D&D 5E (2024) Let's Write A High Level Adventure

[MichaelSomething]

Can we have a fight against a dozen T-Rexes? I want a fight against a dozen T-Rexes.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I'm partial to making the "big bad" someone who is not a direct, personal threat. Like, what if the equivalent of Tallryand or Cato the Elder who spent a non-trivial amount of effort engineering everyone they can get to listen to view the party as a threat, casting their every accomplishment in the worst possible light, and maneuvering for a coalition powerful enough for "the menace to be destroyed."

A nearby country has declared them all criminals, a vindictive church (one at odds with the PC cleric/paladin) accuses them of stealing a magical relic, the rogue is blamed for not paying bribes while stealing a magical relic, the wizard reportedly violated some "mage guild code" so no one will so much as sell him spell ink, the druid was supposed to have burned a forest to build luxury housing, etc, etc.

So various groups have been paid and/or incented to attack them PCs. Pirates, fey assassins, couple of demons, maybe a celestial.

Each attack is then publicized in the way most harmful. "They consort with demons, make deals with the fey, are in league with pirates and even the Heavens seek to smite them!"

Sure, the PCs could squash this person like a bug but in the words of Obi Wan " strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

So they have to "right" all the wrongs of which they are accused.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Can we have a fight against a dozen T-Rexes? I want a fight against a dozen T-Rexes.

T Rexes are a good example of something that are total pushovers for a high, or even mid level party. Expect them to be Hypnotic Patterned then killed one at a time.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Full support on this project. I am happy to volunteer time on any combination of brainstorming, storyboarding, writing, editing/revision, and number crunching. I don't have much in the way of graphic design skill, but if there are ways I can support that, then full steam ahead.

I think as a preliminary step it would be wise to set out a design...ethos, we might say. Portions of it were already defined in the OP, such as prioritizing ease of use, low GM overhead, flexibility, and displaying the breadth of high-level play not just any one specific part (with combat being, most obviously, the biggest "don't focus only on that" element.)

 

[AnotherGuy]

My groups usual solution for this sort of thing was larger battles.

I would agree with you if larger battles included significant
- terrain and/or environment changes continuously via monster and/or lair attacks

For example

• green dragon lets out poisonous dragon breath which noxious gas remains in the area for a while causing continuous damage,
• the latent magical energies of transmutation spells cast in a the cloud giant's flying fortress create a reverse gravity effect for a

round

- amendments to monsters and rules

For example

• in order to avoid the melee attacks by huge or gargantuan opponents you require 5 or 10 feet of movement respectively or you're unable to avoid the blow. If you do have the movement to spare (i.e. you never used it all during your turn, you get to decide where you move your character on the grid - with no opportunity attacks).
• non-corporeal opponents ignore all forms of bonuses to AC gained from armour and shields enchantments bonuses and the Shield spell (force effects) still work though.

Another solution might be to put something the players have to do.

This works well...

Rescue/protect the innocent/s
Stop/perform the ritual
Close/open the portal
Talk down/up the neutral party
Sunder/disable an item
Repair/destroy a structure
Solve a puzzle

In our recent two-player game the beared devil realised he could not defeat the PCs and therefore attempted to kill the prisoners in the cells which he had been guarding. His spiteful idea being to eliminate the possibility of the PCs obtaining any information from them...so he used his glaive attack to reach and hurt/kill the prisoners while "readying" his snake-beard for any PCs attempt to attack him thus forcing the cleric to amend tactics by focusing on reviving and stabilising the hurt prisoners.

 

[aco175]

his works well...

Rescue/protect the innocent/s
Stop/perform the ritual
Close/open the portal
Talk down/up the neutral party
Sunder/disable an item
Repair/destroy a structure
Solve a puzzle

As part of an encounter/fight. Splitting the party from just attacking and have one disable a door that prevents the others from advancing. Having another dispel wards that are making the monsters more powerful and so on. Create trade-offs that matter.

Kill one of the prisoners and have them explode as their soul gets sucked down into Hades. This might show the cleric that he cannot simply raise dead on the them later and concentrate on the bad guy.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Kill one of the prisoners and have them explode as their soul gets sucked down into Hades. This might show the cleric that he cannot simply raise dead on the them later and concentrate on the bad guy.

I get you.

In this specific instance I was referring to

• The cleric was not high enough level for Raised Dead
• Raise Dead, Resurrection...etc has been ring-fenced to specifically the Healing and Dead Domain only.
• The current campaign storyline* reflects an extreme shortage of diamond dust (necessary component for the Raise Dead spell) as all diamond dust and residuum is being redirected to create Teleportation Circles in haste, therefore greater amounts of diamond dust is demanded to circumvent the 1-year requirement for construction of these circles.

*Tyranny of Dragons storyline has the Council creating Teleportation Circles 1-2 days march from the Well of Dragons in order to facilitate a faster and more efficient way of travel for the Faction armies to arrive (around the same time) to battle the Cult of the Dragon and Tiamat. These Teleportation Circles are being created in a fraction of the time hence the high demand and resultant shortage of diamond dust in the Sword Coast. Magical items are also being "melted down" to source residuum which is also an acceptable ingredient.