I was wrong.
Since it'll be easier, I'll break it down chapter-by-chapter. All pros will be marked with a + sign, all cons will be marked with a - sign.
Chapter 1: Characters, Skills And Feats. This chapter explains rules for characters beyond 20th level, as well as new, epic uses for skills, and new epic feats.
- I was sorely disappointed with what happens to the classes beyond 20th. They all gain access to the Bonus Feat abilities...and that's pretty much it.
Some class abilities like Favored Enemies and Sneak Attacks continue to develop past 20th, becoming more powerful, but there are no new abilities to speak of.
This part left me thirsting for new material, but just left me with the same old stuff, only advanced.
-/+ The new Epic Presige Classes were...alright, I guess. I couldn't really feel any true desire to play one, but I've never really felt that need for any Prestige Class.
-/+ Epic Skills consisted of new uses for skills, but not for every skill.
The new uses were alright, but I would've loved to see some new stuff...again, I was left with my desire alone.
+ The New Feats were very good! Some of them seemed extremely useful, and very few not so much, but it was one of the better parts.
- Some of the "new" feats were mentioned in the Deities and Demigods book, putting these feats uncomfortably close to the Gods.
Chapter 2: Epic Spells. This listed all the new spells available.
+/- I sort of skimmed this part, but most of the spells seemed...decent. A lot of it was geared towards blasting your foe to kingdom come or summoning something to blast your foe to kingdom come.
Chapter 3: Running An Epic Game. This included Experience Point awards for epic deeds and monsters, and other challenge ratings.
+/- It's pretty much essential for running an Epic Game.
Chapter 4: Epic Magic Items. Figure it out.
+ A lot of new stuff that you can (at least) take ideas from if you don't like them.
Chapter 5: Monsters. The Monsters section included two types of Monsters: The usual run-of-the-mill stuff, and Abominations: the bastard, unwanted children of deities.
+ The abominations are all very diverse, and some are actually quite cool.
+ The art is downright wicked.
+ These badasses will give a challenge to even the most powerful munchkins.
- Some of the abilities don't make sense. For example: How does something Colossal (the size of a small city) latch its COLOSSAL claws into something the size of a human and manage to rend?
- Some of the MONSTERS don't make sense. Why does a fiery hound-like thing use pseudopods to strike its victims when it has claws? WHY THE FUCK DOES IT HAVE PSEUDOPODS?!
- A lot of the abilities are too specific to mean anything really. Example: Headloss Resistance (Ex): This critter gets a bonus to its save anytime it would lose its head...woot woot.
- Generally, most of these critters and their stats look like someone pulled them out of their ass.
Final Chapter: An Epic Setting.
+ You can't really go wrong here. It's useful for ideas, or just on-the-go settings. Very handy.
The ParceReview Gives The Epic Level Handbook: 3 out of 10.
It's just too specific, too rushed, too weird, too silly to be of any real use to your average player. You can tell that someone up in WotC is getting lazy.
Buy it only if you actually INTEND to play an Epic Level game. Even then, you may just want to pull stuff out of your own ass rather than paying 50 bucks for stuff from someone else's.
quote:
G.S. Waisztarroz had this to say about Cuba:
I am not cool.
I thought it was almost as useless as Oriental Adventures.
Almost...
quote:
King Parcelan had this to say about Punky Brewster:
I thought it was almost as useless as Oriental Adventures.Almost...
Why you gotta be hatin'? 
quote:
G.S. Waisztarroz enlisted the help of an infinite number of monkeys to write:
Why you gotta be hatin'?
He's really a cute widdle fuzzy wuzzy teddy bear who wants a hug!
quote:
Adrecia Tru'Ril obviously shouldn't have said:
He's really a cute widdle fuzzy wuzzy teddy bear who wants a hug!
And then he'll EAT YOUR SOUL!
Lyinar Ka`Bael, Piney Fresh Druidess - Luclin
Plus I have frequent visions of grandeur.
quote:
King Parcelan had this to say about Robocop:
+ These badasses will give a challenge to even the most powerful munchkins.
Lets just see about that!
quote:
The logic train ran off the tracks when NiteShadow said:
hrmmm this post reminded me of what you said about the book of traps...
COULD IT BE THAT, now, this is nothing more than a theory, but could it be that your recognition of this thread and following queries of similarities of this thread to the thread in question is due to the fact that...
...they're BOTH reviews?
My God...do you know what this means?
I'll probably pick it up because I'm a completist and I might want to have some mighty NPC character in my game at some point.
See that's the problem with Parce Reviews of D&D books: He's not usually wrong. Even when you really want him to be.
protection from decapitation? wtf is that crap? anti-vorpal weapon defense? wtf!?
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
quote:
Maradön² wrote this then went back to looking for porn:
You listed exactly as many +'s as you did -'s.
so that just makes it... "a book"
so it being "The book" is completly out of the question, now isn't it ? [ 08-04-2002: Message edited by: Hamster Mack Boo ]
quote:
Maradön² spewed forth this undeniable truth:
You listed exactly as many +'s as you did -'s.
Ah, but you will notice that the +'s were relatively generic, while the -'s were much more in-depth.
This is because, try as I might, I couldn't think of all that many good things, while the bad things leapt readily to mind.
What is an Abomination? You mentioned it when you mentioned the bestiary. What sort of animals are we really talking here, keeping in mind that great wyrm dragons are only (only...ha...man do I sound bad saying that...) CR'd in the 20's?
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
I prolly won't buy it, but it'll be worth a browse when I'm deciding what to get next.
I want the Psionic's handbook
quote:
Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael had this to say about the Spice Girls:
Question:What is an Abomination? You mentioned it when you mentioned the bestiary. What sort of animals are we really talking here, keeping in mind that great wyrm dragons are only (only...ha...man do I sound bad saying that...) CR'd in the 20's?
Abominations are the bastard, near demigod-like children of gods who are unwanted and became evil and hateful of all life. They are created either through a God becoming involved with something he shouldn't, or by freak accidents.
An example is a Xixecal. A bastard child of a deity of Ice and Cold, it resembles a towering goliath made of ice. It's constantly surrounded by a fierce winter, and it's so large that white dragons perch on its shoulders.
Did you find the Demilich? IIRC, he has a nifty aura of death that you have to make a roll for every round hehe, if you fail you go splat; and thats just his aura =)
But really, the majority of DND players will never venture past lvl 20 simply because things get to crazy. Being more powerful then 95% of the things in the universe gets boring after a while.
[ 08-04-2002: Message edited by: The Last Strider ]
Necromancer: How DARE you imply that I was involved in a rude act with my undead servant! I will flay the flesh from your bones! I will summon a thousand maggot-ridden corpses to gnaw your flesh! I will trap your soul in-
Ghoul: My ass hurts.
quote:
King Parcelan had this to say about Pirotess:
Abominations are the bastard, near demigod-like children of gods who are unwanted and became evil and hateful of all life. They are created either through a God becoming involved with something he shouldn't, or by freak accidents.An example is a Xixecal. A bastard child of a deity of Ice and Cold, it resembles a towering goliath made of ice. It's constantly surrounded by a fierce winter, and it's so large that white dragons perch on its shoulders.
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Abomination Traits
Immunities (Ex): Abominations are immune to polymorphing, petrification, or any form-altering attack. They are not subject to Energy drain, ability drain, or
ability damage. They are immune to mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects), and are immune to one of five energy types (specific to abomination).Resistances (Ex): Abominations have fire resistance 20, cold resistance 20, and damage reduction of at least 30/+6 (certain abominations have higher damage reduction). Abominations all have significant spell resistance. Abominations resist detection, and are all treated as if affected by a nondetection spell of a caster level equal to the abomination's HD.
Special Qualities (Ex): All abominations have the spell-like ability to use true seeing at will, allowing them to pierce illusions, see invisable creatures, and see past foes protected by blur, displacement, or similar effects. Abominations are not subject to death from massive damage, and they have maximum hit points per Hit Die. Abominations have the blindsight extraordinary ability to a range of 500 feet. Abominations can choose both nonepic and epic feats as part of thier feat selection.
Telepathy (Su): Abominations can communicate telepathically with any creature within 1,000 feet that has a language.
Summon Creature (Sp): Abominations can summon creatures associated either with the portfolio of thier godly progenitor or with their imprisonment. For example, an abomination whose deific father's portfolio included the sky might be able to summon air elementals, while another abomination sealed away deep in the earth might be able to summon earth elementals (regardless of its mother's or father's portfolio). Summoned creatures serve the abomination without question. Summoned creatures automatically return whence they came after 1 hour, or sooner if slain.
