1) Let the characters know that there are other heroes out there dealing with other threats. This especially works if they are part of an organization/nation/guild or they have a home base. Have them see another hero group and possibly interact. (but it’s probably not good to fight with them. (unless you give the players a copy of the higher level characters to run)) This works in the kind of world where there are too many fires happening for anybody to get much rest. Then at one point, you have the higher level heroes go down and the PC’s become the number 1 team.

2) The epic level adventures are somewhere else. Another continent, another plane, another world. This doesn’t require much integration. Perhaps a few legends about heroes moving on, or about the other planes.

3) Something changes to introduce higher tier threats. A big bad guy does a ritual. Things from outside rip open the sky. A huge tomb opens up, flooding the world in darkness.

@Alton. A lot of the slowness is information management, both on the DM and player side. For the DM side, I recommend looking into some of the combat tracker tools that help keep track of who has what condition and under what circumstances. For the player side, I suggest rebuilding their character sheet. Five or more pages of power cards is a problem. Most people can cut that to 1-2 pages showing the powers they have and the details. I use a landscape table that has power type, to hit, defense, and hit, miss, effect lines. I abbreviate so I usually don’t need to look at the actual power. It really helps me keep track of everything.

My group has never played into epic tier, as Paragon seemed to be all that we could take.

I think on some level the developers knew what kind of troubles they were facing with Epic Tier, and thus had their work cut out for them.

The conditions applied to the various creatures hamper the potential of the monster to be a challenge to the party. I have found that the original modules are outdated with all the feats available to the PCs.

I think you hit the nail on the head. More monsters are needed (even with the solos present) to be able to offer a challenge to the party.

Pacing at the epic tier is staggeringly slow. With all the conditional powers that all monsters and PCs have, combat literally crawls by. I love the idea of epic tier, but I have been hard pressed to find any enjoyment in it.

I enjoyed the article. Thanks.

Actually thinking of combining a few… Maybe mix the bloated beholder with a halfling bartender? Awesome article! Really gets the creative juices flowing!