DM_Jeff
Explorer
I am one who has had no problem with grappling, attacks of opportunity, running monsters or all the other moaning pitfalls so many find fault with in D&D 3.X.
This deals with high-level D&D play. Not epic, just high level. What's wrong with me that my 3.X campaigns had one end at 15th level, one at 17th level, and one at 19th level and they ran to that point with no problems? Or, what am I doing right? So many complain that the game 'breaks down' after 10th level and usually point that the DM looses his mind and can't hack it.
It's not the work, because in two of those campaigns the work was done for me by running adventures I tweaked here and there. But one, the 17th level one, was me stringing together plots and sometimes running published adventures intertwined with stuff I had to make up. The combats got a little bigger, but only in that everyone had bigger weapons and spells to use. We never found combat taking any longer, it just moved everything up on the scale. It might be my players, who are mostly very table-savvy and don't abuse their high level status in the campaign.
If the DM can't be bothered to know what his players can do or be bothered to look up the new powers his monsters have that can't be blamed on the game system, can it? I mean, the stat blocks are bigger, but with a highlighter, a few minutes of homework and some strategy notes you're ready to rock.
You may even ask why did those campaigns stopped when they did. They stopped because the story/campaign arc was over! The only thing about high level play I may find problematic is campaign realism. In that you have to keep finding bigger and bigger things to hit the party with until eventually it dawns on you that this creature/thing/cult could have taken over a nation already. If you can solve that problem, then that's not an issue either.
So, ask questions, or tell us your foibles with high level play. Or even better if you have shortcuts or tricks to making high level play easier, let's hear it. Maybe we can all solve some problems.
-DM Jeff
This deals with high-level D&D play. Not epic, just high level. What's wrong with me that my 3.X campaigns had one end at 15th level, one at 17th level, and one at 19th level and they ran to that point with no problems? Or, what am I doing right? So many complain that the game 'breaks down' after 10th level and usually point that the DM looses his mind and can't hack it.
It's not the work, because in two of those campaigns the work was done for me by running adventures I tweaked here and there. But one, the 17th level one, was me stringing together plots and sometimes running published adventures intertwined with stuff I had to make up. The combats got a little bigger, but only in that everyone had bigger weapons and spells to use. We never found combat taking any longer, it just moved everything up on the scale. It might be my players, who are mostly very table-savvy and don't abuse their high level status in the campaign.
If the DM can't be bothered to know what his players can do or be bothered to look up the new powers his monsters have that can't be blamed on the game system, can it? I mean, the stat blocks are bigger, but with a highlighter, a few minutes of homework and some strategy notes you're ready to rock.
You may even ask why did those campaigns stopped when they did. They stopped because the story/campaign arc was over! The only thing about high level play I may find problematic is campaign realism. In that you have to keep finding bigger and bigger things to hit the party with until eventually it dawns on you that this creature/thing/cult could have taken over a nation already. If you can solve that problem, then that's not an issue either.
So, ask questions, or tell us your foibles with high level play. Or even better if you have shortcuts or tricks to making high level play easier, let's hear it. Maybe we can all solve some problems.
-DM Jeff