Epic Level Campaigns?

[Lastgrasp]

Has anyone tried running an Epic Level Campaign? Level 20 to 30? How do you run your adventures and what do you do to challenge your PCs? Do you update the rules in the Epic Level Handbook or make your own?

What resources are you using?
I'm thinking Epic Level Handbook, Deities and Demigods, Faith & Pantheons, Manual of the Planes(for setting), The Divine & The Defeated(from S&S), Power of Faerun(for ideas on playing high level campaigns), etc.

[Curmudgeon]

I use dozens of books.

The important thing is to rein in the spellcasting power, or things go off the rails immediately. Epic spell seed stuff just doesn't work, so that gets thrown out. (Improved Spell Capacity [Epic] still lets casters get level 10+ spells, but they're just metamagicked versions of level 0-9 spells.) Metamagic cost reducers are banned, and there's absolutely no "free" metamagic (as in Incantatrix). Then individual spells are scrutinized. As an example, the whole Alter Self-Shapechange line is dependent on knowing about various forms, and we don't let player knowledge of forms affect character knowledge. So the character has to Spot a particular creature type, and succeed on the correct Knowledge check to identify that creature, before they can use it in a spell.

Other things that crank up power get thrown out, too: gestalt characters, bloodlines (largely because nobody can agree on how they work :smallsigh:), generic classes. And we keep strict track of requirements like alignment, so no Paladin/Assassin characters. No mixing regional stuff across different worlds (campaign settings).

Mostly it's just a matter of thinking through any oddball mixtures and seeing if they make sense in the rules system. That typically means that "back stories" are allowed very minimal (usually negligible) impact on what's available to the character in terms of game options. Typically the ones that don't make sense are the ones that lead to "this breaks the game" sorts of problems.

To challenge the PCs I generally make the enemies have the same sorts of capabilities. That is, they're mostly based on PC classes rather than just monster HD. And frequently I challenge the PCs to defend (settlements, shrines, people) against attacks, because that's much harder than just faring for themselves. It isn't enough to just kill the enemies; they can do that and still fail miserably if the enemies kill or destroy what the PCs are supposed to defend.

[Trebloc]

We use core, PH2, MIC and ToB. Currently level 28+.

We do allow epic spellcasting, but player/DM discussion has tried to stay away from the uber buffs that can be made. Otherwise, nothing that broken has happened with this yet.

The players also have to be somewhat active and helpful to keep the game balanced and fun. Also, the players for a whole have made few, if any "stupid" PC decisions. Not going to say super-optomized, but all the PCs are very solidly built.

I use a mixture of the monsters found in the epic section of the SRD, MM monsters that are either advanced or have class levels, and regular races with class levels.

A big thing that I have done so far is have the group work on a very strict schedule. World blows up in 5 days for instance. This keeps the casters from going nova, then resting. Also, far more than 4 encounters per day, which forces casters to conserve spells and lets non-casters have some glory.

When it comes to non-combat challenges, I don't try to figure out how they'll overcome the challenge -- there are too many spells, gadgets, skills, feats and player inginuity for me to do that at epic levels.

Also, the bad guys have to be extremely well thought out. None of this scry on them, teleport in, BOOM stuff I've read about. The bad guy can't be dumb enough to "let" that happen.

If your players aren't aware of it, warn them that death will happen. And as the DM, don't be afraid to kill them. Sometimes the dice fall badly for the PC, sometimes they do something dumb, but at epic levels, death is a minor nuisance.

We also have an online forum we use for things like loot discussion, shopping and rules questions. This helps us keep things at the table going more smoothly.

I'm sure there's more too that we do that's become second nature to us now. Ask away if you have questions.