At least that is what I hope this will become ^^
I have seen some threads here that have rules for epic level play and I thought it would be neat if we could collect them all together, so people can have a look and choose their favorite method.
This is not a thread to complain about epic level gameplay (I think there are enough of those around if you want to voice your opinion on that).
(I managed to get into epic levels once so far and since it was only for 2-3 levels we just continued on as if nothing had changed to wrap up the current story arc.
Personally I am not that interested in playing to even higher levels, but more in playing at level 20. When you finally get your level 20 abilities you wanna use them a few times at least)
So I'll just write up what I have read and still remember in various places (not only in Paizo forums) or have cooked up myself:
Method 1: Ignorance (Level cap? Whut?)
You just go on leveling. Everything increases like it has before (BAB, Saves, HD, etc...)
You can also continue to increase the classes abilities that have predictable patterns (Inspire Courage Bonus for Bard for example).
Method 2: World of Warcraft (Purple gear wohooo)
You simply stop leveling up. You just continue making money and increase your gear.
Method 3: Feats are the new levels
Instead of gaining a level when leveling up you get a feat. And that's it!
You can use the feat normal or do the following.
- Increase BAB by 1 (if you have BAB 20 already you simply get +1 to hit)
- Increase HP by 20 (basically you can take the Toughness feat over and over again)
- Increase a Save by 1
- Gain a new spell slot (if you have 3 slots of your maximum level (not counting ability score bonus slots or domain/specialization bonus slots) you can gain a slot at the next higher level)
- Gain 6 skill points (the maximum rank for a skill continues to rise with levels)
Method 4: Classes are the new levels
The level 20 cap is only for classes, not character level. At level 20 you simply multiclass and add the bonuses together as normal.
Method 5: Gestalting
Instead of going beyond 20 you begin at 1 again. Building your character up as a gestalt character (this obviously won't work if you are playing with gestalt characters).
So if you are Fighter 20, you can then go Monk 1 and level all the way to 20 again reaping the sweet bonuses of both classes.
For those that don't know gestalt characters:
If normal levels are stacked up like blocks to form a tower, then gestalt levels are a second separate tower next to it. You can only be in one tower at a time but you can always choose which one you like/need more at the moment.
Usually gestalt characters are made from the start and not added retroactively, but it is not really that hard to figure out (unless you multiclass a lot):
Mechanics wise you simply combine the best of two classes. You take best saves, best BAB, best hit die, best skill points at that level. Special abilities are simply added together. So a Wizard 20 that adds 1 gestalt level of Fighter gets: a bonus feat, BAB increases by 1, Fort Save +2, First hit die goes from d6 to d10 (thus you get +4 HP) and he also gets all the fighter weapon proficiencies and stuff. Since both Wizard and Fighter get 2 skillpoints they don't get any new skill points.
If he adds another level of fighter he gets another bonus feat, no BAB increase, bravery +1, Fort Save +1, +2 HP (if you used average HP, if not re-roll with the bigger dice and see if you can get higher) and again no skill points.
You might want to give out 2 extra skill points per level so characters with high skills (Like rogue) can still get a few skill points per level once they got to a low skill points class.
So. Gimme your ideas and I will add them to the rooster :)