Epic Level Handbook.pdf

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Epic Level Handbook
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EPIC LEVEL HANDBOOK
A NDY C OLLINS AND B RUCE R. C ORDELL
ADDITIONAL DESIGN
J OHN D. R ATELIFF , T HOMAS R EID ,
J AMES W YATT
ART DIRECTOR
D AWN M URIN
COVER ART
A RNIE S WEKEL
INTERIOR ARTISTS
D AREN B ADER ,, B ROM , D AVID D AY , B RIAN
D ESPAIN , L ARRY D IXON , M ICHAEL , D UTTON ,
J EFF E ASLEY , L ARS G RANT - WEST , R EBECCA
Q UAY , J EREMY J ARVI ’ S A LTON L AWSON ,
T ODD L OCKWOOD , D AVID M ARTIN , R AVEN
M IMURA , M ATTHEW M ITCHELL , V INOD
R AMS , W AYNE R EYNOLDS , D ARRELL R ICHE ,
R ICHARD S ARDINHA , M ARC S ASSO , M ARK S MYLIE , A RNIE
S WEKEL , A NTHONY W ATERS
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
R OBERT C AMPBELL , C YNTHIA F LIEGE ,
S HERRY F LOYD , S EAN G LENN
CARTOGRAPHER
T ODD G AMBLE
TYPOGRAPHER
E RIN D ORRIES
E
D
I
T
OR
S
G WENDOLYN F. M. K ESTREL , D AVID N OONAN
MANAGING EDITOR
K IM M OHAN
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
E D S TARK
BUSINESS MANAGER
A NTHONY V ALTERRA
VICE PRESIDENT OF RPG R&D
B ILL S LAVICSEK
VICE
PRESIDENT
OF
PUBLISHING
M ARY K IRCHOFF
PROJECT MANAGER
M ARTIN D URHAM
PRODUCTION MANAGER
C HAS D ELONG
Based on the original D UNGEONS & D RAGONS rules created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and the new
D UNGEONS & D RAGONS game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Baker, and
Peter Adkison.
This W IZARDS OF THE C OAST ® game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may
be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Gaming License and
the d20 System® License, please visit www.wizards.com/d20.
Sources include Defender of the Faith, Monsters of Faerûn, Sword and Fist, Tome and Blood, High Level
Handbook, Will and the Way, Masters of the Wild, The Psionic Handbook, Lord of the Iron Fortress and
The Living Greyhawk Journal .
Valuable advice provided by Mike Selinker, Ed Stark, Owen K.S. Stephens, and Michael S. Webster. Azu
D’morr’s epic sentiments provided by Stephen Radney-MacFarland.
620-88169-001-EN
F IRST P RINTING : J ULY 2002
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Chapter 1: Characters, Skills,
Chapter 3: Running an Epic Game .103
3
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Introduction
The rules in the D UNGEONS & D RAGONS ® core rulebooks
are not enough for you. Your game promises more than
what the rules can contain. Your plots run deeper and
your imagination burns stronger. Twenty levels of power
are too few, character options are too limited, and the
monsters are too weak. Until now.
Welcome to the next level of power.
WHAT IS AN EPIC
such items have established prices in epic markets. Epic
magic items include armor, weapons, scrolls, rods, rings,
staffs, and wondrous items. And because epic characters
often find themselves in the presence of artifacts, Chapter
4 includes more artifacts to use in your epic campaign.
Monsters (Chapter 5): Here you will find monsters
of sufficient power to challenge, awe, and perhaps even
scare epic characters. Favorites from earlier versions of
the D&D® game include the demilich and the winter-
wight. Mostly, new monsters are provided, including
many abominations (a new grouping of outsider), bigger
dragons, stronger golems, and creatures born directly of
nightmare. A few templates such as the paragon are also
provided so you can create epic monsters from their
lesser kin in the Monster Manual and other sources.
An Epic Setting (Chapter 6): To help start up an epic
campaign, you’ll find epic organizations that develop the
prestige classes from Chapter 1; the city of Union, which
provides a base of operations; an adventure starting in
the city; and several other adventure ideas.
Appendices: If you include epic rules in your game,
you’ll want the nonplayer characters (NPCs) from your
campaign to be likewise enhanced. That’s why we're
done the work for you and provided versions of such
illustrious figures as Elminster (from the F ORGOTTEN
R EALMS Campaign Setting ) and Mordenkainen (from the
G REYHAWK campaign setting) in all their epic level glory.
Finally, NPCs from all the classes in the Player’s Handbook
are provided from levels 21st to 30th in the style of the
NPCs in Chapter 2 of the D UNGEON M ASTER ’ S Guide .
THE EPIC LEVEL HANDBOOK
This book gives you everything you need to create and
play epic characters, including epic items, epic spells,
and even epic foes. It features the following chapters:
Characters, Skills, and Feats (Chapter 1): This chap-
ter provides instructions for developing epic progressions
for nearly any class or prestige class. It also provides spe-
cific epic progressions for the classes in the Player’s Hand-
book , as well as the prestige classes found in the D UNGEON
M ASTER ’ S Guide and the psion and psychic warrior from the
Psionics Handbook . Chapter 1 also reveals epic tasks for many
of the skills in the Player’s Handbook , offering skill check
Difficulty Classes (DCs) only an epic character could hope
to make. Finally, Chapter 1 provides more than 150 new
epic feats—enough feats to provide well over one hun-
dred levels of advancement for any character.
Epic Spells (Chapter 2): Chapter 2 reveals how to
leave the standard levels of magical power behind and
begin to cast epic spells. A few dozen epic spells are pro-
vided as a sample, but Chapter 2 gives player characters
(PCs) the ability to create their own epic spells. Sample
epic spells include damnation, time duplicate, eidolon , and
contingent resurrection .
Running an Epic Game (Chapter 3): This chapter
discusses how epic characters and creatures can best be
handled in the game. Advice ranges from specifics such
as information on walls of epic strength to general tips on
how to structure your campaign and handle characters
who accumulate significant wealth. The Encounters and
Rewards sections provide tables for constructing epic
encounters and awarding experience points to characters
who overcome the epic challenges you set for them.
Epic Magic Items (Chapter 4): The difference
between epic magic items and artifacts is that artifacts are
unique items generated by a one-of-a-kind event or forg-
ing. Many epic magic items are just as powerful as arti-
facts, but epic characters know how to make them, and
WHAT’S NEW?
There’s no ceiling to the levels you can attain anymore,
and no limits on the power of the foes you face. You’ll
find enough feats, spells, items, and abilities to provide
endless play. Now no matter how good your character
gets, there’s always something more. There’s something
more for your character to strive for, and something
more to stand in your way.
That said, you’ll find a lot of the Epic Level Handbook
familiar. Epic feats work like regular feats, and epic
magic items work like their more ordinary counterparts.
They’re just better. Likewise, the experience and treasure
tables look like the ones you’re already using. The biggest
departure from the D&D rules you’re familiar with is the
Spell Seeds section in Chapter 2.
If you’ve played high-level rules for previous editions
of the D&D game, you may notice a few elements from
previous systems. Most notably, the section on epic
spells was inspired in part by true dweomers in the High
Level Handbook . D&D is such a vital, resilient, and versal-
tile system that we discovered that we could go further
than we ever could before. The rules inherent to the
D&D game provide the essential ballast for the Epic Level
Handbook , ensuring balance no matter how wild or crazy
the epic abilities become.
Do not fear the Epic Level Handbook . Rather, embrace it
and all the power it offers.
4
CHARACTER?
Put plainly, an epic character is one who has achieved
21st character level. Though the Player’s Handbook
describes character progression up to 20th level, legend
and literature are replete with heroes and villains who
have gone beyond normal limits. Now your character
gets to join them and assume a role in legend.
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B aba Yaga. Conan the Barbarian. Cu Chulainn.
21st level? Some Dungeon Masters (DMs) might
simply allow a character to reach 21st level by gain-
ing the 210,000 XP indicated on Table 1–2: Experi-
ence and Level-Dependent Benefits. However,
this option may be too mundane for some players
and DMs, who prefer that the transition to epic
gaming be accompanied by a suitable event such
as a holy quest, series of tests, or similar great
challenge. Chapter 3: Running an Epic Game has
more information on this topic.
Epic names.
These heroes are examples of epic characters: heroes
who have gone beyond the normal limits of skill, battle
prowess, and magical might. While still mortal beings,
these individuals—and those like them—wield powers
that other characters (even 20th-level ones) can only
dream about.
Epic characters can cast spells that kill without a gesture
or sound, wield their weapons so superbly mat whole
schools try to emulate their techniques, slip into and out
of impenetrable fortresses, challenge a god’s moral author-
ity, and write songs that will be sung a thousand years
hence. Epic characters set their feet upon the road of
omnipotence. Given time, they rival the powers of gods.
This book is about those powers, and now your char-
acter can do more than dream about them.
CLASS AND LEVEL BONUSES
Regardless of the method by which you
achieve 21st level, once you reach that point
you are considered an epic character. Epic
characters—those whose character level is
21st or higher—are handled slightly differ-
ently from nonepic characters. While you
continue to gain most of the benefits of gain-
ing levels, some benefits are replaced by
alternative gains.
Despite the 20th-level limit indicated in
the Player’s Handboo k, you can advance a class
level beyond 20th by using the rules in this
book. You can also advance the class level of a
ten-level prestige class (such as those pre-
sented in the D UNGEON M ASTER ’ S Guide )
ON BEYOND 20TH!
When a character reaches 20th level, your normal pro-
gression ends. However, this is by no means the end of
the character’s career. But how can a character achieve
5
Elminster of Shadowdale. Elric of Melniboné.
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Gandalf. Gilgamesh.
Hiawatha. Odysseus.
These are names of power. Names of glory.
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