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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ccs" data-source="post: 7449891" data-attributes="member: 6803664">Of course 5e supports high lv play.  You only need 7 things:  A PHB, A DMG, a MM, a set of dice, a pen/pencil, a notebook, and your imagination.  You do have all of those things, right?WoTC can sell you the first 3 or 4 of those.  WalMarts got you covered for the pen & paper.  The imagination?  That ones on you.Official adventures top out around 11th lv?  Yeah, that's intentional.  As others have pointed out, that's the range Wizards research shows most games run until & what sells best.  There's NO point in printing stuff that won't sell as well as that.No help in showing you how to design high lv adventures?  What?  After running all those campaigns you didn't learn anything?  Take those templates, apply your imagination, & now dial them up however many notches it'll take to actually challenge the people sitting at your specific table.       So what?  The CR system has been (at best) faulty ever since 3e.  And there was no system prior to that.My solution to the CR system?  I just ignore it. This one is mostly all on you.  Look, you're the DM.  You're not restricted to what's listed in a module or stat block.  Those are written assuming a fairly low baseline average - in order to $ell to as many people as possible. If that average doesn't cut it for your group?  Then you can use whatever monsters you like, have them act however, equip them as you see fit, set the encounters in whatever type of environment....  You can even restrict the PCs access to equipment if you desire.Your players - even with a plethora of options it's easy for players to default to their characters standing in place whacking away at the monsters.    This has been happening since OD&D.  It'll continue into the next century. Oh.  I must be doing something wrong then.  Because I've killed plenty of 5e characters without having TPKs. (and very few of them have gotten better)  I think I'm nearing 20. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  And I've certainly mangled characters/parties that, although they ended up not dying, definitely knew that was a possibilityWell, if you've got the latter happening, of course the former should.Look, Gygax himself could come back from the dead & lecture me on how to make encounters.  And though I'd be surprised & honored by his ghost paying a visit, I'd still make encounters aimed at challenging/entertaining the specific 3-5 people sitting around my table vs whatever the book presented as the ideal.    Good.  You're supposed to modify the game to suite you & yours.Anytime I run into issues with a game system (D&D or otherwise) I refer back to the advice my 11 year old self read in my original (Moldvay) Basic set book:"Anything in this booklet (and other D&D booklets) should be thought of as changeable -~~~"Similar advice can be found in my 1e books.So I change bits & pieces to provide myself & my group a better game.</blockquote>

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