Recent content by THEMNGMNT

I'm a big fan of magic "traditions" from Shadow of the Demon Lord. They're like spell schools, sorta. If you want to fly, you need to know the Air tradition. Fireball? Fire tradition. Etc. It results in spellcasters feeling much more focused and thematic--as well as capping their power.

I ran the Alexandrian Remix of Dragon Heist, a mashup of the Starter Set and Essentials Kit, and all the giant lairs in Storm King's Thunder as a major component to another campaign.

GAMMA WORLD

Yeah, obviously depends on the size of the party. But my belief is that a solo monster should have the ABILITY to drop multiple characters per turn. By 13th level, most RAW monsters can't drop a single character in a turn. The numbers just aren't there. So you need to dial them up. Even then...

I take your point. What's not fun for the players is grindy combats that take a full session (or longer) to resolve. What is fun is a dynamic combat with a sense of genuine peril. At higher level, a character who is dropped to zero hit points is usually back on their feet by the time their turn...

The Adventure: Session 3 of my 13th Age campaign. Eyes of the Stone Thief (retitled "The Devourer" for my campaign.) I've retooled the adventure so it spans levels 1 through 10. The Characters: 1st Level. Human Occultist, Human Swashbuckler (third-party variant Rogue), Minotaur Savage...

Some additional thoughts... Regarding my above guidance on monsters, there's a few other things I do with encounter design. First, I use standard monsters straight out of the book and mix them with the Elite- and Solo-style monsters. Second, in some instances I take standard monsters and cut...

Hi, Mike. Big fan. I've run one campaign past 20th level and one campaign up to 13th level, so I feel your pain. The game changes around 13th level with spells like plane shift and raise dead. I don't think they break encounters so much as they break campaigns. When the villain decapitates a...

Great stuff! What level did you reach?

The Adventure: Session 2 of my 13th Age campaign. Eyes of the Stone Thief (retitled "The Devourer" for my campaign.) I've retooled the adventure so it spans levels 1 through 10. The Characters: 1st Level. Human Occultist, Human Swashbuckler (third-party variant Rogue), Minotaur Savage...

That's a fair assessment.

Session 58 of my Neverwinter/Sword Coast campaign. 10th level drow evoker wizard, human genie warlock, half orc vengeance paladin. The characters are infiltrating a sunken castle in a swamp occupied by a warband of orcs. The orcs are allied with sinister nobles. The characters are trying to...

Session 1 of my 13th Age campaign! Actually, we had two Session Zeros before this, but who's counting? The Adventure: Eyes of the Stone Thief (retitled "The Devourer" for my campaign.) I've retooled the adventure so it spans levels 1 through 10. The Characters: 1st Level. Human Occultist...

Almost never. It's not intentional, just a byproduct of session and campaign pacing. Much more common to have a long rest in the middle of the session.

Session 57 of my Neverwinter/Sword Coast campaign. 10th level drow evoker wizard, human genie warlock, half orc vengeance paladin. The characters are in the home village of the paladin, which is now under the control of a conspiracy of evil nobles in league with an orc horde. Last session, the...