DMing COUNSEL REQUESTED

[Nightfall]

Gee next he'll be talking about THACO!

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

The mighty Thac0 demands you roll a save vs Death Magic. Take that!

Running high levels is no piece of cake, but it can be done. It takes lots of planning, in my experience. Stat-blocks of npcs just get longer and longer, with much more detailed tactics.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Thanks, All! I am playing 3.5. Could someone point to me to the right page of the PHB / DMG that states this?

I'm not trying to make a jab here. I honestly believe you should consider the following. I apologize in advance if it seems offensive.

If you did not understand how levels work in 3.5, I strongly suggest that you re-read both the PH and the DMG, carefully, before playing your game. As a player, this level of unfamiliarity with the rules wouldn't necessarily be problematic, but as a DM, you need to understand how things work far more concretely.

At least, IMO. Again, I don't mean this as a dig, I just seriously believe you need a serious refresher course before you try to DM a game.

 

[Gothic_Demon]

I'm not trying to make a jab here. I honestly believe you should consider the following. I apologize in advance if it seems offensive.

If you did not understand how levels work in 3.5, I strongly suggest that you re-read both the PH and the DMG, carefully, before playing your game. As a player, this level of unfamiliarity with the rules wouldn't necessarily be problematic, but as a DM, you need to understand how things work far more concretely.

At least, IMO. Again, I don't mean this as a dig, I just seriously believe you need a serious refresher course before you try to DM a game.

I'm not intending to be rude either, and furthering Lord Pendragon's useful points, you'll also find that high-level PCs and NPCs/Monsters have far more powers than they had in 1e/2e, and both you and the players (assuming they haven't played in a while either) will likely have to work very hard to remember them all and make use of them.

This can be the big difference in high-powered games, especially if you the DM have set up an encounter requiring the party to use a specific power or spell they haven't noticed they've got or don't fully understand.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Consider advancing your PCs to 11th level. Try to play in someone's 10th-12th level game before you DM. Or read up on some message board games/story hours at that level. Otherwise your players may well run roughshod over you. Good luck!

 

[SBMC]

Are you playing 3rd Edition or 3.5 D&D, or an earlier edition?

If you're playing any version of 3.x, then the above statement is false. You do not start at the bottom of the experience chart if you take a second class. The number of classes you take, (setting aside any xp penalties you might gain from excessive multiclassing,) is immaterial to how much xp it takes to get to the next level.

For instance.

PC1 is a fighter3, and has 3,000xp. He will need to earn an additional 3,000xp to gain his next level, regardless of whether he chooses to take another level of fighter (making him a fighter4) or a level in sorcerer (making him a fighter3/sorcerer1).

PC2 is a rogue1/ranger1. He has 1000xp. He will need to earn 2,000xp more to gain his third class level, the exact same amount a wizard2 would need to earn to become a wizard3.

Experience requirements are determined by character level, not separated by individual classes.

This means that all the PCs in your game should have 15 class levels regardless of if they single- or multi-class. So you might see a Wizard15, a Paladin15, and a Barbarian2/Fighter13. But you will not be seeing any Cleric10/Fighter11's, as that is a 21st-level character, requiring the xp of a 21st-level character.

The only exception to this is if the wizard buys heavily into item creation. In which case he may wind up being a Wizard14 with a metric ton of magic items.

I think what he did was hand them 105k-current experience points PER CLASS.

Or the players took it that way and ran with it (shame on their munchkinizing powergaming ways!)

 

[fusangite]

I'm not trying to make a jab here. I honestly believe you should consider the following. I apologize in advance if it seems offensive.

If you did not understand how levels work in 3.5, I strongly suggest that you re-read both the PH and the DMG, carefully, before playing your game. As a player, this level of unfamiliarity with the rules wouldn't necessarily be problematic, but as a DM, you need to understand how things work far more concretely.

At least, IMO. Again, I don't mean this as a dig, I just seriously believe you need a serious refresher course before you try to DM a game.

Hey! We're suddenly agreeing about everything!

There is an alternative to running 3.0/3.5: run the edition you are more familiar with. This is a nostalgia game, after all. If you're not that familiar with 3.0/3/5 in the first place, chances are attacks of opportunity and a few other things added in this edition are going to drive you up the wall. The point is to have fun with your old group, not run a cutting edge game; so, please consider running the earlier edition as an alternative to sweating bullets over being up to date.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Hey! We're suddenly agreeing about everything!

We're not that bad!

 

[Nightfall]

Nah. You all should see my youngest brother and my middle brother fight. Now THAT'S some Verbal Weapons of Mass Destruction.

 

[shilsen]

If you're not that familiar with 3.0/3/5 in the first place, chances are attacks of opportunity and a few other things added in this edition are going to drive you up the wall.

If there are any spellcasters in the group, I'd expect that would be another big issue to keep track of. The vast majority of spells have changed from the previous edition, so you'll constantly be looking them up during play.