Oh, and then there's the fact that most epic quests tend to have resounding consequences in the world which means invariably the quest has to be approved by the Loremaster.
This is just my impression, but it seems part of what is being said - - is that epic creatures have as much story as epic adventurers. DMs can't just throw something powerful out there without explaining how something so powerful got there to begin with, and that explanation has to be checked out and approved as fitting the world. It's harder to explain where, say, a super-powerful goblin chieftain came from than just a particularly clever and charismatic but otherwise ordinary low- to mid-level goblin chieftain came from. Powerful creatures already in the world don't count toward this, as they are epic in level but not in scope; they don't "matter" and aren't quest material any more than the typical, everyday rats in the Hemp sewer. Making something epic-level-quest-worthy would be epic in scope, and that means explaining it and building an epic tale and getting it approved. There has to be an epic story to make an epic quest, else it's just a DM'd trip to Belinara or the Deep again to do some more bashing, and epic stories don't just get tossed in willy nilly. Other stories don't just get tossed in, either, but it's a lot easier to make a mid-level goblin chieftain fit somewhere than an epic goblin chieftain that would have an associated story and quest worthy of epic characters.
This seems to have sidetracked to Sandbox Mode for Epics now more than a request for epic quests.To be honest, I consider it normal and have seen this trend for a long time now. Certain quest series have done a huge effort for the epic portion of the world though and those GMs really pulled off something far more worthwhile and gargantuan than just a quest. Mad props to them.Sure, I'd enjoy high level quests, though I'd much rather wait for another high value series to tumble along eventually than go on sandbox cruises with GMs.I love the fact that quest magnitudes rise along with it's quality and tight integration with world lore. I'd much rather have one of these any day over a just a quest for a quests sake.Just my ideas on this.