epic encounters

[fl8m]

I'm starting a game with 25th level characters, however i've run into a problem, it simply doesn't make sense to me that every scheme or encounter they run into is going to have some epic level monster/npc behind it, but running into Urgh the 12th level orc chieftan is going to be amazingly easy and worth no exp to the players.

How do i keep the encounters up to par with the players levels? anything below cr 18 won't even give them experience. I just have a hard time imagining finding enough cr 18+ encounters to fuel a campaign.

any ideas? anything that has worked in your campaigns?

oh if you need to know the characters are a human 24th lvl rogue/1st lvl fighter and a weretiger/dwarven 10 fighter/3 barbarian/10 weaponmaster (don't ask)

 

[Larry Fitz]

Starting at 25th level? Make the setting an epic place, like Asgard or some such, use Templated creatures that have just as many levels. An ordinary world setting will be incredibly boring for characters of that level. The minions of the Troll king could all be Trolls with 16 or so character levels, ditto the Lair of the Minotaurs. Fire Giants of Surtur's court could easily be a challenge for your characters with a few levels of their own....

 

[fl8m]

hmm i was thinking about just that maybe having them visit the planes so i'm not restricted by the demographics of a "real world"

Now all i have to come up with are epic ideas and plot hooks playing on thier greed isn't nearly as effective when they are both carrying around a good million gold worth of gear.

 

[Victim]

1) Set up the situation on the Epic level. Almost everyone is high level, or there are only epic class foes. Most super hero stuff is going be like the second part.

2) Accept the fact that most encounters will be with relatively trivial foes. Don't always play out these encounters, but do so occasionally. Against vastly inferior foes, it can fun to employ suboptimal moves. For example, the 25th level level fighter will probably have little fear of failed opposed attack rolls or AoO from 10th level guys, so he can disarm all the enemies, or break things easily. But there's usually an Epic mastermind behind the plot, who needs to be defeated. True Ressurection will let you reuse good villains for awhile, but shouldn't be overused.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi there!

I'm starting a game with 25th level characters, however i've run into a problem, it simply doesn't make sense to me that every scheme or encounter they run into is going to have some epic level monster/npc behind it, but running into Urgh the 12th level orc chieftan is going to be amazingly easy and worth no exp to the players.

Making every reasonable threat an epic one will cheapen what it means to be 'epic'.

How do i keep the encounters up to par with the players levels? anything below cr 18 won't even give them experience. I just have a hard time imagining finding enough cr 18+ encounters to fuel a campaign.

Well, the first problem (as you have already noticed) with the epic rules you will run into is the fact that the Challenge Rating/Encounter Level rules are totally inappropriate.

eg. A party of four 20th-level characters could easily challenge a 30th-level NPC, yet the official rules would have you believe this is beyond them. When in fact they would still have the advantage.

Actually the relationship between Challenge Rating and Encounter Levels is different from what the official rules would have you believe.

I actually have a pdf that solves this problem, however I am working on a new version of the document at the moment. So you may want to wait a week or so and email me and I will send you the latest version.

any ideas? anything that has worked in your campaigns?

I would always advocate working up to epic levels rather than starting at them. That way you have all the wealth of relationships (both friend and foe) to draw upon by the time you reach epic levels. It also means the players will care more about their characters and possessions more than if they had just rolled up a couple of epic characters.

Of course that doesn't mean such a campaign won't be fun.

oh if you need to know the characters are a human 24th lvl rogue/1st lvl fighter and a weretiger/dwarven 10 fighter/3 barbarian/10 weaponmaster (don't ask)

Well, looking at the characters note that there are only two of them and they are very 'magic-lite'.

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

That party is going to get housed without a cleric.

However, I'll punch in the characters and level in to the Geekus-Plot-o-Matic 3000 and see what we get.....

*beep*

*whirr*

*blorp*

*ding!*

Ah. OK. Here's what we have, your players are called upon by the Church of Light to raid the innermost sanctum of a Demonic Baron. They'll be on another plane and lots of things will be hostile to them. Since they're on a mission from a Church, they can plausibly be granted a healing item (detailed below). If they survive they can keep the healing item.

A role-play encounter: They come across a demon who is tormenting a beautiful woman! If the players rescue the woman, she says she was imprisoned in the Abyss when she refused the hand of an evil wizard on some other plane. This is all technically true. What she does not reveal is that she is actually a succubus that the wizard summoned and she may well lead the players to their doom!

Hook: Other Demon Barons take note of the players success and plot their demise!

Item:

The LEGENDARY Apricot of Healing

This looks like an ordinary apricot:

... however it has been blessed by the ancient saint, St. Julio the Fruity Blesser who randomly blessed edible yellow-orange fruits. The LEGENDARY Apricot of Healing was one of his better successes.

Abilities: Can cast Heal 3 times/day
Cost: bunches
Pre-Requisites: Yes


.... um .... sometimes the Geekus-Plot-o-Matic 3000 breaks down. You might want to tighten up that magic item a bit.

-BG