D&D 3E/3.5 Alternative Epic System for 3.5e

[John98GR]

It's a very rough draft (and barely 4 pages), but I wouldn't mind a few opinions on the matter.
(Edit: I posted an updated version a bit further down, post #6)

 

[Alzrius]

Interesting system that you've developed! I have to wonder if it would be worthwhile to turn the "epic trait" into a template or subtype when applied to creatures, though that's largely an issue of standardized formatting in the game engine more than anything else. Some other random observations:

• Does the death blow granted by the Epic Attack boon provoke an attack of opportunity? Is it limited to melee attacks or can it be made with ranged attacks as well?
• The Maximize Damage boon's effect is already granted by the "epic trait" (save for, if I'm reading it right, also working against other creatures with the epic trait).
• Likewise, the Epic Magic boon makes it so that your spells work in areas of anti-magic, but if you have the "epic trait" that's already the case.
• Does the Karmic Damage boon make it so that you can't deal nonlethal damage even if you want to?
• The Dead Magic boon seems like it could be inconvenient if it affects your own worn magic items (since it also defeats epic magic, it won't matter if those items are themselves epic or not), plus allied buffs, etc.
• Does the Epic Talent boon work with prestige classes? If so then you'd presumably need to meet their prerequisites.
• Also, the feats granted by the Epic Talent boon apparently need to be general? So no combat feats, no psionic feats, no item creation or metamagic feats, etc.?

I'd be interested to see how playtesting with this goes, since it seems to pack a lot of punch into a few pages.

 

[John98GR]

Interesting system that you've developed! I have to wonder if it would be worthwhile to turn the "epic trait" into a template or subtype when applied to creatures, though that's largely an issue of standardized formatting in the game engine more than anything else. Some other random observations:

• Does the death blow granted by the Epic Attack boon provoke an attack of opportunity? Is it limited to melee attacks or can it be made with ranged attacks as well?
• The Maximize Damage boon's effect is already granted by the "epic trait" (save for, if I'm reading it right, also working against other creatures with the epic trait).
• Likewise, the Epic Magic boon makes it so that your spells work in areas of anti-magic, but if you have the "epic trait" that's already the case.
• Does the Karmic Damage boon make it so that you can't deal nonlethal damage even if you want to?
• The Dead Magic boon seems like it could be inconvenient if it affects your own worn magic items (since it also defeats epic magic, it won't matter if those items are themselves epic or not), plus allied buffs, etc.
• Does the Epic Talent boon work with prestige classes? If so then you'd presumably need to meet their prerequisites.
• Also, the feats granted by the Epic Talent boon apparently need to be general? So no combat feats, no psionic feats, no item creation or metamagic feats, etc.?

I'd be interested to see how playtesting with this goes, since it seems to pack a lot of punch into a few pages.

Thanks for the reply and in hindsight several (perhaps most of them actually) are not cleanly written. In my defence however, they are samples and more like guidelines for how a DM would go about making these. Regardless, I'm glad someone who frequents Eternity Publishing showed interest with my draft.

Death Blow: Depends on how lethal you wish to make your martials, ranged or otherwise.
Maximize Damage: I should have made it clear that it maximizes damage under ALL circumstances (Epic vs Epic, etc).
Epic Magic: An oversight on my part, and tbh, I've already re-written this particular Boon.
Karmic Damage: There should be a clause for "Unless you specifically not want it to" or something
Dead Magic: Perhaps a clause akin to Spell Resistance, "You can suppress this effect as a Standard Action". Otherwise, I could argue its a two-edged blade (and my intention for it), a sort of "There will no magic in this fight, buddy" kind of deal.
Epic Talent: I was implying that yes it also works on PRCs since I mentioned them in the Boon, but perhaps I should be more clear.
Epic Talent, again: I believe I stated that Epic Talent specifically doesn't give you feats (as per a normal level up) and purely only class features. If you meant "Expanded Training", I meant three general feats as in the ones you would 'normally' gain every 3 levels ups.

 

[Deset Gled]

The main thing I don't like is the shift to no level tracking.

A simple change would be to divorce epic levels from traditional XP (as you have already done). Instead, each new Epic Level adds one of the Epic Traits you have. After all Epic Traits have been received, an Epic Boon is awarded at each new level.

This preserves a vast majority of your work here, but still follows the 3.5 leveling system in a way that feels more compatible with the standard rules. It also maintains the joy (and power tracking/communication, and bragging rights, etc) of leveling up, which is a sacred cow of D&D that I happen to support.

 

[John98GR]

The main thing I don't like is the shift to no level tracking.

A simple change would be to divorce epic levels from traditional XP (as you have already done). Instead, each new Epic Level adds one of the Epic Traits you have. After all Epic Traits have been received, an Epic Boon is awarded at each new level.

This preserves a vast majority of your work here, but still follows the 3.5 leveling system in a way that feels more compatible with the standard rules. It also maintains the joy (and power tracking/communication, and bragging rights, etc) of leveling up, which is a sacred cow of D&D that I happen to support.

I understand your concern, and it's perfectly okay if you wish to implement it in this way. It's not like I'm going to vehemently defend an experimental sloppy concept I wrote literally yesterday.
At the moment I'm working on a cleaner document (hopefully) with expanded and revised Boons, and perhaps a bit more of an elaboration on the Divine and other tiers of play. But, perhaps to your disappointment, I'm kinda continuing with the same system.

 

[John98GR]

Here's the updated version. I added a few things, changed some others, etc.
I believe the framework is more or less done and I expanded my examples to include the Divine Tier (it's no longer just an idea hanging in the air).