ELH adventures can be very much like regular adventures. Just add class levels to any monsters or villains the group fights and BAM! instant epic opponents.
It can be a jarring transition to play epic levels in a campaign setting that wasn't really designed for it. Personally I feel that epic level play works best in worlds like SHARK's where epic characters and magic are not very rare.
Another thing about epic level challenges, is you don't really need to worry about how players will get past an obstacle. Just put in all sorts of crazy traps and barriers. The players have so many powers, abilities, and resources, they can easily overcome mundane challenges. For example, create a room that has no entrances or exits. Players can figure out how to get in on their own. But considering that at least one will have teleport or a similar ability, it shouldn't stop them for long.
Also remember that no matter how high AC becomes, a natural 20 always hits (and may even be a crit). If the players are fighting opponents who could never hit except on a 20, simply calculate how often a 20 is likely to be rolled and thats how often they will get hit. For example, 5 level 10 fighters each have 2 attacks in a round for a total of 10 attacks per round. That means that every other round, even a level 60 uber character is guaranteed to get hit once. And level 10 fighters have enough HP (especially if you just give them max hp
), that even a high level character may not take one down in one round.
If the characters take on larger groups of opponents its even easier to hit them. Say an ambush with 20 level 12 fighters to keep the group in melee and then another 30 level 12 archers just hammering them with arrows. Will with Rapid Shot, those archers have 4 attacks per round. 30 archers x 4 attacks is 120 attacks per round. Divide by 20 and you get 6 natural 20s per round (on average). You don't even have to waste time rolling (or you can just to make the players sweat). Simply declare 6 hits on the PCs of your choice. Every round.
Even epic characters cannot take such an onslaught for long before fleeing. Even busting out maximized fireballs or meteor swarms every round will still take a little time to totally take out 50 level 12 opponents.
And don't be afraid to give your mooks lots of minor magic to make them a real pain to defeat. Such as ghost touch weapons for those annoying epic wizards that like to use Ghostform before they bust out the mega damage dealing spells. 50 +1 ghost touch swords and bows are insignificant treasure for a group of level 40 epic characters (at least in my world) but it can make defeating those epic level characters all the easier.
