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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darian Damas" data-source="post: 155305" data-attributes="member: 3379">I think Smetzger is right in that the authors of high-level adventures must have in mind what high-level characters are (/could be) capable of. Otherwise, there will be unpleasant surprises when the PCs suddenly spoils the whole adventure by doing something that "should have been impossible". So in a way it is necessary to "plug the holes".However, I really recommend reading <a href="http://www.montecook.com/dmonly.html" target="_blank">Monte Cook's "DMs only"</a> article on Design Secrets: High-Level Adventures. I like his idea about "embracing" the high-level abilities, not "negating" them.I might be wrong, but I think that some worries expressed earlier in this thread had to do with the opposite problem: Even high-level PCs cannot overcome all situations. The author might have assumed that the party has a specialist within a certain field, or that they possess a certain artifact etc. This is where I want the optional solutions. And this is certainly not a high-level specific issue. It is a matter of not "rail-roading" the PCs. Nevertheless, high-level characters often find their way around most obstacles, just like Smetzger said. An insightful author should know what ways PCs could possibly use.High levels raise interesting questions. Take divinations as an example. They can change things a lot if the PCs know how to use them. The questions are:1. When the PCs are high-level, do you have to think of the use of divinations when you construct your adventure? (Certainly!)2. Should you construct your high-level adventure so that the PCs must use divinations to succeed? (Probably not, there should be alternative ways)3. Should you "plug all the holes" so that divinations wouldn't help at all? (No! That would be "negating".)4. Should you construct your high-level adventure so that divinations would help in several cases (but not necessarily in all)? (Absolutely! This is "embracing".)All in all, I hope we will see more published intermediate- and high-level (not epic-level <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) adventures in the future./Darian Damas</blockquote>

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