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View Full Version : A few ideas for an Epic Level Campaign



Silent Thunder
2007-10-26, 12:47 AM
I've been DMing for a few years now, and I thought I'd go back to my first love of RPGs and try my hand at doing a D&D game for my veteran group. Now both they and I are looking to do something different, so I hunted down a copy of the Epic Handbook (roleplay material is pretty hard to come by where I live) and started to sketch out an idea for a fairly epic adventure. My first major snag seems to be a fairly common one, from what I've read in other forums; after you hit Epic level, the challenge either drops to the point where there's minimal danger to the characters, or you're forcing them to square off against beings of such power that you can hardly suggest that there's more than a few of them without putting a real strain on the suspention of disbelief, thus meaning each one they kill is detracting from future challenges.

So, I came up with a few notions on how to make an Epic level game that was both challenging throught the entire progression (or at least I hope so), gave a sense of the sheer scale of such a campaign, and kept it so that every enemy they came across was logical and wasn't just something thrown at them because the CR matched up with their party level. I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on it, as no doubt I'll need to adjust my sights a bit (it's been a while since I DMed D&D after all), and I don't want to appear like I'm making my players suffer (needlessly that is).

1) Humans are the only starting race allowed: This is done as much for background reasons as for mechanical ones; there are believed to be no other race save the various kingdoms, tribes and empires of humanity, and while there's a great deal of variety between the various realms, rules-wise they are all generated as regular humans. I don't think this will cause much of a stir, since only one out of the six players regular asks to play anything other than a human in most games that allow for varied races. It also prevents the possibility of twink-inspired combinations of rare monster-type + rare prestige class to create some statistical nightmare; I don't want to seem like I'm crippling players, but if they bring a gun to a knife fight, it can sometimes make a DM feel like he has to bring a Bazooka, and that way everyone suffers.

2) Less focus on equipment, more on skill: Magic items of any potency are going to be rare finds, and epic level equipment will most likely turn up once per story arc (between 15-20 sessions). Even then, it might require more than simply obtaining the item to use it. This is meant to make them rely on what they know they can achieve rather than letting the +6 Flaming Vorpal Greatsword doing all the work, and make battles a little more tricky to get around, especially in regards to damage resistance and the like. To counter this, I'm thinking of giving them extra starting feats (maybe four, to give them six starting in total) to suggest their well trained background and allow them to diversify themselves a little more. I'm also considering offering Feats as rewards for achieving certain goals in lieu of magical items.

3) Using as few monsters as possible in the early sessions: Now this one might seem a bit odd, considering this is a game noted for monster slaying, but I have reasoning behind it. A lot of the adventure will be taking place in city environments, and humans obviously make for the best antagonists in such a setting, but it also means that when they do get sent on a mission that takes them beyond the safety of the city walls, I can present powerful examples of monsters and make it seem like they're the standard, rather than having them go against a monster type, only to beef them up after they raise a few levels and try to suggest that, hey, you just happen to be running into really TOUGH wolves lately. I know that some DM's would simply throw in newer, tougher monsters, but I rather find that can overpopulate an area very quickly; I'd much rather have them visit a wilderness area for one adventure, presenting them with creatures native to that area, and then move them to a new area with a different host of native creatures.

4) Mob rules: how to make Epic combat against mere mortals fun!: For those who haven't read it, the DMH2 gives rules of making unique creatures called Mobs, which operate like swarms made up of Medium to Large creatures. The rules presented can easily be fiddled with to make them far more intimidating, giving you the option to still use those 10th Level Fighter city guards against your now epic-level characters but making them act as Troops; the benefits they gain make them formidable, and their hitpoints means that they can survive long enough to make it challenging for the players, or at least buy time for the more dangerous opponents to make their move. It also gives the players to really show off their power; even if they only take 50 hit points of a Troop with 300 hit points, you can describe it that their character just totally pulped two soldiers with one deft swing of their weapon; they get to feel badass, and you get to keep a sense that as epic as they are, they're still mortal, and can be taken down by skilled enough soliders (in large numbers that is).

Well that's a few brief suggestions. As I say, I'll welcome any thoughts, ideas or critisicm (please keep it constructive, saying my ideas suck is fine so long as you give some suggestion as to how to improve them) that you have to offer