Setting aside all of the lopsided marketing (Silver Wolf's animated short does not appear in-game, unlike Castorice's and Phainon's, and Evanescia's trailer feels rushed), the inverted story shill pattern (versions 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.5, 3.6, and 4.0 shill the first banner character during the first story half), the unusually short duration of the 4.2 story, the weird shoehornings of Silver Wolf into scenes, the vast swaths of missing Evanescia scenes ("sinner" unexplained, pink fox beast unexplained), the unexplained Evanescia E6 art (and even then, that had its sakura blossoms changed to gingko leaves)...

Mortis, a leaker who had 100% accuracy, told us that Evanescia would have an Ultimate themed after the Night Parade of 100 Demons.

Notice how Silver Wolf LV.999's Ultimate has exactly 100 bounces, and how Evanescia wants 999+ Certified Banger.

They had their kits swapped, and their animations kludged and repurposed.

Evanescia's Ultimate would have transformed her into a "sinner" that looks like her E6 art (except with sakura blossoms), and her Night Parade of 100 Demons would have had 100 bounces. Evanescia would have had the global passive, themed after Abundance powers, not a cheap antivirus joke. Meanwhile, Silver Wolf LV.999 would want 999+ Certified Banger.

The original plan would have given Evanescia (or rather, Sakura) a few more hours of story. These story scenes would have explained "sinner" and her pink fox beast, and given her a super-cool transformation. But all of these were scrapped.

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Oh, also, Silver Wolf's Pac-Man seems very random, when it could have been Evanescia's pink fox instead. So even their Techniques seem to have been swapped.

To me, one of the goals of a high-powered, heroic fantasy RPG is to make PCs feel strong. There are many ways to accomplish this:

• Flashy abilities. Consider a D&D 4e fighter using rain of steel and come and get it to become a whirlwind of blades, or a Godbound of the Word of the Bow using the greater gifts Lord of That Which Falls and Rain of Sorrow to rain ruin upon an army.

• Forced movement. In games like D&D 4e or Draw Steel, a PC feels cool for hurling enemies huge distances.

• Larger-than-life enemies. Maybe low-level PCs can fight bandits and corrupt guards, but they should progress towards battling demons, devils, dragons, archmages, minor gods (or maybe even full-on gods, such as in D&D 4e's late epic tier, in Daggerheart's tier 4, or in Godbound in general), etc.

• A sense that the PCs can completely demolish lesser opponents. Games like D&D 4e, 13th Age, Daggerheart, Draw Steel, and Tom Abbadon's ICON have minion/mook rules. Systems such as Pathfinder (both 1e and 2e), Godbound, and Legends of the Wulin have swarm/troop/mob rules. Sometimes, they are combined; D&D 4e Zeitgeist has minion mobs starting at the paragon tier, while 13th Age lets high-level PCs fight mook mobs, and it sure feels awesome to casually scythe down down dozens of foes!

• A sense that the PCs are rare and remarkable paragons (i.e. heroes like them are not a commonplace commodity), and are actually needed to save the day.

The third, fourth, and fifth points can be tricky. Writers sometimes lose sight of appropriate power levels; they wind up pitting high-level heroes against bizarrely superpowered "mundane" humanoid combatants, or overstuff a setting with high-powered NPCs that trivialize the PCs. In this essay, I would like to go over some egregious examples, and some positive examples of how it can be done better. I hope that this can help GMs and homebrewers.

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Egregious Example #1: Respect the Badge?

I am starting off with a subtle, low-key example. It is nowhere near as egregious as my other examples, and unlike every other example I give, it does not actually come from a heroic fantasy game. However, I still think it counts, because it is in the exact same spirit.

The nWoD core rulebook (2004), pp. 205-207, has statistics for mundane police officers and SWAT. They are rather high-powered for what they are. Maybe this could be forgiven for SWAT, since they tend to be couched as "elite" in some way, but even run-of-the-mill police officers are superbly competent: significantly, significantly above and beyond a starting PC, especially in terms of Attributes and Skills.

Why? Because, as Tales from the 13th Precinct (2006), p. 13, explains:

> Super Troopers > > The police officer and SWAT officer on pp. 205–207 of the World of Darkness Rulebook are veteran characters. They’re designed to be challenges to characters who have supernatural edges. A “stock” cop will have a much humbler spread of capabilities, as you’ll see herein.

Nowhere in the nWoD core rulebook (2004), pp. 205-207, is it ever stated that "Yep, these are veteran super troopers designed to challenge supernatural PCs even one-to-one." This comes across more like after-the-fact justification than deliberate design intent.

And even if it was, in fact, deliberate design intent, I would question the logic. If the game lets parties consist of vampires, werewolves, mages, etc., why should that alone be a reason to inflate the competence and statistics of run-of-the-mill police? Why does threatening PCs require regular cops to be superbly competent veterans? Why can we not threaten PCs with weight of numbers, coordinated tactics and equipment, and escalation of reinforcements?

In Black Vans (2026), p. 81, Deviant: The Renegades author Eric Zawadzki presents drastically, drastically more modest statistics for police officers, SWAT, and other goons.

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Egregious Example #2: City of Heroes

Ideally, in a high-powered, heroic fantasy game, mid-level PCs should feel like they are actually needed to save the day.

D&D 3.5 City of Splendors: Waterdeep (2005) fails miserably at this. It is in Faerûn, a continent heavily influenced by meddling deities and wandering troubleshooters like Elminster (CG Chosen of Mystra [very strong template!] fighter 1/rogue 2/cleric 3/wizard 24/archmage 4).

Waterdeep is stuffed with many, many high-level characters, including, but not limited to:

• Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, LN Chosen of Mystra(!) wizard 24/archmage 3

• Laeral Silverhand Arunsun, CG Chosen of Mystra(!) ranger 7/sorcerer 4/wizard 19

• Mhair Szeltune, NG wizard 5/guild wizard of Waterdeep 10/archmage 4

• Kappiyan Flurmastyr, NG wizard 7/master alchemist 10/loremaster 3

• Tessalar Hulicorm, LN wizard 18

• Telbran Nelarn, CN sorcerer 24

• Savengriff, LG wizard 20

• Duhlark Kolat, CG transmuter 20

• Hanor Kichavo, LG monk 10/Sun Soul monk 10

• Naneatha Suaril, CG cleric 6/silverstar 10/divine disciple 4

• Hykros Allumen, LG paladin 20

• Texter, LG paladin 20

• Nymmurh, LG ancient bronze dragon(!)

• Alathene Moonstar, CG archlich(!) wizard 15/arcane devotee 5

• Maskar Wands, LN wizard 20/archmage 3

Most of these NPCs are leaders of vast, sprawling organizations of like-minded defenders of the realm; those that are not must have plenty of free time, right? Again, this is very far from an exhaustive list. It would be hard for mid-level PCs in 3.5 Waterdeep to feel like anything other than Z-list scrubs, or itsy-bitsy cogs in the machine.

Villains include, but are not limited to:

• Halaster Blackcloak, CE wizard 25/archmage 5

• The Xanathar, LE elder orb (33 HD) with 12 sorcerer levels on top

• Marune, NE necromancer 5/shadow adept 14/archmage 5

• Keilier Twistbeard, NE wizard 20/planeshifter 4

Every casting prestige class here is full progression, by the way, aside from planeshifter. Lots of 9th-level and epic spells here.

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Addendum to Egregious Example #2

Later editions, to their credit, actually toned Waterdeep's power levels down. For example, Laeral Silverhand goes down from a Chosen of Mystra ranger 7/sorcerer 4/wizard 19 in 3.5 to a CR 19 spellcaster in 5e. The Xanathar goes from an elder orb (33 HD) with 12 sorcerer levels on top in 3.5 to a (mostly) stock beholder in 5e.

I do not think 5e has dared to stat out Elminster yet, but he did go down from a Chosen of Mystra fighter 1/rogue 2/cleric 3/wizard 24/archmage 4 in 3.X to a decidedly less loaded level 19 solo in 4e.

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Egregious Example #3: Are You Not Entertained?

13th Age is a 10-level game. 1st through 4th level are the adventurer tier, 5th through 7th level are the champion tier, and 8th through 10th level are the epic tier. Examples of epic-tier monsters are balors (13th-level double-strength), pit fiends (14th-level triple-strength), and ancient red or gold dragons.

The Crown Commands (2016) is a book of twelve mini-adventures. One of them, "Games of Power," has a fairly run-of-the-mill fantasy plotline. A noble lord and lady are practicing forbidden necromancy, so the PCs go into their mansion and beat them up.

In many heroic fantasy RPGs, this would be a low-level plotline, or maybe low-mid-level at most. In The Crown Commands, it is an epic-tier adventure for 9th or 10th level. I imagine it was originally a low-level adventure, but then the book's writers and editors realized that The Crown Commands needed another epic-tier to round it out.

A good deal of the enemies here are mundane, non-magical gladiators and house guards:

• 11th-level mook: A gladiator in training. The adventure says, "The gladiators in training have raw strength and some skill." A single one is as strong as an entire circle of fanatical druids, or a whole squad of militant rangers, both of which are statted out as 11th-level mook mobs in the 13th Age Bestiary 2. (Yes, a single gladiator in training is as dangerous as battlefield unit of druids or rangers working together to combine their firepower.)

• 11th-level standard: A house guard. This is as strong as an ice devil (gelugon).

• 10th-level double-strength: A gladiator champion bodyguard. This is as strong as a Large red or silver dragon (clarified to be an adult dragon in 2e).

• 11th-level triple-strength: Evra, Master of Gladiators. She is as strong as a Huge green or copper dragon (clarified to be an ancient dragon in 2e).

At no point does the adventure ever establish them as necromantically or supernaturally augmented. It is strange.

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Egregious Example #4: Step Aside, Gods

Godbound (2017) is a game wherein, right at level 1, PCs are immensely strong. The (free, by the way) core rulebook, p. 4, says: > Godbound drive back the creatures of night. They defeat monsters and renegade gods that no mortal could hope to overcome.

To Godbound's credit, some enemies do feel awesome. Parasite gods are a great example. The Buried Mother is specifically designed as a boss for four 1st-level demigods, and she feels cool and epic: a lost goddess over a thousand years old, ever half-buried, over seven feet tall from the waist up. The veteran Many-Skinned assassin, "a veteran of centuries of murder," feels like another appropriately epic boss for four 1st-level demigods.

But then we have Eldritches and True Strife masters: mortals of great supernatural power. I really, really do not understand why these have to be so strong. Greater Eldritches include "Great magi of the Black Academies, patriarchs of the Unitary Church, court wizards to emperors, lich-lords of ageless learning, and other great figures of magic," and are significantly more dangerous than the Buried Mother or a veteran Many-Skinned. Why is a patriarch of the Unitary Church a dire threat to a whole party of low-level demigods?

Garak Red Chorus, merely "one of the greatest hunters of his generation," is even stronger than a greater Eldritch. He is a scourge of villages and border cities.

Bishop Lazar is even deadlier than Garak Red Chorus. He is an extremist who travels around zombie-infested Ancalia, murdering the living and sanctifying their corpses so that they cannot become undead.

These hyper-mortals feel off. Garak Red Chorus and Bishop Lazar would be low-level villains in any other heroic fantasy RPG, not powerhouses who can solo a party of low-level demigods.

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Egregious Example #5: Loicense fer Stabbin'

Pathfinder 2e eventually finalized the rules for troops. Each statistics block represents ~16 blokes working together as a unit.

• 16 conscripts are a 3rd-level creature: https://2e.aonprd.com/NPCs.aspx?ID=3523

• 16 city guards are a 5th-level creature: https://2e.aonprd.com/NPCs.aspx?ID=3558

• 16 professional line infantry are, a 6th-level creature: https://2e.aonprd.com/NPCs.aspx?ID=3526

• 16 "finest fighting forces" are, a 13th-level creature: https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=3915

Four 5th-level PCs could fight ~16 professional line infantry as a 6th-level creature: very much an easy encounter, making the PCs feel cool and awesome. Troop rules are hardly perfect (e.g. overreliance on Reflex saves makes Reflex save specialists take virtually no damage from them), but I find them neat.

Before then, things were rough. The worst offender was Agents of Edgewatch #5: "Belly of the Black Whale" (2020). During three separate encounters, PCs encounter nameless goons of the Bloody Barbers, Absalom's largest criminal syndicate. Each of these nameless goons is a 12th-level combatant: the same combat level as an adult green or copper dragon or a lich.

During two separate encounters, PCs encounter lieutenants (not big leaders, just lieutenants) of the Bloody Barbers, each of which is a 17th-level combatant: same as an ancient copper or green dragon.

At no point whatsoever does the adventure call out just how crazily powerful these enemies are. There is only the flimsy assumption that, well, the PCs are high-level, so they need to be challenged by similarly high-level enemies, right?

"But Absalom is the city at the center of the world!" one might rebut. "Of course its criminals should be strong!" If we assume such a zany idea, then why do these goons not just move away from Absalom and carve out whole kingdoms for themselves? How did the low-level PCs even make it this far without being solo'd by some random criminal goon?

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Egregious Example #6: Ay, Tone

D&D 5.5e Eberron: Forge of the Artificer (2025) presents baffling power levels and sample campaign arcs for Sharn, the City of Towers. The power scaling of Sharn was originally supposed to be such that mid-level PCs would be movers and shakers, but this new book had different ideas, such as:

> Levels 17–20. Assuming the characters haven't joined the Boromars, the clan leadership tries to eliminate them. The Boromars can't muster a physical threat to challenge characters of this level, so they wield their political power instead. Under pressure from Boromar leaders, the city council declares the adventurers a threat to Sharn's safety and security. Officials revoke their inquisitive agency's operations permit and ask the characters to leave Sharn.

> Levels 17–20. While Daask stirs up riots in the Cogs and Malleon's Gate, the characters discover that the gang has also planted arcane explosives across the city. The characters must find the explosives before Sharn is thrown into utter chaos.

This is vastly, unacceptably overinflated. Keith Baker said as much, suggesting that the campaign arcs above should instead cap out at 7th or 8th level.

Beyond this, Forge of the Artificer posits that a generic Boromar underboss (not a big leader, but an underboss) is a CR 8 combatant, the same as a hezrou; while a generic Daask gnoll bruiser is CR 9, matching a glabrezu. Maybe it is just me, but I do not think mundane, non-magical criminal enforcers should be as dangerous as heavy-hitting demons.

For comparison, back in D&D 3.5, the head of the Boromar Clan, Saidan Boromar, was a rogue 8. Meanwhile, the leader of the Sharn branch of Daask, Cavallah, was an ogre mage with 3 rogue levels on top. 7th- or 8th-level PCs in 3.5 could definitely dismantle either or both of these organizations with ease, and I strongly believe that 5.5e characters of the same level should be able to do so, too, as Keith implies.

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Positive Example #1: City in Need of Heroes

Eberron, as it was in 2004, let mid-level PCs be extraordinary heroes. Post-2004, 3.5 books like Races of Eberron, Five Nations, Magic of Eberron, the Player's Guide to Eberron, and Faiths of Eberron inflated more and more NPC levels; Keith Baker even remarked on this. The Dragon #337 article on the Lords of Dust, Secrets of Sarlona, and, worst of all, Dragons of Eberron jumped the shark by presenting lots of hyper-powered rakshasas, Inspired, dragons, and other antagonists.

But 2004-era Eberron? It had the right idea. This is best expressed in 3.5 Sharn: City of Towers (2004), the polar opposite of City of Splendors: Waterdeep (2005).

Sharn is the biggest in city in Khorvaire, but its strongest defenders are only so powerful:

• Luca Syara, CN ghaele eladrin, is deeply depressed. Maybe mid-level PCs could inspire her through their deeds?

• Banarak Tithon, LN fighter 7/Citadel elite 5, "renowned as one of the deadliest swordsmen in the kingdom," is also depressed. Mid-level PCs can inspire him, too.

• Khandan Dol (LN warrior 11/fighter 5), Meira (warrior 8/ranger 6), and Molin Kaine (warrior 10/fighter 2) are stuck with warrior levels, a very weak NPC class.

• The wizardly Esoteric Order of Aureon and Guild of Starlight and Shadows cap out at 9th-level NPCs, with only 5th-level spells.

Villains, too, are modest. They include:

• Ythana Morr, LE cleric 11

• Merrix d'Cannith, LE artificer 9/dragonmark heir 3, head of Cannith South

• Gath, NE lich cleric 14

• Madra Sil Sarin, LE rogue 7/assassin 5, "the deadliest assassin in the service of the Trust"

• Saidan Boromar, LE rogue 8, head of the most powerful criminal syndicate in Sharn

• Zathara (NE rakshasa sorcerer 2) and Nethatar (NE zakya rakshasa fighter 3)

• Six radiant idols, CR 11 each

All of this is carefully crafted to place mid-level PCs in the front and center. They wipe out the city's villainous groups and make a difference.

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Addendum to Positive Example #1

I am a great fan of the way the 3.5 Sharn: City of Towers book handles Luca Syara and Banarak Tithon. Yes, they are great defenders of the city, but both are deeply depressed and unwilling to actually do anything. Only after witnessing the heroic deeds of mid-level PCs (and, of course, directly receiving encouragement from said heroes) do these great warriors find new motivation to take up the sword and fight the good fight.

This is explicitly stated in the book: > In the long run, Luca could become a valuable ally for the party. But winning the spirit of the ghaele back from the shroud of gloom should be a long battle—and one that should not be won until the party is powerful enough to consider the eladrin to be an equal.

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Positive Example #2: Another City in Need of Heroes

The D&D 4e Neverwinter Campaign Setting (2011) was designed to let PCs eradicate villainous factions from levels 1 to 10 (in a 30-level game).

> Characters Make a Difference > > The heroes in a Neverwinter campaign can make a difference and change things, for good or ill. This is not a setting where the adventurers are stuck facing flunkies of the villain because their enemy is an epic-level threat. The legendary villains of the setting are designed to be within the reach of heroic tier play, and the famous heroic nonplayer characters who might otherwise interfere are offstage. Whether they like it or not, the adventurers are on their own, and what they decide to do matters.

> Killable Villains > > Many settings describe their greatest villains as epic threats. Although this might be an adequate representation ofthese characters' power, the effect can often be to make players feel as though their efforts to defeat such villains will never bear fruit until they attain epic level themselves. Until then, the heroes remain trapped in conflict with a seemingly limitless supply of underlings. > > For this reason, the villains presented in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting can be defeated by characters of the heroic tier. Some will make tough opponents at 10th level, but the heroes always have a chance to win.

Here, major faction leaders like Lord Dagult Neverember (level 7 standard), the plaguechanged succubus Rohini (level 9 standard), the infernal cult leader Mordai Vell (level 6 standard), the lich Valindra Shadowmantle (level 9 elite), the shade prince Clariburnus Tanthul (level 10 elite), the plaguechanged elder brain (level 9 elite), the duergar Kholzourl the Fire-Speaker (level 9 standard), and the fire giant Gommoth (level 8 standard) are within reach of heroic-tier PCs.

It is up to the PCs to save the city. No hyper-powered NPCs can do the job instead. Past the heroic tier, the PCs move on to the wider Sword Coast.

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Positive Example #3: Sherlocks and Superheroes

This is a reprised summary of a thread I posted 7 years ago: https://www.enworld.org/threads/i-absolutely-love-the-power-scaling-of-zeitgeist.669229/

Zeitgeist (2011-2016) is an adventure series where PCs are both detectives and superheroes. It has D&D 4e, Pathfinder 1e, and D&D 5e versions, but I think the latter two are poor conversions. I assert that the 4e version is leagues better, and I have played it from levels 1 to 30. (I also wrote for the sequel setting book, but that is another story.)

Zeitgeist has 13 adventures. Midway into adventure #5, 4e PCs jump from heroic to paragon (level 11). Midway through adventure #9, they cross from paragon to epic (level 21).

Even at the very start, PCs are street-level superheroes. When common police officers and extremist rebels are level 1 minions, and professional soldiers and rank-and-file mummies are level 5 minions, PCs feel like powerhouses.

By late paragon, PCs are unprecedently powerful. A unit of 100 riflemen and mortarmen is a level 17 standard: easy pickings. A band of 40 satyr archers is a level 20 minion: cut down in an instant.

In this setting, the world's most powerful magician (a frontline war magician, at that) is a level 22 standard. Named archfey lords and named legendary warriors cap out at level 20 standards, sometimes lower. Remember that in 4e, given even moderate optimization, four PCs of level X are overwhelmingly more powerful than four standard monsters/NPCs of level X.

By late paragon, the antagonists feel both powerful and yet desperate. Extremely few NPCs can fight the late-paragon PCs on a one-to-one basis, so the bad guys enact extreme measures: ambushes, weight of numbers (e.g. entire military units), gigantic war machines, crack squads of short-lived super-soldiers, and more. The PCs are Superman, while the bad guys are Lex Luthor fielding armies super-science-bolstered armies (which still fail to stop the PCs!). It feels so great.

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Positive Example #4: From Pirateslayer to Godslayer

This section was originally going to cover both Draw Steel and Daggerheart, but I decided that the latter has a more satisfying and epic progression of enemies. I prefer Draw Steel overall, and find it hugely more suited to my style, but there is something about the narrative of Daggerheart's bestiary that I find compelling.

I am talking exclusively about the narrative of Daggerheart's bestiary. The actual mechanical balance between enemies is a crapshoot, making encounter budget points annoyingly inaccurate; have a look at this Reddit thread and this other thread. I have been running Daggerheart from levels 1 to 6 so far, and yes, it is janky.

Daggerheart PCs progress by tier. Level 1 is tier 1, levels 2 to 4 are tier 2, levels 5 to 7 are tier 3, and levels 8 to 10 are tier 4. Enemies in the bestiary are tier 1, 2, 3, or 4. PCs are generally supposed to fight mostly enemies of the same tier as them.

Tier 1 enemies are bandits, pirates, sellswords, zombies, ogres, minor demons and elementals, etc. Even here, PCs feel heroic. Like in Draw Steel, a PC attacking, say, a bandit or sellsword minion can spill the damage into other minions, eliminating many at once. Other weaklings are "hordes," like the "pirate raiders" enemy, which represents a dozen pirates working together; it feels good to squash a dozen foes at once!

Tier 2 baddies include master assassins, 8-man trained archer squads, and elite soldiers (actually just standard enemies, because PCs are strong).

The only tier 3 humanoid foes are monarchs and mystical stag knights. It is all major supernatural foes from here.

Tier 4 minions include the personal troops of the very gods. Tier 4 solos include the dark god of war; it was not too long ago when the PCs were fighting bandits, and now, they are so mighty as to battle the overlord of bloodshed!

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Conclusion

If your intended genre is high-powered, heroic fantasy, then stop for a moment to contemplate power levels and power scaling. Think back to the five bullet points way back above:

• Flashy abilities.

• Forced movement.

• Larger-than-life enemies.

• A sense that the PCs can completely demolish lesser opponents.

• A sense that the PCs are rare and remarkable paragons (i.e. heroes like them are not a commonplace commodity), and are actually needed to save the day.

The first two bullet points mostly depend on the system's mechanics. The latter three, however, call for some thinking. Consider:

• If an enemy/NPC is a major threat to powerful PCs, even on a one-to-one basis (or as a solo boss!), does the narrative support this? If the enemy/NPC is just some mundane, non-magical criminal or soldier or whatnot, then the presentation of the enemy should be recalibrated. Maybe the enemy/NPC is juiced up by supernatural power, or perhaps they are instead some demon, devil, dragon, or other great being.

• Does a given town, city, or nation really need high-powered NPC defenders to keep it safe? Every high-powered NPC protector is one less reason for the PCs to actually be heroes and save the day. This is not to say that a town, city, or nation should be totally undefended, or that PCs should have no allies whatsoever; try to strike a reasonable balance.

• Do the villains at hand feel like they will eventually be within reasonable reach of the PCs? This is not to say that the antagonists should be instantly beatable by PCs starting fresh off; again, try to strike a reasonable balance.

• There is always room to expand scope. If the PCs clear the city of Sharn or Neverwinter, the world of Zeitgeist, or some other setting of threats, they can always venture out and tackle bigger foes elsewhere. Alternatively, ancient or otherworldly menaces might rise up and imperil the world.

I hope that this essay can give you some ideas on how to properly calibrate power levels.

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Here is another way to look at it. Let us say I want to run a scenario of some big, bad dragon swooping in and attacking the city that the PCs are in, and the PCs being the only ones who could possibly slay said dragon. This would be very difficult to justify in 3.5 Waterdeep, given the resources at the city's disposal. (I do not know about the current status of the dragonward, but if it is up and running, then that is yet another reason why this scene could not work in Waterdeep.)

On the other hand, this would be fairly easy in Sharn, given mid-level PCs. The city is simply unprepared for such a strike. (Dragons randomly attacking cities just does not happen in Eberron.) A powerful dragon really could gravely imperil it, given the desire to do so. I have run this exact scenario a couple of times before (and indeed, I am running it again soon in my 4e Eberron game).

The big bad dragon can be replaced with whatever else, really, whether a great demon or some eldritch aberration.

The full details are behind a Patreon-locked article on Keith's blog, but the long and short of it is that Hektula, the Bloody/Shadow/First Scribe, uses a variety of magical methods to alter Khorvaire's historical records to as to reshape present-day thinking.

Some of the world lore that we, as players, already "know" (and that, by extension, our characters "know") could very well be distorted fabrications. (So, for example, if Hektula had altered historical records of Sharn, then what we already "know" about Sharn is the falsehood, while the truth was something else.)

This is more limited than it sounds:

• The historical events whose records are being altered cannot have been within the past several centuries, because long-lived species (e.g. dwarves, elves) could call out the discrepancies. The Last War and the Silver Inquisition/Lycanthropic Purge are probably right out; they are simply too recent for the long-lived. The Year of Blood and Fire, at 700 years ago, may or may not be a viable target for alteration.

• The alterations cannot be so vast and egregious that the Undying Court of Aerenal, the dragons of the Chamber, etc. would feel a need to intervene and set the record straight.

Keith gives a few examples: the elven rebellion against the giants, the Dhakaani Empire vs. Xoriat, the War of the Mark, the reign of King Galifar II the Dark.

However, I am honestly having a hard time seeing how manipulating records of any of these historical events could possibly create a great cultural shift in the present day. The War of the Mark might be the most significant one here, since it affects how aberrant-marked are viewed in the present day, but it is very likely that the dragonmarked houses are already engaging in aggressive historical revisionism to vilify the aberrant-marked.

What world lore could have already been altered by Hektula in such a way as to significantly influence Khorvaire's present-day thinking, then, and to what end?

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/succubus-publishing/last-arc-tactics-analogue

Free public beta version, available in the page above: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z1hkgs3aak5w9u7ea5r33/LATA-Corebook-Layout-DEMO.pdf?rlkey=nwtkrovtsftrklxewgf6yh1rc&e=1&st=qgklpp6i&dl=0

Last Arc: Tactics Analogue puts on a JRPG-themed skin, but even a cursory inspection reveals that this is straight-up D&D 3.5/Pathfinder 1e. It is a d20-based, 20-level game with Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha (slightly renamed), races with a +2/+2/−2 spread, classes with 4/6/8 + Int modifier skills, feats at every even-numbered level (including old friends like Skill Focus, Improved Initiative, Precise Shot, and Combat Casting), a 3×3 alignment grid, the exact same XP table as D&D 3.5, and CR-based monsters.

An unironic, earnest chef's kiss to the people brave enough to put a D&D 3.5/Pathfinder 1e heartbreaker out there. Never once does the game or the crowdfunding campaign mention D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder 1e, so this is more "If you know, you know."

There are some 4e-isms sprinkled here and there. Skills use trainings, not skill points. Attacks go up against Fortitude, Reflex, and Will... and yet, unlike in 4e, Reflex also acts as AC. Characters can use a second wind to regain a quarter of their maximum hit points, but unlike in 4e, there are no healing surges, and it is a minor action.

Character math is vastly different. Initiative is based on a single die, with the die size dependent on class. Feats are not quite what a D&D 3.5/Pathfinder 1e veteran may be used to, even if they have identical names. Spells are original, and use an MP system. Equipment is also radically different. Monsters are simple-ish; they look like they should be quick to run, though they are not quite tactically deep.

I would say that this game has enough significant divergences from D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 1e that it should be a fresh new take on the formula.

What do you think of this heartbreaker?

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I felt like a sleeper agent awakening as I scrolled through the PDF and realized that, past the superficial JRPG skin, this is a D&D 3.5/Pathfinder 1e heartbreaker.