Before we talk about what an Adventurers League Epic is, we need to discuss what a season is in Adventurers League. In a season, you and your party compete against challenges to accomplish a certain goal. Now every year, Wizards of the Coast, the owners of Dungeon and Dragons, release two new seasons for Adventurers League players. These seasons have a general theme behind all of them such as dragons are reigning down death to cities. Or adventurers have discovered a map to a secret treasure that all are competing for. In each season, you complete adventures that pertain to the overarching theme. The result of these adventures is the Epic. The big and final push for the season. here not just one group of adventurers, but at least forty adventurers must work together to accomplish this goal.
The Rules To Run An Adventurers League Epic.
To run an Epic, one needs to meet a few conditions for hosting an Epic. The staples are that you must have at least forty people able to play the Epic. It must be approved by Wizards of the Coast that you can host one. Finally, you need players ranging in all four tiers of gameplay. After these conditions have been met, it is up to you to host, organize, and put together your Epic for all players. The result of this though is a rewarding experience that leaves a lasting memory to all who play.
What Players Need To Know For Epics.
So, an awesome person has decided to host an Adventurers League Epic for you, and you want to make sure you are prepared. Well congratulations, you have chosen the right page to learn it all!
Now, an Epic varies season to season. As such, the rules pertaining to each can vary, but there are a few rules that I have noticed in my playthroughs I naturally assume. One, no long rest. A long rest is what everyone dreams of being able to do after a tough battle. But in these situations, you are forced to keep on trudging through. Second, only one to two short rest for the entire session. The reason is cause none of the other parties can wait on you taking lots of short rests. These two rules alone can be very limiting as it means your adventures and choices must be chosen carefully. Failure to complete objectives means doom for not just you, but all other adventures as well. Not moving forward means failure as well, leaving you with moving forward with little rest and the need to be victorious.
Adventurers League Epic Past Rules
After rests, another few rules I have encountered are no shopping during the Epic. All items must be bought beforehand as chaos is everywhere and no stores are going to be open during that. Another rule has been no ritual casting due to something transpiring during the Epic. Of course, this severely limits being able to save spell slots to magic casters making it that much harder to manage resources. Finally, my last rule that I have seen in an Epic is casting magic forces you to roll on the wild magic table (a sorcerer sub-class). This can result in anything from you growing a beard of feathers to a fireball cast on yourself making everything fun and random. While not exhaustive, take these circumstantial rules into account as to what can and will happen while you go and complete an Epic.
What Does This Mean For The Season?
Accomplishing an Epic is a long and perilous journey where your group is not the only one that matters. Another team failing to accomplish their objective could lead to all sorts of nasty consequences. These issues could be, your party now has disadvantage on your next battle due to another party not getting you access to the bridge, or even your entire mission fails due to both parties being unable to complete their missions. That is right, it doesn’t just matter if you complete your mission, but also matters on whether everyone completes their missions. Too many failures can spell doom for the rest of the 40+ people fighting to win this Epic. So make sure you try your best and succeed!
A failure for the Epic does not just mean trouble for all you adventurers, but also failure for that entire season. So, let us say dragons are coming to release their god Tiamat, goddess of dragons and burner of worlds. Failure to do so means your party not only failed in protecting the city but also, she now reigns free and plagues the land. This might force you all to fight her now more powerful with you more exhausted in the next season, or perhaps enough groups worldwide succeeded, and they decide to move onto a new season. Whatever the case failure means problems for everyone and that is why Epics can be so serious as everyone wants a happy ending.
What About This Happy Ending?
So, I talked a lot about failure, but what about succeeding? To successfully complete the mission means you all are the savior of mankind as the major threat to the world has ended. That means the rewards will be great. Rewards vary but magical items are definite. These can range from standard powerful items such as a wand of lightning bolts, all the way to super rare and exclusive items such as tomes that can raise your stats past the limit set in place by Dungeon and Dragons. Magic items are not the only available item, but also story rewards exist that are phenomenal. These vary to even more extremes than magic items. For instance, some in the past have been having your own pet griffon. While another has been being resistant to all diseases.
There is also the added benefit of Fai-Chen. A full description of what Fai-Chen is, can be found later in the article. That said, what is important to know right now, is that it is the only magical item trader in Adventurers League allowing you to trade with adventures without spending downtime days. While also allowing you access to buy magic items, pets, and trinkets that are released only during the epic. So why failure means doom, success means riches and gains beyond compare.
Why Should I Play An Adventurers League Epic?
If the rewards do not intrigue you, then the comradery you experience from an Epic hopefully will. As mentioned before, tension can be high as the Epic begins. You are forced to rely on not only your team but everyone else as well. As a result, most Epics use that to their advantage by building hype by making it an all-day session or for conventions a three-day event. That is right, an Epic can last 3 days! With the first two days usually adventures that build up to the Adventurers League Epic. This allows for numerous occasions to create lasting memories with both new people and old friends. Allowing for probably the most fun I have ever had in Adventurers League. And I’m sure you will too.
Fai Chen!
Hold on, what is “Fai Chen”? At Adventurers League Epics, conventions will host Fai Chen. Now, to those that have never played Adventurers League. Magic Items are hard to come by. To make things even more difficult, only certain ones are unlocked at the end of certain adventures. These are obtained with treasury points earned after completing adventures. For full Fai-Chen rules are found on Wizard of the Coast’s Adventurers League Page. Now that said, I am focusing on Fai-Chen lesser known facts. For instance, Fai-Chen goes above and beyond normal magic items, by offering limited releases of unique stuff. One Faire I went to, had a magic carpet you could obtain in exchange for another very rare magic item. Another gave you Gloves of Thievery, an awesome item that can only be found in one rarely played adventure.
Another time, I traded with someone for the best deal of my life. A “Hammer of Thunderbolts” for a “Luck Sword”. Also, if someone thinks I tricked him, I let him know what he was trading for. He said he did not care since he had both of the other magic items needed to wield it and wanted it. These are just a few of the many examples I have had in my time going to Fai Chen.
Fai Chen: Pets
Fai-Chen also sells pets. For instance, I have a screaming goat that is a familiar to my gnome wizard. Not only is it cool fluff, but it transforms my familiar into something I can ride giving me full access to a riding creature for a few gold pieces. Now, for those that often get in trouble, there was a pet that was great for my rogue. My rogue bought a cat! He was so cute and grumpy, that I had to get him. His name was Lord Grumplefluff, and he saved my life because he had a pet perk of preventing you from getting arrested once. Extremely useful when caught pickpocketing a noble. As nothing is more distracting than a cat that hates the police protecting his master and having the DM roleplay the encounter.
Fai-Chen: Trinkets
Another thing I have obtained, are trinkets. These vary widely but some of my two favorites I have ever gotten was an umbrella that floats around me and shields me from the rain and sun. Thus, giving advantage on exhaustion saves in these climates. Especially useful in desert situations when the party is dying of heat.
Why the second one was an organic bag that prevented things from rotting. This was great for my necromancer wizard. Since now, I could now keep specimens in there without worrying they would rot past usability. It also was useful when carrying fresh food why traveling, making me the envy of all my companions. These can only be accessed in specific seasons by going to Epics, really making your character fleshed out.
Fai Chen: Houses
Now many homebrews allow for you to build or buy bases. Adventurers League however only has one instance to do this outside of an Epic. This means obtaining bases are extremely hard and rare to do. Now though, by going to an Adventurers League Epic, you can buy houses and forts and customize them however you see fit. I have known people that have used these as places to rest, role play why they need to protect a place or even a base of operations where they spend their time creating permanent magical locations for their adventures. All have been really unique and a blast to hear someone give me a tour of their home. Making them a ton of fun and something heavily sought after.
Personality Quirks
Now if you notice, I also mentioned personality quirks. “What are these exactly you might ask?” Well, at Fai Chen’s Fantastical Faire’s, you can buy quirks to add to a character of your choice and give him a unique trait. For example, I have a gambling sorcerer who has one of these traits. He became addicted to gambling and now before any adventure, I have to roll to see what happens to me. Now if I roll terribly, I suffer a point of exhaustion and start off with half health. A terrifying notion to begin an adventure.
Especially terrifying when considering my sorcerer would only have 25 hit points like that. However, a good roll would mean I would have my choice of gold, +1 magical arrows, or a basic potion of “Alchemist Fire”, or “Potion of Healing”. This fleshed out my character so much more as I already had him as a gambler. Now though, I have actual consequences of this backstory allowing for great role play moments. So, keep an eye out for these as they can help you roleplay your character.
Adventurers League Epic Summary
If you are intrigued by this whole idea, then I highly suggest checking to see if an Adventurers League Epic is near you or coming up. This way, you can see first-hand what it is like for yourself and have your own inside scoop. Also, be sure to check out my other Adventurers League articles on my website. They are filled with details that I had trouble finding in the past and wanted to help my readers find it easily. I hope you enjoy your read through, and as always keep on rolling!
- P.S. If you enjoyed this post and others like this, subscribe to my Patreon and help decide on what content will be released as well as get exclusive posts only available to subscribers with all charts used included!