Epic

[Superj3nius]

well I am going to begin DMing an Epic lv campain with my friends none of us have done this weve always wondered what it would be like to play a Epic Campain. so whats it like? any suggestions for campain starters? anything much diferent than normal D&D?

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Like playing Exalted or high point-value HERO, except much, much slower and clunkier, and with D&D rules sort of still applying. :\

On the plus side, many of the Epic Level Handbook monsters are really evocative.

 

[Crothian]

It is all in the way you want to play it. It can be like the lower levels with bigger numbers, it can be like Exalted or Hero, it can be a lot of things. Epic just means over 20th level and all the book gave us was just bigger numbers. They really didn't try to make it any different.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

Our group is in the middle of an Epic Level Campaign that we started at first level.

The first big thing that we've noticed is that fights take forever. Depending on the length of the session I would say two fights max. Even then that can go very long if "something goes horribly wrong" for the PCs.

There are a lot of outright immunities at this level as well, so while it may be cool to have a Fire Magic or an Acid Caster you want to be sure not to focus too tightly or the wrong critter/armor enhancement will take you right out the fight.

We are using the RPGA wealth system for equipment. We are at level 23 - 25 and because of the x10 multiplier on magic item prices we don't have much in the way of epic gear. Feats? Yes, we have some of those. Epic Toys? No. Really now, what difference will a +6 armor make over a +5 or a +8 Gloves of DEX over a +6. While these may be boring items you might want to just give a few out or add an extra ability to a weapon (making it
EPIC!!1!) so the players are using the Epic Toys and not worry about the cash for an item or two.

 

[Arkham]

Combats are apallingly slow, my high-level Hero campaigns have faster combats.
The array of immunities feels like playing Rock-Paper-Scissors, except you have 12 options, only one of which will help for this fight.
Don't let a cleric take Ignore Material Components unless you want their death to be the only death that matters.

Aside from those, most of which start creeping in at higher sub-epic levels anyway, it plays pretty much the same.

 

[paradox42]

The differences from "normal D&D" depend on what, precisely, you consider "normal." So let's find that out: how high in level have your previous games gone, and what sorts of house rules and/or non-core material (i.e. everything besides the Big Three of the PHB, DMG, and Monster Manual 1) have you used?