D&D 5E After Tyranny of Dragons (OR: What to do with 15+ level PCs?)

[S'mon]

You could take a leaf from pre-3e and have high level PCs engaged in territory development, rulership and war. The Rules Cyclopedia - http://www.rpgnow.com/product/17171/DD-Rules-Cyclopedia-Basic?it=1&filters=0_0_0_0_0 - has very useable dominion & mass combat rules convertable to 5e.

My high level PCs generally spend most of their time on politics, warfare, empire-building, and suitably high level concerns. Combats tend to be with legendary monsters, the powerful champions of opposing armies, that kind of thing. In my 4e Loudwater game the end of Paragon Tier saw a frost giant invasion of the Gray Vale under a powerful Frost Witch who had cast a Spell of Winter, and also was taking the souls of the dead, preventing raising/resurrection - also a chillborn zombie apocalypse. Lots of fun, desperate battles with giant warbands (including stone & hill giant minions) and ice monsters leading up to an assault on the Frost Witch's fortress of ice. No dungeon crawling though.

 

[devincutler]

Not only are there a few high level adventures in DMs Guild, but Dungeon Magazine had a bunch that can be converted from 3e.

 

[S'mon]

Pathfinder has tons of high level adventures to convert. I'm running a 5e Runelords/Shattered Star campaign and the last 2 books of each of those suit level 15+ PCs. Runelords has the advantage it's mostly traditional DnD monsters you can find in the MM.

 

[hawknsparrow]

Do a quick conversion of Tomb of Horrors.

On the minus side, I hope the players aren't too attached to their characters.

On the plus side, you'll be running Out of the Abyss in no time!

This was what I was leaning toward. Some may die... retire the rest... use one from time to time as a fun NPC encounter.... a kind of "where are they now" opportunity.... you can use that as a handy way to advance or turn a plotline

Sent from my SM-N900P using EN World mobile app

 

[jayoungr]

Palace of the Red Pasha Review

Since I have now run Palace of the Red Pasha, I thought I'd provide a review for anyone who's curious. I'll try to keep this spoiler-free.

I really like this adventure. It is strong on all three pillars of the game--it's not deficient in combat, by any means, but there is plenty of exploration and roleplaying as well.

The adventure takes place in Calimport shortly after the conclusion of Rise of Tiamat. Among the papers of Severin Silrajin, some letters have been found suggesting that a massive Cult of the Dragon stronghold is hidden beneath the palace of the Red Pasha, a popular ruler of one of Calimport's subdivisions. It is not clear from the letters whether the Red Pasha himself is allied with the cult, but some at his court certainly are. The PCs' mission is to infiltrate the court of the Red Pasha, locate the cultists' operation, and shut it down.

In addition to visiting a new part of the Forgotten Realms, the PCs will encounter some types of creatures that did not appear in Tyranny of Dragons, such as Genasi. There are interesting secrets to be discovered, some of which are not related to the main mission. And without giving away the final encounter, I will simply say that it should not be anticlimactic even after finishing Rise of Tiamat.

The Pasha's court is populated with many interesting figures. Some are cult sympathizers, some are helpful to the party, and some have their own agendas. Also, the DM has the option of randomly assigning loyalties to different members of the court, giving the adventure some replay value.

My only caveat is that you may have to adjust for a group that isn't really into roleplaying. My group usually likes that sort of thing, but for one reason or another, they weren't in the mood to get to know members of the court when I ran POTRP for them. That meant that the early part of the adventure kind of dragged, and if I'd been smart, I would have cut it short. Once they were on the trail of the cult, though, it picked up, and we had a great showdown at the end.

In sum, I think this adventure is a worthy sequel to Rise of Tiamat, and I would happily run it again!