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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tratyn Runewind" data-source="post: 264975" data-attributes="member: 685">Hello!Well, first I intend to have a little fun and get the feel of the new rules by rebuilding some of the many Epic-level NPCs of one of my favorite campaign settings, Mystara, under the 3e rules.  Actually, I'm converting a bunch of NPCs, not just Epic-level ones, but because BD&D (Mystara's original ruleset) provided for mortal play up to 36th character level, many of the prominent characters do happen to be up in the Epic-level power range.  2e Mystara materials sadly dialed back the power of many of these characters to fit the level-20 limit of the 2e core rules, and it'll be nice to see them statted out in all their Epic glory for the current D&D ruleset.  The flexible multiclassing rules and other options of 3e will also allow characters to be more closely matched to their backstories.Stefan Karameikos, for example, is the only Mystaran character with official 3e stats posted at the official Mystara website.  He was 20th level in his last known BD&D writeup (PWA2), but was robbed back to 15th level in the 2e Karameikos boxed set.  The posted stats on the Mystara site are almost a straight port of the 2e version, and have him at 15th level.  Since they were posted not long after the release of the PHB, they also don't take advantage of 3e's new NPC classes - Stefan would almost certainly have levels in the Aristocrat class, given his background.  I'd probably evaluate him as Aristocrat 5/Fighter 15, maybe replacing a few Aristocrat and/or Fighter levels with Ranger levels, given his willingness to trade his rich ancestral lands in civilized Thyatis for the chance to forge his own kingdom in the Traladaran wilderness.  And the evil wizard Bargle is said to have started out as a petty criminal in the streets of Specularum, not turning to magic until he murdered a young wizard and stole his spellbooks.  This would have been mere "fluff" (to borrow terminology from another thread) under the BD&D rules, but can now be given some character-stat "crunchiness" in 3e by giving him a level or two of Rogue early in his career.And speaking of BD&D/Mystara and the ELH, it's nice to see some echoes of BD&D goodness making their return in that work.  The Rod of the Wyrm was orignally a BD&D magic item (appearing in the Companion set, if I remember correctly), and the Neh-Thalggu and the Blackball (now called Umbral Blot) were BD&D creatures.  The Neh-Thalggu has been powered up substantially; it was not at all an Epic-level foe before, though Haldemar of Haaken did run into one once (nor did it hang out with Mind Flayers, who didn't exist in BD&D).  The Blackball's entry even speaks of the Old Ones, who were the mysterious Elder God uber-immortals of BD&D.  (Creatures called "Colossus" also exist in BD&D, though they bear little resemblance to those in the ELH.)  Since BD&D and Mystara were geared to support high-level play, it's only natural that elements of them could prove useful in a product like the ELH, and it's nice to see some of the designers remembering this rich legacy and taking advantage of it...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />This sounds like another fun project.  "The Dancing Hut" was one of my favorite old Dragon Magazine modules, about as high-level crazy dangerous as it got until the Bloodstone series came out.  My favorite part was the bit about how Baba Yaga never bothered using calling diagrams for her summonings, because the lower-planar creatures all knew her and wouldn't dare to attack her  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />.  In 3e I'd probably put her mainly as a Sorceress - her magic seems "natural", and she doesn't seem the scholarly type.  In 1e she could also prep and cast Druid spells as Magic-User spells, which fits in nicely with her legendary command over natural elements, so in 3e I'd probably give her some Druid levels as well.  Heck, given some of her powers I'd consider making her a Deities and Demigods quasi-deity (Divine Rank 0).  Hope this helps churn the old creative thoughts into motion for ya!Hm, talk of Epic figures from real-world legend has also brought to mind the first thing I thought when I saw the Terrifying Rage feat - "this was made for Cu Chulann".  He's an Epic Barbarian if ever there was one, probably with some Fighter levels to represent his combat training on the mysterious isle of the warrior-woman Scathach.  I'm sure he'd be fun to stat out, too.So anyway, those are my initial plans for "Fun with the Epic Level Handbook".  Since you asked...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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