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while I was waiting to go see a movie I decided to stop in at the local Software shack at the mall to see if there were any games worth buying. Imagine my suprise when I saw the Epic Level Handbook sitting on the shelf next to the newest online RPG. It was if i suddenly was posessed by Igor from Dork Tower, as I shouted "IT MUST BE MINE!!!!"
After shelling out the 40 dollars someone commented that they didn't think it was supposed to be on the sale shelf yet. The employee (read Wage Slave) said, "It isn't on the shelf. Well not anymore."

I have yet to sit down with it and read it, so this review will be a bit light. I will probbly post a full review once I have finished reading through it.

Art

This is something I really don't care much about generally in game books. Oh sure it's nice that its there, but it isn't the reason I am buying the book. It was cool to see how the Iconic characters have grown up, and most of the monsters are impressive, but for the most part the art was fairly typical for 3rd ed.

What in my mind stands out

Magic item creation rules: not too different from what was in the DMG, only the power level has changed here, still no rules for creating artifacts, but you could probably cobble them together if you needed too.

10th level spells: These I liked a lot, if only because to learn the spell the character must make a spell craft check to create it. The Spell seeds are a welcome addition to the D&D magic system IMHO. I would however like to see a spell seed type system in the future so that non epic characters can create their own spells.

Monsters: Bigger nastier dragons. ever seen Record of Lodoss War? Remember those dragons? Those are a start.

Setting info and NPCs: Handy but I will probably stick to creating my own.

to sum up

Cool book, lots of neat new toys to play with, many are a power gamer's wet dream come true. If you were planning on buying it any way, great, you'll love it. I don't think it is a must have, but I think I can rip the info in it apart to put together what I'll find useful fairly easily.

I'd give it a 68 Dick, it's got a good beat that you can dance to, and it's catchy. (sorry an American Bandstand moment there) I'll give it a 6.3 on a scale of 1 to 10.