D&D 5E How Do You Learn How To Design A High Level Adventure?

[Oofta]

You have to have some element of risk, 5E is in the easy side of things. It's like playing a video game on easy you basically already know how it's gonna go. That's boring and at that point the DM may as well call it as his job is really only to be there for the players. If the just steaneoll everything it's almost pointless to play it out or the DM will likely get bored fast and figure out it's a waste of their time.

Then have the dead PC get dissolved, burned to ash, eaten or dragged off. Give the bad guys weapons that destroy the souls of the people that they kill. Change the resurrection rules like I did for my home campaign. There must be 50 ways to leave your lover kill your PCs.

Personally I just ask people during our session 0 how deadly they want the campaign to be and then come up with an excuse to make it happen one way or another.

 

[jayoungr]

You have to have some element of risk, 5E is in the easy side of things. It's like playing a video game on easy you basically already know how it's gonna go. That's boring and at that point the DM may as well call it as his job is really only to be there for the players. If the just steaneoll everything it's almost pointless to play it out or the DM will likely get bored fast and figure out it's a waste of their time.

You don't have to justify it; I'm not judging. I know some tables like to play this way. (My own groups tend toward the opposite end of the spectrum: if they know their PCs can die at any time, they take forever to get anywhere because they have to go through the 50 safety checks before taking any action.)

The point is, now we have a tool to use in putting together a high-level adventure that you and your players will enjoy.

What else do you think is important? Do your players enjoy puzzles that they solve out-of-character, for example? Or are they the type who would rather make an intelligence roll for the answer--or the type who would just rather not have puzzles at all?

 

[epithet]

At high levels, it is very difficult to meaningfully threaten the PCs. Even if you disintegrate one of them, the party will have access to wish spells, divine intervention, and other ways to recover. Hopefully, by this point in the campaign, you have made each of them care about something - perhaps a character is a lord, and has a castle. Perhaps he is married. Maybe he's taken on an apprentice, who has by the highest tier gone on to become an adventurer. These are weaknesses you can exploit, because even a nearly invulnerable PC can't be everywhere and protect everything. Sure, you have a clone to fall back on, but how well is your tower full of stuff and people protected? A character in the epic tier of play isn't just a person, he's an organization of henchmen, hirelings, businesses, etc. They're all vulnerable.

An ancient dragon is too clever to face a high level party, so if they aren't very subtle about going after the wyrm they'll get to the lair only to find most of the hoard removed (perhaps the last group of kobolds is heading for the tunnels when the party arrives) and the dragon nowhere to be found. When they get back to town, it is a smoking ruin--the fields are despoiled, the livestock are eaten, and the few surviving townsfolk blame the adventurers for bringing the dragon's wrath upon them.

For an example of high level adventure, check out the Bloodstone Pass series. It's made to work with the Battlesystem rules for the 2nd edition, but you can easily find streamlines rules for handling the warfare elements. The PCs face a variety of challenges from diplomacy to fighting epic bad guys, but the core concept of the three adventures is that the party isn't just a band of adventurers any more--they have something to fight for, and potentially lose, because they're the leaders of the barony.

 

[epithet]

Another thing you can do for a high level party is to make the challenge of combat something other than the combat itself. For example, if your peasants are facing a band of goblin raiders you can challenge the PCs to get there in time to save the peasants; the goblins will die or run away without even needing to roll for it.

 

[jgsugden]

Step 1: Don't fear their heroic abilities.... celebrate them.

The high level PCs are powerful heroes that can do amazing things. Make sure it feels that way. The fights they enter do not need to be fights they fear will kill them - they can be fights where the PCs have to beat down their foes before something bad happens. In most of the fights, survival should never really be in question... which makes the special battles where the enemy is a real threat even more special.

Step 2: Allow for amazing abilities, but don't expect them.

If the heroes use powerful magic to solve a mystery, to obtain a tool, or to beat a foe - GREAT. They're heroes. That was heroic and great. However, even if they have the tools at hand to solve the mystery, gain the tool or beat the foe with a simple spell, you can't assume they'll do it. There needs to be an alternate path to the goal.

Step 3: Your Big Bads need to resistant or hidden.

Those special major enemies need to be as special as the PCs. They can't be dismissed with a simple spell early on. Some examples of this idea:

* A storm of demonic energy is spilling out demons and elementals onto the Prime Material Plane. To be stopped, artifacts must be gathered to take the storm take on corporeal form - which then can be fought. Until the artifacts are gatered, nothing can stop the storm.

* A powerful Archmage Lich works from the shadows to collect powerful magic. He sends minions out to achieve his goals, but they do not know the identity of their master beyond a fake moniker he uses, and they do not know how to find his abode in a pocket dimension protecting from divination magic.

* The enemy is not a single being - it is an entire nation. There are many generals, many politicians, many leaders - all devoted to a goal that the PCs oppose. They can cut off as many heads as they want... there are always more. To beat the nation, they need to change the course of a civilization. That may require an artifact, or just a single decisive action that changes a lot of minds all at once.

 

[Stalker0]

I have found it’s all about time pressure.

As others have said, throw encounter guidelines out the window, they don’t work at those levels.

Throw whatever you want at the party, whatever works for your story. But add time pressure. You give a high level party a week, there is nothing they won’t beat. Only give them an hour...now it’s an adventure.