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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7587575" data-attributes="member: 2629">Step 1: Don't fear their heroic abilities.... celebrate them.The high level PCs are powerful heroes that can do amazing things.  Make sure it feels that way.  The fights they enter do not need to be fights they fear will kill them - they can be fights where the PCs have to beat down their foes before something bad happens.  In most of the fights, survival should never really be in question... which makes the special battles where the enemy is a real threat even more special.Step 2: Allow for amazing abilities, but don't expect them.If the heroes use powerful magic to solve a mystery, to obtain a tool, or to beat a foe - GREAT.  They're heroes.  That was heroic and great.  However, even if they have the tools at hand to solve the mystery, gain the tool or beat the foe with a simple spell, you can't assume they'll do it. There needs to be an alternate path to the goal.  Step 3: Your Big Bads need to resistant or hidden.  Those special major enemies need to be as special as the PCs.  They can't be dismissed with a simple spell early on.  Some examples of this idea:* A storm of demonic energy is spilling out demons and elementals onto the Prime Material Plane.  To be stopped, artifacts must be gathered to take the storm take on corporeal form - which then can be fought.  Until the artifacts are gatered, nothing can stop the storm.* A powerful Archmage Lich works from the shadows to collect powerful magic.  He sends minions out to achieve his goals, but they do not know the identity of their master beyond a fake moniker he uses, and they do not know how to find his abode in a pocket dimension protecting from divination magic.* The enemy is not a single being - it is an entire nation.  There are many generals, many politicians, many leaders - all devoted to a goal that the PCs oppose.  They can cut off as many heads as they want... there are always more.  To beat the nation, they need to change the course of a civilization.  That may require an artifact, or just a single decisive action that changes a lot of minds all at once.</blockquote>

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