This review has been sponsored by the publisher. Find more reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using affiliate links for shopping and pledging via Patreon.
Designed by: Mike Myler
My last foray into epic levels in D&D (20+) was nearly twenty years ago during Neverwinter Nights‘ second expansion, Hoards of the Underdark, which included fighting an entire dungeon full of beholders and taking on Mephistopheles himself. Legendary Adventures: Epic Play for Fifth Edition is an upcoming supplement that adds epic levels, and equally epic monsters, to D&D Fifth Edition.
Find Legendary Adventures on Kickstarter
Legendary Adventures is a two-in-one supplement for D&D groups interested in extremely high-level play that goes well beyond Tier 4. The supplement spans over a hundred pages and includes 50 new monsters, over a dozen epic feats, and nine levels of features and traits to get all 11 classes (sans the new Artificer) up to level 30.
The new class features take up about 30 pages, or about the first third of the book. Epic levels continue to increase players’ proficiency bonuses (up to +9), spell slots, and Ability Score Improvements. Many epic features are disappointingly copy and pasted for each class, including being able to acquire a second class archetype as well as legendary and epic-level prestige, recognizing the epic-level PC as world-famous (no shit).
The features that are new, however, include great ideas and concepts for many of the classes.
At 29th level the bard can give an Epic Performance, charming those around them, and possibly affecting them with a 9th level Mass Suggestion. At level 21 the Druid can expend four hours of Wild Shape to become One with Nature, melding into the terrain around them and transforming into a fun statblock that can swallow creatures and unleash lair actions. The epic Rogue becomes even more of a game-breaking pain in the ass, able to attune to a fourth item, gain a second reaction, and deal max damage on a crit with a CON save for instant death.
At every other level you can choose between an ASI and a feat, or an epic feat. As you can imagine, epic feats are pretty darn powerful, such as gaining one use of Legendary Resistance, gaining damage resistance to any damage type, or the ability to throw a Pokéball, er, “ball of magic,” to summon an allied monster from a d8 table. I choose you, manticore!
The other two thirds of Legendary Adventures is the aptly named Legendary Bestiary, featuring dozens of new monsters from CR 21 up to CR 35. Shove over, Tarrasque, literally Satan is here, and he does not mess around.
The original 5e Monster Manual includes several epic-level threats, but they’re mostly limited to ancient dragons, liches, the kraken, and the aforementioned Godzilla knockoff. This bestiary focuses purely on high-level threats, and features a much wider variety of creatures, including super high-level NPCs like the Archdruid, Necrolord, and Mage-King. If PCs can reach epic levels, why not humanoid NPCs?
If you’d rather tussle with more typical world-ending monsters, we’ve got elder gods, fallen angels, and the Mother of Vampires. Epic dragons include the soul-consuming Soulhoarder Dragon that makes resurrection particularly difficult, while Epic Elementals combine two different elemental planes, like Volcanic (fire and earth) and Steamrage (fire and water) to create gargantuan elemental creatures that are distinct from the elemental bosses seen in Princes of the Apocalypse.
Many of the epic monsters are inspired by Irish and Norse mythology, as well as classic Arthurian legends, with Jormungandr the world serpent, Morgan Le Fay, and even Odin himself.
My favorite monsters play around with time-travel and technology. The time-travelling Athurian wizard Merlin can summon gun turrets, the Robodragon can fire laser beams while flying on energy wings, and the Blasphemous Golem is an awesome combination of Ultron and Iron Man. Advanced technology mostly uses spellcasting for its mechanics; it’s a smart way to bypass the huge number of Counterspells and Dispel Magics that epic level players are sure to deploy.
Each monster (and epic class) is accompanied by fantastic artwork, including some stellar full and half page environmental art. On the flip side, the supplement has one of the most poorly designed statblock layouts I’ve seen in a bestiary. They lack subheadings, dividers, and color. At these levels most monster actions and traits take up an entire page, making them needlessly difficult to parse.
I also wish the supplement included some adventure hooks or story seeds using these high-powered monsters and NPCs. I’m not looking for a full-on campaign or even a module, but a few pages of story ideas and example encounters would have gone a long way to showcasing how these memorable threats could be utilized.
Overall Legendary Adventures is an impressive supplement that should satisfy your epic-level needs, if only to show off some truly terrifying monstrosities.
Find Legendary Adventures on Kickstarter
Pros:
- 50 CR 20+ monsters, including powerful dragons, colossal elementals, renegade constructs, and cyborg assassins from the future.
- Epic class features and traits for levels 21-30.
- Over a dozen epic feats.
- Original artwork for each monster and epic class.
Cons:
- Unattractive tables and statblock layouts (or lack thereof).
- Where are the adventures?
The Verdict: Legendary Adventures is a comprehensive epic level supplement with powerful feats and character traits alongside an impressive variety of world-shattering threats.
This review has been sponsored by the publisher Find more reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using affiliate links for shopping and pledging via Patreon.
RogueWatson 