When will the Epic Level Handbook be OGC?

[hong]

There is not enough support for the Epic Level handbook and the fact that it isn't OGC merely makes it worse since no third party company can make source material or adventures for an epic level campaign without being in violation of the d20 license.

So any WotC Insider's or former Insider's (I'm talking to you, AV!) care to comment on when this will be made OGC?

Never, with any luck. As far as I can tell, the ELH has achieved exactly two things:

1) Distorted people's perceptions on how exceptional high-level characters already are, even if they aren't technically "epic". By the time you get to 10th level, you can wade through battalions of mooks, fly and teleport, kill things with a touch, and raise them from the dead. That's pretty darn epic by any stretch of the imagination.

2) Provided a dumping ground for every twinked-out spell, ability or feat that people dream up. "It's broken but it might work at epic" is something I'm really tired of seeing. (This used to be the domain of 9th level spells, hence wish, Mord's disjunction and time stop, but apparently even 9th level isn't broken enough these days.)

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

In defense of the ELH (Magic-wise, anyway)

2) Provided a dumping ground for every twinked-out spell, ability or feat that people dream up. "It's broken but it might work at epic" is something I'm really tired of seeing. (This used to be the domain of 9th level spells, hence wish, Mord's disjunction and time stop, but apparently even 9th level isn't broken enough these days.)

I never really got the impression that epic spells, at least, were meant to be "10th Level Spells" or the like. It was just a different way of tapping into magic, that allowed one to forgo some of the limitations of standard spells. An epic caster taps into the raw fabric of magic itself, rather than some formulaic spell or cantrip. But that didn't necessarily make them more powerful, just different and -potentially- more powerful. Indeed, you could make some epic spells that were easily less powerful than 9th level spells, and I don't mean as compared to Miracle.