The Dragon magazine update for today (hurry, grab them as they come out before you have to pay or pirate!) is all about epic destinies for Forgotten Realms. It includes 3 new epic desitines: Elf High Mage, Harper of Legend, and Mythic Sovereign.
Elf High Mage starts to become one with magic itself, granting all sorts of Arcane based abilities that interact with your healing surges. Your epic exit can be to join into a powerful work of magic.
Harper of Legend is probably the one that requires the most tweaking to appear elsewhere than the Realms. Their powers are mainly defensive, and when your time is up, you can become a Ghost Harper, granting quests to future generations.
Then there’s the Mythic Sovereign, or as I described it, “f**k you I’m King Arthur.” You are destined to be a great leader, which gives you some Warlordy-benefits, but they also get my favorite exit: you ascend the throne and usher in a golden age. Unlike most of the other epic destinies, you don’t die or dissappear… you just retire from adventuring life to do something awesome. The writing for it is superb and inspiring: exactly what I want for an epic destiny.
This all reminds me of the old Immortals Boxed set (which I think I still own) that one of my first DMs had adapted to work with 2nd edition. Unlike the 3e era’s infinite scaling of levels (of which I tried to run many campaigns, only to have it totally bog down), I’m really looking forward to the truly epic feeling in 4e.
Call me old-fashioned, but I recall a time when you would take up what is now called your “Mythic Sovereign”(tm) Epic Destiny(tm) at 9th level as a standard class feature. Given that Mr Baker once create an entire AD&D setting where you could do same from 1st level (“Birthright”, aka ‘everything 4th Ed currently lacks’) this latest offering seems to betray a certain failure of imagination.
Colour me greatly unimpressed.
4E IS DIFFERENT!
ARGGGGGG!!!
Reverend Mike´s last post: The Second Party: A Prelude
It makes me sad that one of the games I’m playing where my character is trying to become a great king is 3.5 and not 4e. That’s EXACTLY how I would want him to finish up the game.
highbulp: I recall an article that Wizards released shortly before 4e came out regarding integrating epic destinies into 3.5…it was something along the line of writing out a number of feats in exchange for the benefits of an Epic Destiny…you may be able to adapt the Sovereign as such…
Reverend Mike´s last post: The Second Party: A Prelude
Mike: Hmm, I might look into that. I wasn’t sure what to do with my last few feats anyway ;p Of course I doubt my DM would go for it, but it’s worth a shot (and it gives me something to do!)
highbulp: Beat your DM over the head with a stick. If he doesn’t want his players to have fun, then continue beating him!
Chris: You’re old-fashioned (he asked for it)
Bartoneus: You, sir, are a poopy head 😛
Seriously, these destinies sound pretty cool to me 😉
Thanks for the heads up.
It would have been nice of WOTC to put these in with the FR Player’s Guide though – it only has one new Epic Destiny in it.
As for old fashioned, well, I miss the days of a paper based D&D magazine
Hammer´s last post: Dungeons and Dragons 4e Releases