D&D 5E Epic Level Adventures/Mini Campaigns?

[solomanii]

My PCs have requested that instead of stopping soon after hitting level 20 they would like to actually play level 20 characters for a longish adventure or mini-campaign. I can't say I have ever run an epic level campaign, I usually stop at level 20 (or equivalent) before really exploring "epicness". I wonder if anyone could recommend a good epic level adventure(s) from any previous edition as I intend on converting it to 5e.

Since my PCs are level 9 at the moment would want to start foreshadwowing the epic adventure and even tie it in directly if possible to my current campaign sooner rather than later.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Shiroiken]

This can be tricky, but I'd recommend looking at BECMI and 4E for good examples of epic level adventures, since they went above the standard level 20. Some of my favorites were: Five Coins for a Kingdom, The Maelstrom, Vengeance of Alphax, and Twilight Calling (Master level BECMI).

 

[Enrico Poli1]

"The razing of Redshore" in Dungeon Magazine offers an example of transition from Lvl 20 to Epic. It's solid.

Other good examples are: "The lich Queen's Beloved" (Dungeon Magazine), against the Queen of the Githyanki;
the last adventures both from the Age of Worms and Savage Tide Adventure Paths (Dungeon Magazine) - for example you could go against Dragotha;
the last adventure from Paizo "Kingmaker" AP is self-contained and mythic in scope, you could adapt that.

An excellent example of political adventure from BECMI is X10, "Red Arrow, Black Shield"; you could easily adapt to Lvl 20, but you have also to adapt to your own setting.
M1 "Into the Maelstrom" is a planar Odyssey, if you like that genre. For me it's a too literal transposition of the Odyssey. But it's the best - indeed, the only truly playable - Master adventure of BECMI.

From 2e I suggest "Return to the Tomb of Horrors" or also the module in which you save Waukeen from Graz'zt. You have to adapt the challenges.

 

[Salthorae]

also the module in which you save Waukeen from Graz'zt.

For Duty and Deity - great fun. In 2e it was for 10-12th level PCs, but its pretty epic in scope.

You could probably also adapt some of the end game portions of the official 5e Adventures for high level place since they feature heavy hitter mosters/stat blocks. CR35 Tiamat in Tyranny, all the Demon lords in Out of the Abyss, Zariel from Descent.

Each of the modules include things you can do to "lower the power" of the end boss so its achievable for 15th level PCs to even fight. If you're 20+, you might be able to use those adventure/module scenarios and do them without all the weakening triggers.

 

[jayoungr]

This caught my eye at the DM's Guild:

To the End of Time - an Epic One-Shot - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

To the End of Time - an Epic One-Shot - An Epic Adventure They're some of the greatest heroes the world has ever seen, but when they are plucked from their own

www.dmsguild.com

I haven't run it, but it seems like it could be expanded into a short campaign/longish adventure.

Checking adventurelookup.com, I also found these:

Fires of Iskh, 20th-Level Adventure (5E)

When a volcano appears out of thin air, the ensuing eruption is a cataclysm unseen in this age. To stop it, a group of legendary heroes must defeat an evil so ancient and powerful that the fabric of reality trembles at her wrath... Fires of Iskh is a full-length adventure for 20th-level...

www.thearcanelibrary.com

Finders Keepers - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Finders Keepers - How many times have you started a campaign and it dissolved before you reached the top tier? How many builds have you ma

www.dmsguild.com

 

[pogre]

Finders Keepers - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Finders Keepers - How many times have you started a campaign and it dissolved before you reached the top tier? How many builds have you ma

www.dmsguild.com

I ran this recently and thought it was rather well done. My players enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

[Salthorae]

There's also all the AL modules/adventures that are for 17-20 which could probably be beefed up and added to/updated to handle 20th characters.

Note: these are all the AL modules that are built for 17-20. "DDEP" is epic play which means it's supposed to be run with multiple tables of PC's of various levels all to achieve a singular goal. That said, you could probably use some of the elements of the 17-20 tier portions for you!

Adventure	Title	Section
DDAL00-02F	Lost Tales of Myth Drannor	Definition of Heroism
DDAL00-03	Those That Came Before
DDAL05-18	The Mysterious Isle
DDAL05-19	Eye of Xxiphu
DDEP06-03	Hectacomb	Tales from the Yawing Portal
DDAL07-15	Streams of Crimson
DDAL07-16	Pools of Cerulean
DDAL07-17	Cauldron of Sapphire
DDAL07-18	Turn Back the Endless Night
DDEP07-02	Drums of the Dead	Has a section for 17-20
DDAL08-16	A Change of Address
DDAL08-17	The Tower of Ahghairon
DDAL08-18	Moving Day
DDEP08-03	Last Call at the Yawning Portal

 

[Urriak Uruk]

When you're this high level, you really got to go cosmic. Pretty much everything with a CR of 25 or higher is from the Outer Planes, except Niv-Messit (and it's Ravnica which isn't much different).

You could run a Forgotten Realms, post-Tyranny of Dragons campaign where Tiamat has won and she is invading the world, complete with infernal dragon armies. That would be completely insane!

(Tiamat is the only thing that isn't a Tarrasque with a CR of 30)

 

[jayoungr]

Picking up on the Tiamat idea, the last five or so adventures of Scales of War (found in Dungeon magazine issues 170-175) make a great high-level arc. Tiamat kills Bahamut and goes on a rampage; players must help to resurrect Bahamut, thanks partially to the sacrifice of an NPC whom you could introduce early in the game, and foil Tiamat's plans. Along the way, they visit Hestavar, Celestia, and the City of Brass.

There's a 5E conversion of these adventures at Scales of War in 5E, but they're designed to end at level 20 rather than starting there. So you'd probably need to do your own conversion, or at least tweak what's on the blog.

 

[solomanii]

This is great team, will check each one out. I have actually played for Deity and Duty as 3e conversion back in the day and I recall we had a lot of fun with it. I am also checking out the 4e Orcus vs Raven Queen arc of adventures, this may actually be suitable as my current campaign is about war and politics in fantasy Japan but I have made it clear through events, dreams etc that the war in Kara-Tur is actually a reflection of a battle between Amatertsu and the oni god Fumeyoshi. So sticking in a demon lord/god standoff/battle will work. As would a BECMI political/War type capstone.

Going to check all these out. Thank you.

This caught my eye at the DM's Guild:

To the End of Time - an Epic One-Shot - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

To the End of Time - an Epic One-Shot - An Epic Adventure They're some of the greatest heroes the world has ever seen, but when they are plucked from their own

www.dmsguild.com

I haven't run it, but it seems like it could be expanded into a short campaign/longish adventure.

Checking adventurelookup.com, I also found these:

Fires of Iskh, 20th-Level Adventure (5E)

When a volcano appears out of thin air, the ensuing eruption is a cataclysm unseen in this age. To stop it, a group of legendary heroes must defeat an evil so ancient and powerful that the fabric of reality trembles at her wrath... Fires of Iskh is a full-length adventure for 20th-level...

www.thearcanelibrary.com

Finders Keepers - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Finders Keepers - How many times have you started a campaign and it dissolved before you reached the top tier? How many builds have you ma

www.dmsguild.com

I grabbed that in read it and I would say my level 15 party would blow through that. The premise is great but I feel whoever wrote it has never actually dealt with a level 20 party - thematically its solid though. Mobs just need to be beefed up and seems a bit shorter than what I am after.