Customer Reviews

Epic Level Handbook (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying)

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

A genuine gripe of Third Edition D&D was its tendency to create seriously powerful player characters who were (to use the phrase) "All powered-up with nowhere to go." Having climbed sunshine mountain, high level PCs were given little to do but build a stronghold and start writing their memoirs.

Well, put down the inkwell, Hrothgar, a 200 foot tall spider just ate half the city.

The Epic Level Handbook opens up a universe of possibilities for established heroes, and gives Dungeon Masters rules they can run with. Six chapters of pure brain candy, plus three crunchy Appendices to wash them down. Oh, this is the book your high level characters have been waiting for...

The book starts off with the character progression rules and Epic Prestige classes. The rules are straightforward, clean, and thoroughly explained. Full marks to the "Behind the Curtain" segments in this chapter - explaining the whys behind the rules is very important when your telling a 21st level barbarian why his base attack bonus will never increase again. Epic versions of the standard classes are provided (ho-hum), but new prestige classes (like the Agent Retriever) are also provided. These new additions provide not only new paths, but (more importantly) examples on how to make your own prestige classes. Custom classes can define campaign worlds as well as campaigns - and the tools provided here are the building blocks of anything you could want. I'll just mention one of the many Epic Feats: Permanent Emanation (make an emanation spell of yours permanent...ah the possibilities...).

The chapter on epic spells provides the rules for creating magic that does things that Archmages would sell their quasit for. Epic spells cost mucho dinero to research, have Spellcraft DCs beyond the reach of mortals, and serious XP costs. Are they worth it? You betcha. Stuff like, oh I don't know...Permanent spell reflection, summon ten adult red dragons to attack your foes, you get the idea. They even give you the spell to make demi-planes of existence...I mean, how cool is that? Better still, the chapter details seed spells, which are the ingredients in a "build-your-own-spell-buffet." Don't like the epic spells in the book? Well, make yer own, smart guy.

The book comes into its own with chapter three: how to run high-level campaigns. Having the rules and the tools is one thing, but knowing good ways to use them is quite another. The best concept in the world can be ruined if the DM isn't prepared for the radical differences high levels make in game play. A whole section is devoted to advising the DM about coping with the various divination spells that WILL be used in an epic campaign. Given that a high-level adventure can tank because of a single oversight by the DM, this section is manna from above. Other sections in this chapter detail problems specific to high level campaigns ("Managing Wealth," "Handling Wish," and "Dealing with Time Stop") and provide well thought out options to economize on dice rolling. Alternate rules for dealing with natural 1s and 20s in combat, as well as tailoring the "Massive Damage" rule for epic campaigns are intelligently presented and well explained. Thespians may balk at the blunt language of this chapter, but game balance is all about rules and numbers - and the WoTC folks have written this chapter with an honest appraisal of the issues that will affect your campaign.

Finally, the book is stuffed with the things that epic world are made of: New magic items of world shattering power; Non-Player Characters who can level cities with a harsh thought; and monsters whose mere presence can make Odin die of fear. (Ok, maybe not Odin...but they're pretty awful). Consider the Dragon, Advanced: AC of 70 Damage resistance of 35/+6, oh and their bite attack is at +77; did I mention that isn't even the BAD one? The Epic Dragons are much, much worse... (oh and that giant spider, I wasn't kidding - Poison save of 94 and 2d12 CON damage, twice...*shudder*).The monsters, spells and toys are all nice, but the best things about this book are the game mechanics. With these rules, you can take your players into levels that were unheard of before, and the rules can create challenges that will keep it interesting for everyone.

If you're interested in playing your character beyond level 20, these rules will more than keep pace with you. Hat's off to Mr. Collins, Mr. Cordell, and Wizards of the Coast.
A marvelous capstone to the core rules. I for one, can't wait to put it to use.

Uh lessee here... Uvuudaum, Large Outsider CR 27....hmmm

Now we finally know what's on the other side of the 20th-level wall.

This sourcebook, a mammoth tome if there ever was one, is all about D&D characters after 20th level. It includes character information, new magic, new items, advice on running epic-level games, new monsters, and a new campaign setting designed for epic-level play.

The heart of the book is the character section, detailing all sorts of options for people to try after 20th level. They've looked at classes, core *and* prestige (from DMG), and tried to find patterns to extrapolate from. Those that don't have easily extrapolable abilities get more feats than those that do. It does seem that they try to ignore some things...rogues, for example, get no more special abilities, though that's clearly a pattern starting at 10th level. They also include suggestions on how to advance other prestige classes not in the DMG.

Next, we have epic skills and feats. Well, the epic skill section is a list of new possible checks to make, such as the Balance DC-120 check to walk on a cloud. The epic feats are a mixed bag; some are really cool, others aren't. They do tend to assume that people play in a certain pattern...for example, druids are assumed to focus on shapeshifting, and clerics to focus on positive/negative energy channeling. It's written conservatively, with suggestions that if you want to change something, do so.

Next, we have epic spells and magic items. Epic spells require research and experience to create, and a Spellcraft roll to cast, but are often worth it...like Nailed to the Sky, which puts the target in orbit, or Contingent Resurrection, which resurrects the target if s/he dies. Epic magic items are also interesting; most of the wondrous items and weapons are extrapolations from previous items (i.e. gloves of +12 Str), but the rods and staves are very creative. There are also a few new artifacts, most of which are actually reprints. Interestingly, arcane casters can make items more easily than divine, which may or may not be intended.

Now, the most fun part of the book...monsters! After all, your epic-level character needs something to fight that isn't another character, right? So, now we have official 3e stats for things like the Demilich, the Winter Wight, and the Blackball (aka a high-speed, homing, teleporting sphere of annihilation). There are new monsters, like the colossus (really, really BIG golems), and a variant pseudonatural template (which jacks the CR of a creature up by 10-15 points!). A new type of monster is the abomination, which is the disfigured offspring of a deity and...something else, like the infernal, born from a deific/infernal or abyssal union, or the anaxim, a twisted mechanical creation. These tend to be mean.

Advice for running epic-level games is given, including official sanction of making the PCs pay for overly creative abuse of the Wish spell, but in general encouraging fun. The new setting is an interplanar city, called Union, full of portals and potential adventure. I think they might've gotten better results with Sigil (from Planescape), but Union works too. An introductory adventure is included, and ELH stats for high-level Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk characters are included.

All in all, this is a very good book. You'll need it sometime. However, be aware it tends to be kind of conservative, and that you may wish to jack the power up even more.

If anything, the Epic Level Handbook is UNDERPOWERED compared to what was expected. The progression over 20th level is rather sedate.

Some of the skills pointed out as being ridiculous actually can be found used in - wouldn't you know it? - epics like that of Cu Chulainn or the Mabinogion or the Kalevala. Such tales from the real world are FILLED with heroes doing things like swimming up waterfalls and any number of other endeavors normally impossible for individuals, like diverting rivers. The book is about EPIC level play, after all. It's meant to evoke the kinds of feats (not in the D&D sense) we find in legend.

While the book does approach this level of play, it is remarkably conservative in what is presented. Sure, the epic spells are extremely powerful - but look at the prerequisites and cost! No character is going to be wielding such magic daily, if ever - unless the campaign was already way out of balance before the ELH was published.

The spells are good examples of what to do with the new "spell seeds" concept. The skills and feats are logical, and often kind of mundane, extensions of the material in the Player's Handbook. The new epic monsters are amazingly strange, unique, and powerful. Anyone worried about Monty Haulism cropping up with the ELH need only trot out some of these new critters into a campaign - then you'll see why some of the epic level material is needed. Even then, epic-level characters will be hard-pressed to even survive against many of these monsters.

I wasn't too keen on the section about the "epic city." I just wasn't convinced that such a city could exist (I think I saw 29th level, nameless NPC city guards). Plus, I just wasn't too inspired by it. I think that much of this section could have been replaced by more monsters, spells, skills, feats, and other supplemental material.

Overall, the ELH is a good addition to D&D, and covers areas of the game I've been waiting to see covered for 20+ years. All the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the book I've seen on the internet has been overblown - as I said above, the ELH, if anything, was underpowered compared to what was expected. And that's better than being overpowered.

I think a lot of DMs were expecting the wrong thing from this book.

They were hoping for a book that would give them step-by-step instructions on how to keep challenging their higher-than-high level characters. Well, you know what, that's just not possible. As this book demonstrates, by 25th level, a rogue could be master of all the guilds in a game world, the greatest relic hunter ever or just one of a number of high-powered rogues, still answerable to older, or at least more experienced NPCs.

Really, at about 15th-level, the games is blown wide open and characters become capable of handling just about any challenge the DM has to offer, given time and opportunity. The best this book can do is make those adventures more entertaining and just as full of creativity.

From new and unusual uses for skills to brand new feats and a nifty way of looking at the spell system to cogent, concise rules on character development beyond 20th level, this book has it all.

As with many general source books, the magic items kind of falter a bit, but that's mostly because the ideas you and your group come up with are bound to be better. Let's face it, when you have several million gold pieces and want a custom-made magic weapon, you aren't going to go for one in a catologue.

Oh, and the monsters made me all tingly with anticipation.

(To my gaming group)

C'mon, level up already, I've got new ways to try and kill you!

If you're like me, the first thought you have when you see this book is "It's for munchins" - y'know, those folks who pack twenty or so +6 vorpal swords, cast wish by the truckload and slay the Tarrasque by breathing heavily on it.
Well, that's not what the Epic Handbook is about. It's amazing well-balanced and presents information and tools for characters who are the stuff of legends - Hercules, Achilles, Cu Cuchulain, Arthur Pendragon and the like. Not only are there tools to grant PC's some mighty impressive abilities, but there arelong spreads on info about foes to face such legendary heroes and a good section on how to keep it all in perspective and keep the level of power from getting out of hand.
The book certainly isn't for everyone. Characters who attain the levels in this book are mighty powerful compared to what most player's and DM's are used to in a normal campaign. D&D has never attempted to handle such legendary abilities, and it takes a special mindset to accomodate such play. Slapdash use of the rules can quickly bury a campaign, and in truth, most groups burn out before Epic levels are reached.
Still, it can be fun to strap on the Aegis of Athena, take up Excaliber, travel to the City on the Edge of the Abyss and go smite a demilich - if you think you're fool-hardy enough to try...

I have to laugh at the people who become offended and upset at the way another group of people they don't even know play a fantasy game. People are always going to play games differently. Some people put invisible men on base in backyard baseball. Some people play Monopoly with two boards or with $1 bills as $1000 dollar bills. Some people play Truth or Dare and lie. So people play D&D differently. Some gamers like to worry about a group of orcs over the rise, how long their rations will last and if the thief can make that roll to sneak into the orc camp. That's great. Those are fun games. Some folks like to charge into the dragon's cave with a character that barely has a name, and fight him tooth & sword down to the last hit point and haul out treasure heavier than they can carry if they survive. Those are fun games. Some people want to plot an elaborate take-over of the Planes of Hell with subterfuge, political intrigue and lots of discussio between players and DM. Those are fun games. They are all fun.

Epic level games are fun. They are different from low level games, and similiar as well. The way this book is presented a 21st level character is very similiar to a 1st level character. many of your current abilities don't count for a lot and you see a whole horizon of challenges with abilities far superior (ones that do matter!) I think this is a great system for story book type adventures (or movie adventures if you will), where the characters are quite formidable, but always challenged. The advancement for characters is good (with characters chosen feats providing their primary power and differentation from each other). It's possible to have to 40th level fighters who differ from another as much as a fighter and a wizard did at 1st level.

The spells for spellcasters have become more independent (as each caster now develops his own individual high level spells. Limited only by the player's imagination and ingenuity. The feats for characters have become the stuff of legend (like balancing on a cloud-- could someone do it they had the grace of a god?) Fighters never stop gaining hit points and gain strength and damage reduction-- they would seem invulnerable until you turn to the epic monster section of the book and then start wondering if the character has a chance!

The book is excellent. If it has any fault it is with its failure to adequately address multi-classed characters. It is definitely preferable to play a single-class in this system.

If you are planning on taking your party into epic, this is an absolute must have. That said, some things about it were good, others bad:
The bad:
-Easily unbalanced. CR are often way off the mark (ie: CR 30 Demilich that can kill you by looking at you and heal itself completely every round. There is a lot more to it than this, but suffice to say, unless you tone down its abilities a lot, or are playing with a munchkinesque party, it will slaughter them. Furthermore, the epic spells provided are weak as hell, but the ones you can potentially make can get incredibly overpowered (thus, DM approval required). Many of the magic items are way underpriced (ie: cloak of epic SR, which costs about 200,000, if I remember correctly, and gives you SR of about, what was it? 40?), and some are really overpriced (the jump from a +5 to a +6 weapon, for example).
In short, it will be necessary to double check EVERYTHING to run a balanced game, simply because epic levels were not sufficiently test run.

The good:
-An incredible amount of resources (this is a VERY big book).
-Monsters all across the epic spectrum (I ran a campaign up to level 30 and there were still monsters in the book that could have annihilated the party, and others that the party could have stepped on without noticing).
-Lots of interesting new magic items, and instructions for creating new epic level magic items/distinguishing between epic and non-epic items, etc.
-Some new artifacts, which make good additions to the game (ie: Hextor's gauntlet)
-Adventure ideas in the back, though I didn't use them myself.
-Table of epic level adventure hooks, which was quite useful.
-New, epic level prestige classes
-Of course, an epic level experience table and other little DM tools
-Information for progressing in epic levels in the core classes, as well as the prestige classes from the DM's guide. Also includes sample information for progressing any other 10 level prestige class.
-All sorts of awesome epic feats (an enormous section) for all classes.
-Great artwork (sorry, Mialee is still ugly as sin)

I'm sure there's a lot more that I'm missing, but here's an overall summary:
Great book. Definitely a must for an epic campaign. Well worth the money. Parts are unbalanced, but this can be mostly/entirely negated by a skilled DM. Lots of resources. Currently priced at $6 ($10 with shipping). If you don't have it, and intend to run an epic campaign, I would highly recommend picking it up before copies become inaccessible.

The real reason I got this sourcebook was curiosity. I wanted to know what they could possibly have put in it to make it so long (it's longer than the Player Handbook).

So what exactly is there? A lot. To start with, all the standard 3rd. ed. classes and all the prestige classes in the DM guide are advanced to epic level. That is to say, you can take levels above 20 (for the normal classes) and above 10 (for the prestige classes). Next, they have a whole ton of new feats, some of which really had me drooling over them. Following this is a series of extremely powerful (and extremely costly) epic spells, and then a whole new set of epic items and item enchantments.

The tutorials on running an epic level game are intriguing enough that I'm thinking of doing one now (I actually had no plans earlier) and a complete sample setting is given if you want to try it out. There is a very large section of new monsters, as well as some non-epic feats that go a long way to making some of the standard feats really useful. For example, 'shot on the run' was pretty useless, but with the new 'manyshot' feat it is actually a good pick now.

The end of the handbook provides some things specific to particular campaign settings, particularly a few powerful NPCs from the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk settings. If you have the sourcebooks for these, it'll be repeat information, but the art is... interesting, to say the least.

Overall, the ELH has good organization and great illustrations. It is a bountiful resource for anyone who wants to run a high-powered adventure but still keep things fun. For those who aren't planning on one, check it out anyway, as it might very well change you mind.

Let's just say that it's welcome to have balanced high-level play. For years I struggled with a high-level 2nd edition game, using the High-Level Handbook of that edition and loads of other outdated material. The new handbook makes it a lot easier to run this kind of game. It provides excellent abilities for PCs and NPCs, and some wonderful monsters, all in the context of an Xth-level system.
Unfortunately there are things in the book that just don't make much sense. Some of the feats are ridiculous. Why someone would want to earn an insane amount of experience points only to waste their epic feat on "Master Staff" (I'll use a charge from my staff for a low DC and damage instead of casting extended time stops) is beyond me. Still, the worthwhile feats that are offered make up for it. The "Epic Spellcasting" chapter is great, but when crafting your own epic spells you'll often be required to go out on your own as the rules presented don't cover many situations. (Such as a spell to make someone younger.)
Finally, the "random epic plot" generator has got to be the worst DND idea ever. I guess they've got to sell the book to children (or something). If you aren't in charge of your plots you shouldn't be getting involved with this level of play at all. Some of the ideas aren't all that bad, but others are just big monsters jumping out from somewhere. Pure mindless hacking that should be reserved for low-class online play.
However, shining through all the fluff of this book is an exceptionally well-wrought system of rules that really does deliver very balanced results all through the power spectrum.

People criticize this book for offering too much power to PC's. Guess what? They're absolutely right in all respects except one.
No power is too much power. If you're a DM and you can't seem to challenge your PC's enough, the book has ideas and scenarios for epic campaigns. The feats spells and regular magic items are all very good, but only a few of the artifacts are worthwhile to find. The skill uses are a little strange, but you're dealing with characters of godlike power, so that's to be expected. The monsters are incredible, especially the abominations (in particular the Phane) and the colossi. If your looking to double how interesting your campaign is, buy this book.