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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7764126" data-attributes="member: 6696971">I don't read any Adventure Paths or Adventures or anything kindred.  The overwhelming majority of them (but not all of them), regardless of D&D edition or system, are examples of the worst sort of GMing possible.  They typically preconcieve endpoints in immediate scenarios and long-term campaigns and in-so-doing instruct and/or encourage GMs to deploy Force to achieve outcomes.  Further, the writing is typically either terrible for the system or incoherent with the primary themes of the system.Scenario Packs or premises, sure.  Adventures and APs.  Absolutely not.  What I do read is the GMing advice/principles and the game's play agenda.D&D 4e's DMGs are very clear on what Epic Tier is about and what you should be doing as GM:1)  "...characters have truly superheroic capabilities, and their deeds and adventures are the stuff of legend.  Ordinary people can hardly dream of such height's of power."2)  Regarding content, the instruction on Epic Tier tells GMs (as it does with Paragon Paths et al) to take cues from the players' Epic Destinies.  Relating to (2), here are a smattering of Epic Utilities that do not have any magic power source keywords (therefore, they aren't "magic-derived" in the D&D technical sense): - You call on the peace and calm that lives at the heart of the forest, where the Masters of the Verdant Silence meditate.- You steal a bit of magic to stow away on another creature’s teleportation.- The shadows seem to follow your every step.- You leap a phenomenal distance (doubling the earth human's record long or high jump distance).- Summoning the divine spark within you, you shrug off what might have been a debilitating effect.- Appearing from nowhere, a winged spirit steed carries you beside your foe.- You laugh at fate and slip through destiny’s fingers yet again.- A storm of disaster surrounds you, bringing doom to your foes.- By folding time and space, you create a rippling area of distortion with unpredictable effects.- Your word is the call of destiny leading your allies into legend.- You whisk yourself and all your allies to the astral seed that will one day become your dominion.- You focus your fragment of the essence of Heur-Ket into a wind that surrounds you, gives your movement flight, and grants windswept strength to your melee attacks.- When the brimstone smoke clears, a legion of devils awaits your command.- You force back the legions or your enemy, which allows you to focus your ire on the one you came to slay (zone of destrution and repulsion).- You have seen your future mapped out in the sky above, and you know you won’t falter now.- You twist fate as the storms of disjunction coil through the Elemental Chaos.- For a moment, your mind slips back into memories of a past life, and you adopt a fighting style forged across hundreds of deaths.- You deftly lay your hand upon the object of your desire and it vanishes, whisked away to the place you determine.- Two powerful hounds appear, growling thunder at your prey. They start circling it to cut off any escape.D&D 4e's Epic Tier has been routinely derided by detractors as "Superheroes" because of these things above. Until now I suppose?Note that 5's level 17-20 Epic Tier advice cribs 4e's (1) exactly, though doesn't follow through as (a) there are no Epic Destinies to take heed of, (b) there are no actual superheroic abilities for martial characters that are non-magic (like the 4e utilities above) to guide content generation/genre tropes, and there is no attendant advice to look to the absent (a) and (b) for content generation.  Further still, contrast the second sentence of (1) above with the design impetus (and related impacts on play) of bounded accuracy (which strives to keep low tier obstacles/threats relevant at endgame play).</blockquote>

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