Rating: 
Summary: Progress is Good
Review: I have to laugh at the people who become offended and upset at the way another group of people they don't even know play a fantasy game. People are always going to play games differently. Some people put invisible men on base in backyard baseball. Some people play Monopoly with two boards or with $1 bills as $1000 dollar bills. Some people play Truth or Dare and lie. So people play D&D differently. Some gamers like to worry about a group of orcs over the rise, how long their rations will last and if the thief can make that roll to sneak into the orc camp. That's great. Those are fun games. Some folks like to charge into the dragon's cave with a character that barely has a name, and fight him tooth & sword down to the last hit point and haul out treasure heavier than they can carry if they survive. Those are fun games. Some people want to plot an elaborate take-over of the Planes of Hell with subterfuge, political intrigue and lots of discussio between players and DM. Those are fun games. They are all fun.Epic level games are fun. They are different from low level games, and similiar as well. The way this book is presented a 21st level character is very similiar to a 1st level character. many of your current abilities don't count for a lot and you see a whole horizon of challenges with abilities far superior (ones that do matter!) I think this is a great system for story book type adventures (or movie adventures if you will), where the characters are quite formidable, but always challenged. The advancement for characters is good (with characters chosen feats providing their primary power and differentation from each other). It's possible to have to 40th level fighters who differ from another as much as a fighter and a wizard did at 1st level. The spells for spellcasters have become more independent (as each caster now develops his own individual high level spells. Limited only by the player's imagination and ingenuity. The feats for characters have become the stuff of legend (like balancing on a cloud-- could someone do it they had the grace of a god?) Fighters never stop gaining hit points and gain strength and damage reduction-- they would seem invulnerable until you turn to the epic monster section of the book and then start wondering if the character has a chance! The book is excellent. If it has any fault it is with its failure to adequately address multi-classed characters. It is definitely preferable to play a single-class in this system.
Rating: 
Summary: weak character development but interesting on the whole
Review: I must admit that the Epic Level Handbook was a bit of a dissapointment at first. But it grew on me. The development of Epic characters is really verry limited. Nothing other than the obvious, such increases in a rouges sneak attack damage, was included in how these characters develop. On the other hand, they all ge tbonus feats which allow for much greater flexibility in your character. If you like being told, step by step how your characters develop, this is not the book for you. On the other hand, if you like being able to really customise your character, this is the place to go. The magic items ranged from inspired, to stupid to obvious (like epic cloaks of charisma). I think that my favorite part of this book was the monster section, this was absolutely amazing, i was tempted to start a campaign at epic level just so that i could go off and fight these amazing monsters. And things like the paragon monsters paved the way for creating uncounted new epic monsters with ease. THe epic setting was a little unbelievable, and suspension of disbelief would be nogh on impossible playing in this setting. There are reedeming values to this section though, the epic organisations could easily be fitted into any campaign and enhnce the playing experience. All in all a good book,
Rating:
Summary: weak character development but interesting on the whole
Review: I must admit that the Epic Level Handbook was a bit of a dissapointment at first. But it grew on me. The development of Epic characters is really verry limited. Nothing other than the obvious, such increases in a rouges sneak attack damage, was included in how these characters develop. On the other hand, they all ge tbonus feats which allow for much greater flexibility in your character. If you like being told, step by step how your characters develop, this is not the book for you. On the other hand, if you like being able to really customise your character, this is the place to go. The magic items ranged from inspired, to stupid to obvious (like epic cloaks of charisma). I think that my favorite part of this book was the monster section, this was absolutely amazing, i was tempted to start a campaign at epic level just so that i could go off and fight these amazing monsters. And things like the paragon monsters paved the way for creating uncounted new epic monsters with ease. THe epic setting was a little unbelievable, and suspension of disbelief would be nogh on impossible playing in this setting. There are reedeming values to this section though, the epic organisations could easily be fitted into any campaign and enhnce the playing experience. All in all a good book,
Rating:
Summary: Makes me want to speed up my campaign
Review: I started getting ideas for epic adventures as soon as I started reading this book. It is really cool to see the descriptions of what the base classes look like beyond twentieth level. The new prestige classes are amazing, as well. I designed an entire campaign around an epic-level villain because of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Makes me want to speed up my campaign
Review: I started getting ideas for epic adventures as soon as I started reading this book. It is really cool to see the descriptions of what the base classes look like beyond twentieth level. The new prestige classes are amazing, as well. I designed an entire campaign around an epic-level villain because of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Really good stuff
Review: I think a lot of DMs were expecting the wrong thing from this book. They were hoping for a book that would give them step-by-step instructions on how to keep challenging their higher-than-high level characters. Well, you know what, that's just not possible. As this book demonstrates, by 25th level, a rogue could be master of all the guilds in a game world, the greatest relic hunter ever or just one of a number of high-powered rogues, still answerable to older, or at least more experienced NPCs. Really, at about 15th-level, the games is blown wide open and characters become capable of handling just about any challenge the DM has to offer, given time and opportunity. The best this book can do is make those adventures more entertaining and just as full of creativity. From new and unusual uses for skills to brand new feats and a nifty way of looking at the spell system to cogent, concise rules on character development beyond 20th level, this book has it all. As with many general source books, the magic items kind of falter a bit, but that's mostly because the ideas you and your group come up with are bound to be better. Let's face it, when you have several million gold pieces and want a custom-made magic weapon, you aren't going to go for one in a catologue. Oh, and the monsters made me all tingly with anticipation. (To my gaming group) C'mon, level up already, I've got new ways to try and kill you!
Rating:
Summary: A Fun Read With Some Good Ideas....
Review: I think that anyone who enjoys playing D&D will like this book. You may never get arround to using the information in here or very seldom anyway but its a lot of fun to imagine your characters with the abilities presented here. Plus there are alot of suggestions that they make about DMing high level campaigns that could be usefull for any game, and some rules variants that seemed very intresting.
Rating:
Summary: Actually, not as bad as I first thought
Review: I thought when I bought it, "great, now I'll play at higher levels." After 20th level, though, the rule really stink. I agreed that the Base Attack Bonus and Save Bonus were very good calls, as I understood the reasoning behind it. However, the spellcast system was awkward and stupid. "[...] does not gain spells after level 20." Instead However, after taking out the epic level spells, and rewriting some of the more messed up rules (spell advancement +1 every 4 levels, and I added a damage enhancement equation (+level/(10-spell level [1st-9th level spells only]) so that spells would grow stronger and not weaker as the levels progressed, and I added a slight ability bonus to balance this with the other characters), it was truly an epic book for advanced characters. Also, the monsters were very powerful, but there was a decent list of feats, and everyone got bonus feats to help with protection against certain elements or damage reduction. Aside from the fact that I had to scrap epic spells entirely, this worked nicely.
Rating:
Summary: You get what you pay for!
Review: I've heard alot of negative feedback about the Epic Level Handbook. While people are certainly entitled ot have their opinions, one very important fact needs to be kept in mind: RPG's are a business. WotC has produced the product that people have been asking for. They have done more market research and playtesting than TSR ever did, and since many RPG players are kids who grew up playing video games, it comes as no surprise to me that the ELH reflects their tastes and ideas about what makes a good game. Before you start railaing against the ELH for what it is (a product designed on market research), you should take a good hard look at the type of people playing the game. With that said, I found the ELH a good value for the money. There's certainly enough material there to make it worth getting, particularly the epic dragons and demilich.
Rating:
Summary: It's actually pretty good
Review: If anything, the Epic Level Handbook is UNDERPOWERED compared to what was expected. The progression over 20th level is rather sedate. Some of the skills pointed out as being ridiculous actually can be found used in - wouldn't you know it? - epics like that of Cu Chulainn or the Mabinogion or the Kalevala. Such tales from the real world are FILLED with heroes doing things like swimming up waterfalls and any number of other endeavors normally impossible for individuals, like diverting rivers. The book is about EPIC level play, after all. It's meant to evoke the kinds of feats (not in the D&D sense) we find in legend. While the book does approach this level of play, it is remarkably conservative in what is presented. Sure, the epic spells are extremely powerful - but look at the prerequisites and cost! No character is going to be wielding such magic daily, if ever - unless the campaign was already way out of balance before the ELH was published. The spells are good examples of what to do with the new "spell seeds" concept. The skills and feats are logical, and often kind of mundane, extensions of the material in the Player's Handbook. The new epic monsters are amazingly strange, unique, and powerful. Anyone worried about Monty Haulism cropping up with the ELH need only trot out some of these new critters into a campaign - then you'll see why some of the epic level material is needed. Even then, epic-level characters will be hard-pressed to even survive against many of these monsters. I wasn't too keen on the section about the "epic city." I just wasn't convinced that such a city could exist (I think I saw 29th level, nameless NPC city guards). Plus, I just wasn't too inspired by it. I think that much of this section could have been replaced by more monsters, spells, skills, feats, and other supplemental material. Overall, the ELH is a good addition to D&D, and covers areas of the game I've been waiting to see covered for 20+ years. All the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the book I've seen on the internet has been overblown - as I said above, the ELH, if anything, was underpowered compared to what was expected. And that's better than being overpowered.
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