howandwhy99
Adventurer
At 7th level magic users can make potions and scrolls, at 11th-12th any spell casting class can craft other kinds of magic items. Strongholds come into play. Battling for higher ranking in subclasses (like druids, assassins, and bards) occurs. Treasure amounts are normally large enough to need more than a moneylender (or hole in the floor) to stash it in. Followers are pretty high level themselves now. Paladins gain their mounts about mid-level, but should be increasingly powerful as well.
Players are typically much more deeply involved and higher up in the organizations of the world when they too are high level. They haven't simply met kings and queens, they may be so. They may have taken control of an already established stronghold/settlement (like a city or even kingdom) or are clearing new lands, building their own fortress, and carving out their own laws of the land. And if governing isn't appealing each class contains its own niche like being a thieves guildmaster, high cleric of the land, forming wizardry schools, even creating and leading an army.
Game time passes much more quickly at high level in my experience. 1st level: a day or two might pass in game for a single session. In high mid to highest levels many months or even years may pass in a single session. Time management is no longer backstage in little dribs and drabs of rounds and turns. Major commitments take coordination and follow through. Adventures can take years to complete. The complexity is high, but the details are generally far less "I swing my sword" and more "3 conversations with 3 powerful NPCs/monsters for 3 unrelated ends."
Magical effects, whether by spell or device, are far more powerful than they were in lower levels. The PCs are close to, if not at, the point of warping all neighboring reality to their needs. And the magics they face are every bit as jaw dropping and terrifying. Artifacts and relics are no longer legends rarely learned, but far more likely to become available in the game. So too are high level monsters, everything from liches to elder titans to great wyrms to archwizards, even demon princes and archdevils will make their appearance.
Dungeons are not that mud pit in a hill slogged back and forth to in the rain either. They are daunting fortresses in and of themselves. They are the mind bending lower levels of Castle Greyhawk; they are the isolated, invisible towers of silent wardens guarding an ancient secret; they are castles black and tall slipping between time and space. These aren't crackerjack boxes. The PCs need to be high level simply to get through the door, much less face what lies inside. And these lairs may even lie on other planets, or planes, or dimensional worlds - places where magic and technology are not what the PCs believe they have confidently mastered.
Combat changes too. It is still 1:1 scale for the PCs, but now real, full-size battles and wars are fought with hundreds even thousands to a side. Ordering troops, designing fortifications, and managing supply trains take the place of shouting at those bumbling men-at-arms, making camp/keeping watch, and tracking rations and arrows.
Players are typically much more deeply involved and higher up in the organizations of the world when they too are high level. They haven't simply met kings and queens, they may be so. They may have taken control of an already established stronghold/settlement (like a city or even kingdom) or are clearing new lands, building their own fortress, and carving out their own laws of the land. And if governing isn't appealing each class contains its own niche like being a thieves guildmaster, high cleric of the land, forming wizardry schools, even creating and leading an army.
Game time passes much more quickly at high level in my experience. 1st level: a day or two might pass in game for a single session. In high mid to highest levels many months or even years may pass in a single session. Time management is no longer backstage in little dribs and drabs of rounds and turns. Major commitments take coordination and follow through. Adventures can take years to complete. The complexity is high, but the details are generally far less "I swing my sword" and more "3 conversations with 3 powerful NPCs/monsters for 3 unrelated ends."
Magical effects, whether by spell or device, are far more powerful than they were in lower levels. The PCs are close to, if not at, the point of warping all neighboring reality to their needs. And the magics they face are every bit as jaw dropping and terrifying. Artifacts and relics are no longer legends rarely learned, but far more likely to become available in the game. So too are high level monsters, everything from liches to elder titans to great wyrms to archwizards, even demon princes and archdevils will make their appearance.
Dungeons are not that mud pit in a hill slogged back and forth to in the rain either. They are daunting fortresses in and of themselves. They are the mind bending lower levels of Castle Greyhawk; they are the isolated, invisible towers of silent wardens guarding an ancient secret; they are castles black and tall slipping between time and space. These aren't crackerjack boxes. The PCs need to be high level simply to get through the door, much less face what lies inside. And these lairs may even lie on other planets, or planes, or dimensional worlds - places where magic and technology are not what the PCs believe they have confidently mastered.
Combat changes too. It is still 1:1 scale for the PCs, but now real, full-size battles and wars are fought with hundreds even thousands to a side. Ordering troops, designing fortifications, and managing supply trains take the place of shouting at those bumbling men-at-arms, making camp/keeping watch, and tracking rations and arrows.
