so wizards of the coast has been giving previews into fourth edition, & the newest one is about epic characters. of course it is registration required-- let me just get that out of the way. you can register for free, but eventually it will cost money. so while i'm talking about it, possibly catching your interest, maybe you want to click through to the link, whatever-- you can't. because it is registration only. so maybe you hate 4e without ever having seen it, maybe the cool ideas that they are coming up with would whet your appetite, but. but you can't, because someone thought that limited access to promotional articles is a good bussiness model. really, the "dnd insider" thing? really? anyhow, it is a dumb idea & right here at the top of my post i want to mention that-- bad idea, uncool move.those epic paths are pretty neat though, i will tell you what. the basic premise is this: epic characters are immortal, though "immortal" can range from literally living forever to becoming a legend. first off-- good idea. i have had plenty of players who seemed really, really invested in having their characters become immortal, even in a low-magic setting like mine. making that sort of a condition of epic levels is a good, easy to grok benchmark. & frankly, a lot of epic games take that turn (in my experiance) what with characters becoming demigods or saints or whatever. before the rules were a sloppy mess-- how good is being a rank zero diety, in levels?-- but building that in? well done. so the samples they give are the artifact lord, which lets you, you know, do stuff with all the neat artifacts in dnd (sphere of anihilation!) & then when you die, your soul possesses an item; the blade of ragnarok, which makes you the possesser of blows that assail even the most baleful of enemies, & then you eventually wait, maybe in valhalla, maybe hibernating, waiting...waiting till the end of the world; the demigod, where you...well, not much to say, where you become a demigod; the eternal hero, the ever reincarnating champion who can draw on the power of his past lives; the force of nature where you gain command over the very elements before finally dissolving away into a sort of swamp thing like energy; & the mythic shadow, who is a whisper, an urban legend, someone who becomes constantly invisible, eventually blending into a mix of tall-tales & disbelief wherein even the kernal of truth vanishes. those are all...pretty cool.
