Epic Level Handbook | EN World Tabletop RPG News & Reviews

Let's see. Just the day ago, I went and recieved from a good friend: the one and only Epic Level Handbook! So, of course, I went and looked through it.

Well! There are 6 chapters: Characters, Skills & Feats, which deals with the expanded class abilities (which, as you've probably heard, includes all 11 core classes, as well as the DMG PrCs, and the psion and psychic warrior), new epic prestige classes, which include:
The Agent Retriever, who specializes in finding items;
The Cosmic Descryer, who gains planar abilities;
The Divine Emissary, unique servant of a deity;
The Epic Infiltrator, agent of espionage;
The Gaurdian Paramount, the ultimate bodyguard;
The High Proselytizer, who empowers those of her faith;
The Legendary Dreadnought, unstoppable in combat;
The Perfect Wight, master of skulking, gains abililities like invisibility;
and The Union Sentinel, an elite police force.

The art in the core classes section is pretty good. THe DMG PrCs is better. But . . . in my opinion, possibly the best art in the whole book might be the art on the epic blackguard. It's soooooo great!

After that, they include rules for epic leadership: an expanded table. Then, epic skills ensue. These aren't really *epic* skills, merely DCs for very hard things. There's a section on psionic skills, too.

Ah, the meat and drink of the first chapter: epic feats. There's everything from Armor Skin, which gives you natural AC bonuses, to Master Staff, letting you expend spell slots instead of staff charges, to Zone of Animation, which allows you to animate dead using negative energy. The feat art is very nice.

Now comes the 2nd chapter: epic spells. As you might have heard, you have to make a Spellcraft check to cast an epic level spell, ranging from DC 27 for 'Ruin' (Object takes 20d6 damage) to 419 for Vengeful Gaze of God (Target takes 305d6 damage; you take 200d6). All of these are real nice. One of my favorites is Memento Mori: A thought that kills. Hee hee! Can't wait to pull that in my game!

Once we read the awesome power of these spells, we get a lesson on creating our own epic spells. There are 24 spell "seeds", from 'Afflict' to 'Ward'. These spell "seeds" are the bare bones of spells. You add your own touches, modifying the DC. It's very nice. Of course, there is a small section on 'Epic Psionic Powers'. The art in the spells section is pretty good, but the last picture (of that staple psion guy) is awesome.

Okay, so now we've come to Chapter 3: Running an Epic Game. This is the DM's province, players keep aside.
First, we are treated to a part on introducing epic level characters. This is short, only around a page. Then comes 'The Epic Adventure'. This is basically part of the DMG expanded. There are some new selections for walls and doors, as well as a section on epic traps. This is very nice. I just *love* the example trap they give. Mostly what's in here now is advice and variant rules. However, there's a nice table: 'Average Random Dice'. It gives the average result for rolls of d4s, d6s, d8s, and d10s. Unfortunately, it only goes up to 20. Luckily, there *is* a rule for dice greater than 20.

Now, for the Epic Campaign. This has information on creating epic adventures: new random town generation, etc. Of course, there's a 100 epic adventure ideas table. There's also an 'Epic Encounter Numbers' and an 'Epic Experience Point Awards', as well as information on expanding it for levels and CRs 41 and beyond.

Soon, we stop at Chapter 4: Epic Magic Items. This is a BEAUTIFUL chapter. I thirst at the ideas of some of these artifacts they include. There are new epic armors, epic weapons, rings, rods, scrolls, staffs, and a few new wondrous items. There's even a section on epic intelligent items. Now come the artifacts. Almost all of the minor ones are conversions from 2nd edition. There is a new one, (I think), though: Olidammara's Dice. If you've been keeping up on WotC info, you know about these. The major artifacts are, all in all, pretty nice.

Ah, finally: the monsters. There are over 60 monsters, and all but 6 of them have CRs of 21 +. The scariest one is called a 'Hecatoncheires', and it's CR 57! However, some of the epic dragons can get CRs of up to 59 for a great wyrm force dragon and 66 for a great wyrm prismatic dragon!

All of the monsters are very nice. In my opinion, however, if you've got CoC d20, you should use some of the gods in it for fine foes. Imagine: the hecatoncheires has a higher CR than Azathoth! And, you know, they reprint (kinda) the Worm that Walks, or at least a more powerful version of it. Anyway, all the monster pictures are very good.

After this, we come to the final chapter: An Epic Setting. This is the chapter I generally spend the least time with. However, don't let that guide you; what I did read was very interesting. All of the different organizations are great, and chock-full of superlevel characters. The leader of one group -- the Regulators -- is an advanced treant Wizard 36/Bard 20! That's 56th level, along with the advanced treant ECL of 28 means a total ECL of 84!!!!!

Oh, did I tell you? They included ECLs for ALL the monsters in the monster section. It's a notable thing, and I predict that the Monster Manual II will have ECLs also. The ECLs are found in one table in the beginning, along with information on ECLs.

Anyway, after the organizations, we get the city of Union, the supercity we've been told about. There are many things in it. It's certainly impressive. Once we get through with this, we get a full-fledged epic adventure! It's a site-based adventure: Kerleth's Tower (thunder booms). Of course, it's set in Union. But, it's a supreme adventure. After the adventure is a short section of adventure ideas. These are nice, but short. Then we get to . . . the APPENDIX! Bwahahahaha! *Phew* My evil mind flayer ways must be getting ahead of me.

Elminster's picture is absolutely *terrible* compared to the one in the FRCS. So are most of the pictures of the Realms' NPCs. They also include an example of extending a prestige class: in this case, the Red Wizards of Thay.

Next is the NPCs of Greyhawk, 4 of them. I skipped through this part. Now for the last part of the whole book. As I reached the end of such a great tome, I surely shed a tear as the end came. Now are the epic NPCs, up to 30th level. I wonder what we'll do for 31st level ready-made NPCs? Maybe a future moneysoaker, I mean splatbook, I mean excellent made small 40-page book for $19.99. Sorry WotC about the name confusion.

Overall, I have to say my favorite parts were the new monsters and magic items. Of course, the new feats were amazing, and I just love the potential of paragon mind flayer 40th level necromancers. I'm also glad that, instead of just printing a huge book of tables, they only went 10 levels further and included the mechanics. To me, that's a good thing.

One last pointout I have to make is the great idea of including ECLs for all the monsters. Not like any DM I know will let a character be a hecatoncheires but hey! They'll be great for NPCs! Players, prepare to meet your dooms!

P.S. The blackguard art is great!!

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