-casting class makes the entire thing moot but that's what the rules state. As always, you're free to do things however you want at your table.

 

[Quartz]

Yes? That's what the rules say to do.

Except they don't.

 

[delericho]

Sorry, with Epic, everything changes.

Some things change, not everything. And where the class descriptions say "level", they mean "class level".

With your rule nobody intending to go Epic would multiclass or even take a Prestige Class.

A feature, not a bug.

However, I have looked again at the ELH, and there is something that cast significant doubt on my interpretation. From p.8, under the heading, "Adding a Second Class":

"All class descriptions provide a list of bonus feats that characters must choose from. When you have to choose from a list of bonus feats in your second class, you can also choose from the bonus epic feats described for each specific class below."

 

[n00bdragon]

Hmm, that's an interesting thing to point out [MENTION=22424]delericho[/MENTION], one with very strange implications that would cause [MENTION=40552]Quartz[/MENTION] to be (sort of) right, but not limited to that at all. If that's accurate the monk of all classes can choose any of his epic bonus feats at level 1 and 2 if he takes those feats in epic. It's so weird I'm almost convinced it's a typo as it would then become trivial to create a character who could get an epic bonus feat (or two) at every single epic level.

Then again, this is the ELH we're talking about here, one of the most notoriously broken, untested, and unusable supplements ever written for 3e.