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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5393083" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't entirely agree with this - see below.I don't disagree with this, but I'd probably put it slightly differently.To my mind, the way that 4e differs from earlier editions is by having a mechanically built-in endgame. This is manifested in the mechanical scaling, which requires distinctive high-level threats if the game is to play in a mechanically sensible fashion. This is a marked difference from AD&D, for example, where (as has often been noted) AC and damage don't tend to vary so dramatically across the range of levels, either for PCs or their opponents.But the endgame is also manifested in the thematic aspects of the mechanics - epic destinies, the nature, origin and backstory of epic tier monsters, and so on. And this is a signficant difference not only from AD&D but from 3E as well.1st ed AD&D has a mechanically built-in end game, namely, name level. But as Barastrondo has pointed out, this is an endgame which plays out in the world, without necessarily having the other-planar/mythic dimensions that are almost an essential feature of 4e Epic tier. In 3E, which has no endgame, it is possible to add build NPCs and/or add classes/templates onto monsters like giants in order to locate even a high level game more-or-less in the world. But the way 4e is built forces things in a different direction (unless a group does the work to come up with all non-mythic epic destinies, all non-mythic epci monsters, etc - but I think that would be a lot of work).</blockquote>

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