3.5 Epic Destinies: Are they worth it?

[Xuldarinar]

In searching around for information regarding epic binders, I came across something I hadn't expected: Epic destinies for 3.5. Just so we are all on the same page, here is a link (http://web.archive.org/web/20090218080723/http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080428).

My question is as it says in the title, are they worth it? Would they be worth it with the variant where you start your epic destiny at 12th level? Really, what do you think about these?

[OldTrees1]

The Eternal Hero's first ability (free True Resurrection on self at Dawn) is nice.

Mythic Shadows's second ability (constant suppressible Greater Inivisibility) is nice. [Unless Detect Magic will locate you even when it is suppressed]

I did not care for/about any of the other abilities.

[Zanos]

The Artifact Lords Disjunction Ward and Impossible Activation abilities both seem pretty amazing. Impossible Activation means you can pretty much always respond to a situation if you have a magic item that is relevant, and Disjunction Ward makes it incredibly difficult for people to remove your magic item buffs/immunities, which are fairly important past 20.

Some of the other abilities are neat or interesting, like the Demigods immediate action full heal+greater restoration, but I don't think they're worth epic feats.

[Chronos]

The Artifact Lord's first "ability" is actually a significant penalty, due presumably to sloppy writing. Always automatically getting a result of 20 on UMD checks means that you can never again succeed on any check other than "Use a Wand" and possibly "Emulate an Ability Score", as the others all have DCs higher than 20. Presumably, what they meant to say was that you're treated as getting a 20 on the die roll.

[Xuldarinar]

The Artifact Lords Disjunction Ward and Impossible Activation abilities both seem pretty amazing. Impossible Activation means you can pretty much always respond to a situation if you have a magic item that is relevant, and Disjunction Ward makes it incredibly difficult for people to remove your magic item buffs/immunities, which are fairly important past 20.

Some of the other abilities are neat or interesting, like the Demigods immediate action full heal+greater restoration, but I don't think they're worth epic feats.

Assuming you use the RaI over the RaW, I couldn't agree more. As far as worth, theres more to consider.

Granted, if you use these for 21-30, you are giving up a fair bit of epic feats. Not all the ones you'd necessarily get as you may get bonus feats in that time, but you are giving up 4 feats you otherwise would attain. Lets think of it like this: Would you take those abilities if they were granted as feats?

Another thing to consider is, if they may not be worth it for 21-30, would they be worth it for 12-20?


The Artifact Lord's first "ability" is actually a significant penalty, due presumably to sloppy writing. Always automatically getting a result of 20 on UMD checks means that you can never again succeed on any check other than "Use a Wand" and possibly "Emulate an Ability Score", as the others all have DCs higher than 20. Presumably, what they meant to say was that you're treated as getting a 20 on the die roll.

Yeah, the intent is very clear but what it came out as just doesn't work.





Another amusing notion came to mind, at least I find it amusing. Someone attempting to emulate 4e with 3.5 rules:

Build rules (a): 1st 10 levels are of 1 base class. You may dip 1 level in another class in that time but nothing more. Your 2nd 10 levels must be in a prestige class of your choice that you qualify for. Your 3rd 10 levels must involve a epic destiny and the next 10 levels of your base class, your prestige class, or 10 levels in a different Prestige class.

Build rules (b): 1st 10 levels are of 1 base class. You may dip a single level in another class in that time but nothing more. Your 2nd 10 levels must be in a prestige class of your choice and must involve an epic destiny.