Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Khanzghul 01-19-04, 09:35 PM	Is there any form to justify, let say a Human Wizard 40 (without) templates nor presstige classes, (becoming an epic character must take a very long time)? In game terms and rules term. Thanks!!
Lexus 01-19-04, 09:39 PM	I've heard there's a feat that allows you to live longer in the epic level handbook. I don't have it so I don't know for sure.
Elendur 01-19-04, 10:10 PM	There aren't really any rules that say becoming an epic character takes a long time. If you take the approach that gaining epic levels is the same as gaining standard levels, then you'd need 13 encounters on average. Lets say you have 3 encounters per day, and round up to 5 solid days of adventuring per level. Lets say you have about 80% down time, so that's about 1 month per level. So that's 40 months, 3.3 years to level 40! Even if it was one year per level, that puts him in his 60's. Its totally dependent on the campaign, but its possible. As a counter example, the Epic Handbook says the Morkendain is a 27th level wizard and 80 years old. I assume in Greyhawk that epic levels are very rare. And remember if it does take a long time you can always pickup the epic feat extended lifespan.
burning_blood 01-19-04, 10:48 PM	My current character (paladin variant) has gone from level 1 to level 13 in about four game months (almost a year in RL). He also dismissed his mount about one game week ago, so by the time he can get a new one... I'm thinking some kind of celestial ancient bronze wyrm. So yeah, from 1st level to epic levels in less than a game year. BTW, he only turned 18 a month or so ago. So at this rate, by the time he's 30, he'll be on level... 468!!
Xalxika 01-20-04, 02:22 AM	Keep in mind there's a spell in the ELH (or it's one of the Seeds) that allows you to extend your maximum lifespan. It overlaps, though, so casting the same spell wouldn't increase your life. You need to research a higher version of the spell to increase your lifespan further. If that's not what you want, you can either take the Extended Lifespan feat or have the Immortality ritual cast on you from Relics and Rituals. It's a 9th level ritual, but a 40th level Wizard shouldn't have a problem finding people able to do it. Xal
wdarkk 01-20-04, 12:51 PM	That spell can be dispelled. The results ain't pretty.
Xalxika 01-20-04, 02:40 PM	Originally posted by wdarkk That spell can be dispelled. The results ain't pretty. I never said it didn't have any drawbacks. :b::b::b: Xal
Addi83 01-20-04, 07:29 PM	Become a chosen of a god, that grants immortality. I once had my players disrupt an evil wizard in the middle of the ritual he was performing to become a lich, and one of the PCs got blasted with something or other when the whole experiment went blammo (he wasn't a very capable wizard) and I decided that it made him immortal. He could still be killed as normal, but wouldn't age physically or die of old age, but since the character was a long lived drow, it was basically trivia, it would never come into play...and it hadnšt when we stopped playing.
Bluebrush 01-20-04, 07:36 PM	Or yes, there's always the lich option.
Glide 01-20-04, 09:28 PM	I have always belived that leveling up takes time. Our group has been been playing the same campaign for 5 real time years and 5 Game years. We have reached level 13. Of course we don't use the basic XP either... But our group has taken 2 year long breaks (in game). After defeating the "Ancient Blah of Somthingorother" and helping in saving the world. People need a break. The concept of an 18 year old epic character sickens me. Unless there are special circumstances.....planar accident....Paragon...ect. How wierd would that be? Jimmy the farmer boy is a scrawney kid from Tool'sberg that decides to "become an adventurer" for the glory. 365 days he comes back home riding a Silver Dragon with serveral thousand GP's of magic on him. Oh yeah, did I mention that fact that no comman man on the planet can hurt him anymore? These things should take time...at least IMO.
Xalxika 01-21-04, 12:12 AM	I'm with Glide on this. And if you look in the PHB for starting age, Humans start at 15 and add 2d6 years to start. That means that Human Wizards, at level 1, are between 17 and 27 years of age. Now, if it takes you that long to fine-tune simple spells, it's gonna take you a long ass time to reach epic levels. I will admit, however, that there is a large gap here because of Wizardry schools or studying alone, which both take a considerable amount of time, and that adventuring will advance knowledge faster. Even so, I believe that a Human Wizard should take around 25 years. This puts you in the Middle Age Catagory, with a max age of 52, one away from Old. Wizardry takes a long time to get right, and gaining the level of Intellect needed for those spells would take a considerable amount of time. Of course there will be acceptions and there'll be Epic Human Wizards who aren't Middle Age yet, but I don't think a Human Wizard should become Epic any earlier than say 27 years of age or so. Maybe even 30. Then multiply that age by whatever is needed for other races. Just my opinion, no need to flame. Xal
Balseraph 01-21-04, 12:18 AM	I ran my highly-successful Norse game a while ago, in which the characters went from 1-20 in about 6-8months RL. The thing was that I intended for each character to level once per session, and I think they levelled twice in a couple of sessions. In order to balance this RL feeling of urgency and advancement, there were often weeks, even months of Game Time in between these levels. Much of the time was spent travelling with minor (i.e. non-played) encounters that I just assumed that they triumphed over. I gave a lot of RP EXP in that game too. Towards the latter stages of the game there were usually months in between levels, sometimes even years. They started off as 16-18 y/o Norsemen who became the agents of their gods, and ended replacing the gods after Ragnarok... So in that way, they levelled fast IRL, but fairly slowly in game. Not to be discounted is the fact that a few literary characters "level" fairly swiftly. Admittedly 1-20 in a year seems a little fast, but if I gave myself some time, I'm sure I could think of a couple of situations where that might happen. Have a good one guys and gals! :cool:
burning_blood 01-21-04, 12:46 AM	Originally posted by Glide The concept of an 18 year old epic character sickens me. Yeah, I was a bit taken aback when I first realized how fast he was levelling up. But he's on a quest of some urgency, so he's been fighting almost non-stop for the whole four months of game time. Perhaps he should be suffering from burnout... That might be interesting to roleplay. The point I was trying to make is simply that there's no reason you need special life-extending circumstances to get a human character to epic levels. If level 20 is possible for a teenager (sickening though it may genuinely seem), then it's certainly possible for a 30 to 40 year old.
sparkster4242 01-21-04, 01:10 AM	I agree, for a hard-driving adventurer, under standard rules, epic levels dont take all that long. As for the immortality issue, one of my favorite methods is the Elder Druid PrC, from the Shannara (sp?) campaign setting. Of course, in most campaigns its woefully underpowered (mighty in low-magic campaigns though it is) ... but it still has a nice flavor. Snooze for a month once a year, and you can live forever.
Mitchell 01-21-04, 01:32 AM	The reverse of this is no better, however. If you impose an arbitrary time frame to leveling, then people are just going to start playing longer lived races. If you want to say that it takes a minimum of twenty years to reach epic, it still won't matter if your an elf. Besides, it doesn't take 17 years to learn basic magic, it takes 2d6 years. And that includes all the time that you aren't learning anything except how messy your instructor is because you have to clean out his tower while he's away on "business".