My Game Went Epic Last Night

[the Jester]

Last night we played the first game with a 21st-level pc imc!!! And we was worked up all the way from first level back in the 2e days- in fact, he's the only surviving pc from game #1 of my campaign (Malford the Magnificent, for those who ready my story hour(s)).

Lemme tell ya, by the time the session's one battle started the party consisted of-

Malford (rogue 7/illusionist 13/ascendant 1)
Drelvin (fighter 6/order of the bow initiate 9)
Rex (monk 5/sorcerer 1/dragon disciple 10)
Ulla (druid 6/shifter 10)
Angelfire (psychic warrior 14/cleric 4/templar 1)


-plus an ally (paladin 6/hunter of the dead 10) and a gated solar.

They tore through a marilith and ten glabrezu like they were nothin'!

I'm very excited, now I get to throw them into Return to the Tomb of Horrors!!! (Does that make me a rat bastard? Well yeah.)

 

[rushlight]

Last night we played the first game with a 21st-level pc imc!!!

Cool! The game I run will be getting there in several weeks. We started back in 2e with "pre" first-level characters. Just like your game, there's only one original character left. I'll feel a sense of accomplishment once we cross that boundry. There's nothing like building from the ground up.

 

[Buddha the DM]

What is the Ascendant part of Malford's level listing?

 

[Voadam]

Last night we played the first game with a 21st-level pc imc!!! And we was worked up all the way from first level back in the 2e days- in fact, he's the only surviving pc from game #1 of my campaign (Malford the Magnificent, for those who ready my story hour(s)).

Lemme tell ya, by the time the session's one battle started the party consisted of-

Malford (rogue 7/illusionist 13/ascendant 1)
Drelvin (fighter 6/order of the bow initiate 9)
Rex (monk 5/sorcerer 1/dragon disciple 10)
Ulla (druid 6/shifter 10)
Angelfire (psychic warrior 14/cleric 4/templar 1)


-plus an ally (paladin 6/hunter of the dead 10) and a gated solar.

They tore through a marilith and ten glabrezu like they were nothin'!

I'm very excited, now I get to throw them into Return to the Tomb of Horrors!!! (Does that make me a rat bastard? Well yeah.)

cool, I'm playing my 2e converted character after energy drains he came back as 7th level and is now 12th on the verge of 13th. He went from 2e Fighter 3/mage 7 to rgr1/mnk1/wiz5 to rgr 1/mnk1/wiz5/hm(harper mage)3/lrm2 to now in 3.5 rgr1/wiz5/hm1/ek4.

Your party looks like it built up over time with multiclassing, I note that the 2 highest casters are the 13 levels of illusionist for Malford and angelfire's 14 levels of psychic warrior.

What do you set the typical threat CR for them?

 

[the Jester]

What is the Ascendant part of Malford's level listing?

It's a custom made prestige class. The rough draft is here; it needs some tuning up and more goodies in it. I'm reworking it at present. It's basically a 20-level epic prestige class that culminates in divine ascension.

 

[the Jester]

Your party looks like it built up over time with multiclassing, I note that the 2 highest casters are the 13 levels of illusionist for Malford and angelfire's 14 levels of psychic warrior.

What do you set the typical threat CR for them?

Definitely built up over time, though Ulla and Rex are new pcs.

The party's highest level casters are actually Orbius, a cohort (he's a caster level 19 diviner/divine oracle) and Horbin, an 18th or 19th level straight cleric. (Orbius will now be stuck 2 levels behind the pc to whom he's cohort, but the limit was previously one level behind, so he's a little ahead right now...) Neither were present for the fight, however.

The solar helped, though.

 

[Buddha the DM]

It's a custom made prestige class. The rough draft is here; it needs some tuning up and more goodies in it. I'm reworking it at present. It's basically a 20-level epic prestige class that culminates in divine ascension.

Coolness. I was wondering if anyone was going to try creating rules for Divine Ascension.

 

[Psion]

We tripped into epic level territory recently as well. Here's the PCs in my game:

• Andrinor: Human (dragon-touched template(1)) Sorcerer 20. Cocky blast-mage sorta guy.
• Meara: Sea Elf (2) Rogue 21. The brains of the party.
• Tallo: Half-dragon Psychic Warrior 18. (ECL 21) Ronin dragon-knight who wishes to see his liege released from the spell of a powerful sorceress.
  Tallo's Cohort - Drake - a Dragon Horse (3)
• Lark: Wood Elf Ranger 10 / Soul Archer (4) 10: Last remnant of a wood elf village slain by Drow. Out for revenge.
  Lark's Cohort - Eevertine: Water Elf (4) Cleric 12 (ECL 15), domains Water, Knowledge
• Trent: Dwarf Druid 10 / Bear Lord (5) 10. Seeking to avenge the drow experimenting on animals. (The character was a bit more effective than I thought he would be).
• Cora: Metal Elf (4) Monk 8 / Initiate of the Draconic Mysteries (6) 9 (ECL 20). A hapless prisoner of the dark elves.

(1) - From Quintessential Sorcerer, template takes one class level and gives some bennies like resistance to fire, claws, immunity to fear, intimidation bonus.
(2) - Not to be confused with aquatic elves; sea elves are a variant of high elves with specific racial options that pertain to their seafaring nature.
(3) - From Tome of Horrors, except with a better illustration, like the one on the front of the 1e Oriental Adventures.
(4) - From Green Ronin's Bow & Blade
(5) - From Masters of the Wild
(6) - From Draconomicon

This campaign started out as a 2e campaign, but all of the characters that were originally 2e characters are gone. Andrinor and Meara, however, were played from 4th level, a bit after 3e came out and we converted (in the infamous "sheep adventure".)

The campaign world I am using (and some major NPCs) dates from 1e.

Incidentally, my campaign also has an immortal prestige class as well, but it is immortal from the start -- but you need to be 40th level to apply. It's also based on on Chinese notions of the immortals, beings that wander the earth and do not ascend until all of them do. Essentially, they are rank 0 deities in 3e terms, with the ability to reincarnate in a new form whenever they are slain. Small catch - their soul incranates in a newly conceived foetus, and the immortal does not become aware of its status until its teenage years. No PC is this class in my game, but a major NPC is.

 

[Voadam]

We tripped into epic level territory recently as well. Here's the PCs in my game:

• Andrinor: Human (dragon-touched template(1)) Sorcerer 20. Cocky blast-mage sorta guy.
• Meara: Sea Elf (2) Rogue 21. The brains of the party.
• Tallo: Half-dragon Psychic Warrior 17. Ronin dragon-knight who wishes to see his liege released from the spell of a powerful sorceress.
  Tallo's Cohort - Drake - a Dragon Horse (3)
• Lark: Wood Elf Ranger 10 / Soul Archer (4) 10: Last remnant of a wood elf village slain by Drow. Out for revenge.
  Lark's Cohort - Eevertine: Water Elf (4) Cleric 12, domains Water, Knowledge
• Trent: Dwarf Druid 10 / Bear Lord (5) 10. Seeking to avenge the drow experimenting on animals. (The character was a bit more effective than I thought he would be).
• Cora: Metal Elf (4) Monk 8 / Initiate of the Draconic Mysteries (6) 9. A hapless prisoner of the dark elves.

(1) - From Quintessential Sorcerer, template takes one class level and gives some bennies like resistance to fire, claws, immunity to fear, intimidation bonus.
(2) - Not to be confused with aquatic elves; sea elves are a variant of high elves with specific racial options that pertain to their seafaring nature.
(3) - From Tome of Horrors, except with a better illustration, like the one on the front of the 1e Oriental Adventures.
(4) - From Green Ronin's Bow & Blade
(5) - From Masters of the Wild
(6) - From Draconomicon

This campaign started out as a 2e campaign, but all of the characters that were originally 2e characters are gone. Andrinor and Meara, however, were played from 4th level, a bit after 3e came out and we converted (in the infamous "sheep adventure".)

The campaign world I am using (and some major NPCs) dates from 1e.

Incidentally, my campaign also has an immortal prestige class as well, but it is immortal from the start -- but you need to be 40th level to apply. It's also based on on Chinese notions of the immortals, beings that wander the earth and do not ascend until all of them do. Essentially, they are rank 0 deities in 3e terms, with the ability to reincarnate in a new form whenever they are slain. Small catch - their soul incranates in a newly conceived foetus, and the immortal does not become aware of its status until its teenage years. No PC is this class in my game, but a major NPC is.

How long did it take for the PCs to get there? A lot of these sourcebooks came out not so long ago.

 

[Psion]

How long did it take for the PCs to get there? A lot of these sourcebooks came out not so long ago.

As I mentioned, this campaign has been run since before 3e came out, though none of them have been in the campaign that long. Andrinor and Meara have been around for 3 years, and started the game at 4th level.

Tallo's player's last PC was killed in a battle with a beefed up Marilith assassin/guildmaster (but not by the marilith, by a stray delayed blast fireball from the sorcerer.)

Lark was made a few months ago, Cora and Trent last week (new players). I typically bring in new characters at one level below the party average. In this case, that was 20th.

Two players that rotated out had a 20th level elven monk and a 21st level elven cleric. (My players are the elfy type...)

Correction to above: Tallo is 21st level as of last week (18th level Psychic Warrior, +3 level adjust for half-dragon).