Legacy Champion and Epic Feats

[Yogibear41]

Can The Legacy Champion be used in combination with a 10 level prestige class for example the Blackguard to begin gaining epic level bonus feats before becoming level 20?

[animewatcha]

How would you bypass the need to be 21st HD to get these feats as part of level up advancement?

[Extra Anchovies]

Okay. Let's start with the relevant rules text.

Characters gain epic feats in the following ways:

At 21st level, and every three levels thereafter, the character may select an epic feat in place of a nonepic feat.

Each character class gains bonus epic feats according to the class description. These feats must be selected from the list of bonus epic feats for that class.

Bonus Feats
The epic blackguard gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic blackguard feats) every three levels after 10th.

Class Features: At each level except 1st and 7th, you gain class features and an increase in effective level as if you had also gained a level in a class to which you belonged before adding the prestige class level. The specific class features you gain include spells per day (and spells known, if applicable), improved chance of turning or destroying undead, metamagic or item creation feats, bonus feats, monk special abilities, sneak attack progressions, and so on, depending on the class. You do not, however, gain the benefit of your previous class's Hit Dice, attack progression, skill points, or saving throws. If you had more than one class before becoming a legacy champion, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining class abilities.

So Legacy Champion would grant the bonus feats from having more than 10 levels in Blackguard, AFAIK. Normally they wouldn't be able to take level 11 in Blackguard prior to 21st level but they aren't actually taking Blackguard levels, just advancing its class features.

However, the Epic Blackguard's Bonus Feats class feature says that you gain a bonus feat, but doesn't specify that you don't need to meet its prerequisites. It's the same thing as rogue special abilities or Loremaster secrets, where people who don't know what "exceptions-based rules system" will try to argue that not saying you need to meet the prerequisites means that they don't need to meet the prerequisites but those people won't actually have any ground to stand on.

So yeah. You can take the bonus feats, if you meet the requirements for them.

[Fouredged Sword]

Interestingly enough, while you take an epic feat in place of a normal feat once you pass level 20, there are many epic feats with no HD prereq or even any prereq at all to take them.

To quote the SRD
"At 21st level, and every three levels thereafter, the character may select an epic feat in place of a nonepic feat."

an ability that expressly allows one to take an epic feat before epic levels bypasses this. Most the good ones (the spellcasting stuff) DOES take epic level prereqs like skills over rank 23 and such.

Nothing I see stops you from taking, say, extra magic item slot, or damage reduction (epic).