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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rhenny" data-source="post: 6838056" data-attributes="member: 18333">I think there are a few things you can try.1) Let the lower level PCs interact with monsters/npcs that they have no chance of defeating so that they see more than just the grunts. (Have the real baddie stick around for a few rounds, then leave while the group fights the minions)2) Design encounters where the PCs don't necessarily have to kill the bad guys.  Sneak in...steal...help a prisoner escape...find a magical item/portal and activate it just in the nick of time...do 50% damage and have the bad guy flee (this lets you use higher CR for lower and mid level pcs), have the bad guy offer the PCs a deal.3) Use the environment to make life more difficult for the PCs especially at higher level.  If they have to endure rock slides, geysers, gas clouds, extreme temperatures, traps that have been set by others, etc...then the monsters/npcs they fight may not have to be as high a level to still present a challenge.   Grab individual PCs and put them into environments they are not comfortable in...like grappling and dragging them into water, grappling and flying up into the air with one to take them to a nest or to drop them from a higher altitude, make them fight the baddies in a poison gas cloud (I love when Liches do that), use magic wall spells to divide and conquer, etc.  Some of these tactics may not kill PCs, but they will force them to use resources and get them feeling uncomfortable.  Again, you don't need god like monsters to do some of that stuff even to higher level PCs.By and large, as the game plays into the higher levels, often the stakes move away from the PCs themselves and become more about how they can save destruction to towns, cities and loved ones they care about.   Sometimes they can save the world, and they don't necessarily have to fight gods to do it.   Personally, I find it really hard to make this shift so most of my campaigns end before they PCs get to level 16.Hope this helps.</blockquote>

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