D&D General Adventurers in Faerun-The Book of Low and Mid Level Adventures?

[haakon1]

I'm making a story with them, but we also like combat. Suddenly the Goblin Woods has no goblins and is filled with giants, meh.

My world isn’t scaled to player character levels.

Partially because I usually have two parties going in the same world, but also because I’ve used the same setting (my lived in version of Greyhawk) for many campaigns with many players. I like the continuity, where retired PC’s become NPC’s fir everyone else.

Currently, I have PC’s ranging from 1st to 10th.

This does mean a wandering monster encounter of say 5 wolves is really challenging for one group and trivial for the other. Done sparingly, it can interesting for the higher level group to see how far they’ve come.

In general, the higher level group will need to do more politics and manors in between rare challenging adventures. More Downton Abbey and if Game of Thrones stuff, less orc and pie.

What I particularly don’t like with high-level adventures are those that block many PC abilities just because, and the same old challenges only “big”. Orc with 1000 hp and it’s immune to spells and it’s treasure is a million gp pie isn’t that fun to me.

 

[Parmandur]

But they still had that ability. They were the equal of 20th level casters.

Based on...what in the text? Point is, Wheel of time is "Epic Fantasy" in literafure...butnitnis not Tier 4 stuff. There are narrative reasons why play would taper off where it does, where it ended in OD&D and B/X.

No it's not a good example. Players don't throw up their hands at that level because it would takes several years to program a game for that level of interaction. They do it because they weren't/aren't taught how to do it. It's really not all that hard for the human brain to do things in seconds that would take programmers days, weeks, or even longer to accomplish in a game like BG 3.

Sure, it is easier for humans to run it than programmers to think of all contingencies, that is what makes this great. But many people have reported finding things get a bit nose-bleedy at thst level l, or even tedious.

It is coincidence that BG 3 ends at the same spot that sit down play tends to end.

I see nonreason to believe that it is a coincidence, and many reasons to see it as connected. And to the point about literary pafalells: BG3 is bailed as a gonzo epic conclusion...at Level 12...

 

[Azzy]

pretty sure Spelljammer is more niche than Dark Sun. Also, Vecna was the high level campaign, so we got that already too

I disagree. With Spelljammer, like Planescape, being connective to multiple settings, it's easier to use it out of the box if you are using a homebrew or more generic published setting than a setting product like Dark Sun (which is very not generic).

 

[Stormonu]

Character power levels have changed with the 2024 release of D&D, so technically there is not a single quest for high-level at this point There’s plenty of low-level content though in the Forgotten Realms Adventures and Dragon Delves. We’re walking down the same path here. I’m not sure if Wizards of the Coast wants to encourage more high level play, but this is definitely not a good start if they do.

Wizards has lost quite a few experienced designers in the past few years. This is very much a statement that no one can prove, but I wonder if they have designers capable of producing good high level content anymore even if they wanted to make it. They wrote 51 quests and didn't even devote 5 or 6 of them to level 14+ while touting this world as epic fantasy. Are you doing that because you don't think anyone wants high level content or do you have no clue how to write it?

From the adventures I've seen them publish over the ages, they never had the experience in the first place.

1E - "High level is dumb. We'll make all the character's high level abilities not work so the adventure won't be a cakewalk" (Bloodstone series)
2E - "Let's not talk about it. We have to? Well, let's show how silly those levels are." (DM's Option: High Level Campaigns, Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga, Paladin in Hell*, Labyrinth of Madness*, Return to the Tomb of Horrors*)
3E - "Wheeeee! Big numbers go up!" (City of the Spider Queen, Bastion of Broken Souls, Epic Level Handbook, Deities & Demigods)
4E - "Actually, let's just make it 8th level, mkay?"
5E - "Let's see how the previous editions did it. Oh, they didn't? Well, we'll just have to try and bungle our way through it. Maybe we'll get there? No, well then, forget it." (Ruins of Vecna, Turn of Fortune's Wheel)


* Monte does try to be semi-serious, though

 

[Zardnaar]

From the adventures I've seen them publish over the ages, they never had the experience in the first place.

1E - "High level is dumb. We'll make all the character's high level abilities not work so the adventure won't be a cakewalk" (Bloodstone series)
2E - "Let's not talk about it. We have to? Well, let's show how silly those levels are." (DM's Option: High Level Campaigns, Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga, Paladin in Hell*, Labyrinth of Madness*, Return to the Tomb of Horrors*)
3E - "Wheeeee! Big numbers go up!" (City of the Spider Queen, Bastion of Broken Souls, Epic Level Handbook, Deities & Demigods)
4E - "Actually, let's just make it 8th level, mkay?"
5E - "Let's see how the previous editions did it. Oh, they didn't? Well, we'll just have to try and bungle our way through it. Maybe we'll get there? No, well then, forget it." (Ruins of Vecna, Turn of Fortune's Wheel)


* Monte does try to be semi-serious, though

Lol thats pretty much it.

The level 20 prequel to 3.0 Epic book in Dungeon was kind of fun.

But they hadn't advanced awakened sperms whale with 20 levels of druid as an opponent.

A few also lean themselves into death trap dungeons design. Not Tomb of Horrors level though.

 

[Reynard]

Those of us that successfully run high level 5E without much trouble must be doing it terribly wrong...

 

[Zardnaar]

Those of us that successfully run high level 5E without much trouble must be doing it terribly wrong...

Not wrong its more work imho. If you're happy to do that work fill your boots.

 

[Reynard]

Not wrong its more work imho. If you're happy to do that work fill your boots.

But it isn't. Not significantly. People repeating over and over again that high level play doesn't work in 5E are, I feel, just assuming that based on previous editions (3.x mostly). The pervasiveness of this attitude makes it even more unlikely that WotC will decide to do something worthwhile with those levels.

 

[Zardnaar]

But it isn't. Not significantly. People repeating over and over again that high level play doesn't work in 5E are, I feel, just assuming that based on previous editions (3.x mostly). The pervasiveness of this attitude makes it even more unlikely that WotC will decide to do something worthwhile with those levels.

Your opinion is also subjective.

Look at the xp budgets if youre running RAW. I'm at level 13.

High 27000
Medium 21000
Low 15000

Im running RAW atm as its new rules. You can use a huge horde of crap to fill budgets that high or 4-6 CR 8-10 critters.

Level 13 PCs have so many options.

Objectively its way more complicated. Subjectively you may like it.

I've run level 30, 19, 20, 24 and 26 over the years. I can do it but fun/workload ratio is off. That's a ymmv thing

The majority do not run that way and never have.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Those of us that successfully run high level 5E without much trouble must be doing it terribly wrong...

If these people are doing it so successfully, then why aren’t they publishing their adventures so everyone can play them and see how it should be done?