D&D 5E Anyone else hoping that the next campaign book WotC releases is 15th to 20th levels?

One_Shots

First Post
When the rumours started flying and the popular opinion seemed to indicate that it might be Undermountain, part of me was hoping that, because of the powerful nature of the denizens there, it would be a 15th to 20th level adventure. I really think it's time given how long 5e has been out and how many campaigns we've had in the 1-15 range.
 

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I would gladly see an official high level adventure showing us how WotC does encounters right.

That would not be a campaign, however.

The chances for an entire campaign that doesn't start at low level are next to non existent, if you ask me.
 


The last time Chris Perkins did an AMA on reddit, someone asked him about why there were no adventures for levels 16-20. This was his response:

Chris Perkins said:
DMs tend to customize their campaigns more an more as their characters gain levels. It's hard to create high-level adventures that will serve tens of thousands of DMs. Also, our research shows that a relatively low percentage of campaigns make it to levels 16+. However, that doesn't rule out high-level content in the future.

(source)
 


It would be interesting, but as others have said I don't see it happening. For one, what kind of plot would they go for? They already used Demon Lords, and they don't seem the crowd to require 20th level PCs to fight. Giants, another obvious option, done for 5th to 10th level characters.

A bigger problem is that most adventures start with a small railroad - captured by Drow!, on the road to Phandalin!, mists!, arriving in Red Larch! - and they can easily do that because 1st level characters are small in scale, both in their world view and their abilities. Starting a campaign at 15th level, well, what kind of a railroad will work on characters who have access to Teleport, Scry and Plane Shift?
 


Not me. And, I expect I'm an example that might help inform the discussion.

I'm running a 5e game for a friend of mine, his 12-year old daughter, and a friend of hers. We are doing scheduling with kids, across families. It's a bear. The game does not run frequently. Which means we are taking *forever* in real-time to get through "Lost Mines of Phandelver". If the girls still like it when we are done, I'll probably segue into one of the other major adventures. But that will also take long periods of time to get through.

Levels 15 to 20 are not really on the horizon. The girls will *noticibly mature* over the course of just one campaign. They'll probably want different things by the time they're level 15, and would want to change characters anyway.

Now, while mine is a particular case, I think the pattern is perhaps not all that odd - unless you're really plugging away at them with very consistent long sessions, it takes a while to do these things. I wouldn't be surprised if the 15-20 level range really isn't a concern for many groups, such that WotC is hoping the OGL and DMs Guild will cover that need for them.
 


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