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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shin Okada" data-source="post: 4947727" data-attributes="member: 1956">Sorry for posting rather a long story.Now our play group is playing Bastion of Broken Soul, a 3.0e adventure for 18th-level party. I replaced a lot of critters to suite 3.5e rules and the power level of the PCs who are using later 3.5e supplements (naturally, a little bit stronger and tougher than PCs created only by core rules). But anyway, the basic structure of the adventure is the same, and the encounter levels of each encounter relative to the party strength is kept as close to the original adventure. This will meant be a kind of our farewell campaign for 3.Xe D&D.Depends on how they will play the adventure, some of the character may hit Epic Level, maybe a 21th-22th level at best and no more, though.Now I am wondering if I should introduce Epic rules or not. And basically, I hesitate to do it because of several reasons.1) I do not like the 3.Xe epic rule much. It seems not so well-balanced. And there be some issues like, say, if you multiclass, taking lower BAB classes after hitting epic will make you stronger in many way. For example, if you achieve Duskblade 10/Dragon Disciple 10 before hitting Epic, you start from +17 BAB and then gains Epic level BAB bonuses. On the other hand, if you fill the first 20 levels only with full-BAB classes, you can start from +20 BAB and then gain Epic level BAB bonuses, regardless of the original BAB progression of the classes. I saw the latter builds (such as Paladin 20/Sorcerer 1/Dragon Disciple 10/then something) in power gaming Neverwinter Nights builds and being sick of it.2) Some of the classes the current PCs playing are not supported by official materials (including SRD). Namely, Duskblade, Scout & Warmage in our current party.3) Some of the Epic feats, such as Devastating Critical, changes the theory of character building. Most warriors don't take Great Cleave and Improved Critical during their career. But if I introduce epic rules, that feat tree suddenly becomes a must-have for weapon wielders, for taking Devastating Critical. Also, it will suddenly make weapons with wider threat range (scimitars and a like) much obvious choice.4) I must suddenly introduce and describe all the epic feats and such.On the other hand, if I do not introduce epic progression, the majority of characters have no use for their "overflowed" XPs. Mages and Clerics can use XPs for casting spells with XP components (Alter Fortune, Gate, Limited Wish, Miracle, Wish, and so on). But other characters can't. So if they once hit 190,000XP, any more XPs gaind are .... useless.PHB 2 web enhancement introduced the way to use non-caster's XP for creating magic items. But that is not useful in this case, as PCs have no down time to create magic items during that adventure (especially those stronger enough for their needs). Magic items of this level take months to create.Preferably, I don't want to use Epic rules, Creating my own home-brewed rules for non-core classes are a burden to me. Also, it seems unfair to suddenly introduce Epic level rules at this stage (we were not truly expending this when started this campaign).Are there any good suggestions to continue this campaign without much effort (for a DM) and still satisfy all the players?FYI, the PC members of my current campaign are,Human Cleric 17Human Duskblade 18Deep Halfling Warmage 15/Luckstealer 3Warforged Duskblade 2/Paladin 3/Dragon Disciple 10/Pious Templar of Bahamut 3 (or maybe Templar 2/Fighter 1)Half-Elf Sorcerer 10/Abjurant Champion 5/Ruathar 3Human Cleric 11/Combat Medic 5 (Duskblade's Cohort)</blockquote>

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