D&D 5E (2014) How To Make High Level 5E Work.For You +

[TwoSix]

- Be Aware of Demographics Understand the PCs place in the world. If high level characters are common then it’s one thing but they are likely not to be. @GuyBoy told me a story of a campaign he was a player in where the prison guards were all 20th level spellcasters. Implausible and lazy. Breaks immersion and is the same school of management as ‘rocks fall you die’.

Total tangent, but you really shouldn't have many prisons in a high-level game. By that point, raise dead and resurrect are common enough that high-level "prisoners" are just killed and then have their remains stored in somewhere secure if they're needed.

Or, you're just focusing on the "progression fantasy" aspect of high-level play, and the mundane prison is there to be set dressing to show how powerful the high-level character is.

High-level prisons should be extraplanar places like Carceri, for beings that are powerful enough that normal divine soul magic just does not work, and killing the prisoner would have negative effects, or simply isn't possible.

 

[JamesLFlowers]

One issue we found in our last high-level game was just the time some things take. When you take into account features, abilities, counter-abilities, lair actions, legendary actions, and everything else, a round of combat can really stretch out. In the end we found that after a point everything just counters each other, so players and DMs have to come up with interesting ways to apply things to actually get use out of them.

 

[Reynard]

Total tangent, but you really shouldn't have many prisons in a high-level game. By that point, raise dead and resurrect are common enough that high-level "prisoners" are just killed and then have their remains stored in somewhere secure if they're needed.

Or, you're just focusing on the "progression fantasy" aspect of high-level play, and the mundane prison is there to be set dressing to show how powerful the high-level character is.

High-level prisons should be extraplanar places like Carceri, for beings that are powerful enough that normal divine soul magic just does not work, and killing the prisoner would have negative effects, or simply isn't possible.

This goes right back to the question of demographics you were responding to. What if the PCs and a few NPCs and powerful entitites are the only high level things in the world? What if the best wizards in the setting top off at 5th level and the PCs are 20th level?

Settings designed around ubiquitous, powerful magic are often interesting, but it is not the only way to do it. Where the high level PCs fit into the world is very important to consider -- preferably early on, before the PCs become the pinnacle of power.

 

[TwoSix]

This goes right back to the question of demographics you were responding to. What if the PCs and a few NPCs and powerful entitites are the only high level things in the world? What if the best wizards in the setting top off at 5th level and the PCs are 20th level?

Settings designed around ubiquitous, powerful magic are often interesting, but it is not the only way to do it. Where the high level PCs fit into the world is very important to consider -- preferably early on, before the PCs become the pinnacle of power.

Oh, for sure. I'm working on the bones of a high-level game right now. The core assumption is that high-level characters are primarily focused on extraplanar concerns, and that hundreds of Prime worlds feed into the planes. So a Tier 4 character is literally a one-in-a-million occurrence, but with hundreds of billions of souls, there are still loads of Tier 4 characters around to be antagonists or allies.

I think trying to make a compelling game for Tier 4 characters in a low-magic, standard fantasy setting where the greatest heroes and villains are normally on at Tier 2 or Tier 3, and the characters have leveled up to their current heights through a long campaign, is a much greater challenge I wouldn't find compelling to figure out how to run.

 

[Reynard]

I think trying to make a compelling game for Tier 4 characters in a low-magic, standard fantasy setting where the greatest heroes and villains are normally on at Tier 2 or Tier 3, and the characters have leveled up to their current heights through a long campaign, is a much greater challenge I wouldn't find compelling to figure out how to run.

I love the superhero genre in RPGs, and I often use the tropes from there as the foundation on which to do "the PCs and their villains are the most powerful things." My current Daggerheart campaign is explicitly a fantasy supers game, but even as far back as AD&D 2E we folded in supers tropes for high level games.

 

[dave2008]

Suggestion #3: Hazardous Terrain
Sometimes the biggest enemy is the environment itself. Make the environment drain resources. This can be traps, environmental effects, magical miasma, etc. This can create the 5e attrition model without stretching it over several encounters. In my games I have used HD draining effects to great effect, but that is because our houserules make HD much more important than in the typical game. However, you could get similar results from effects that, beyond HP reduction, inflict exhaustion, loss of spell slots, inflict penalties, or give enemies buffs.

I find these options work best if these effects can be nullified by PC's actions and they are enough of a nuisance that the PCs want or need to take action. Add this as part of a combat encounter it creates something the PCs must do beyond just kill the baddies.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Bought the hardcover AP a few weeks ago. I was thinking of 5E conversion.

I suspect the 3 3E APs and som of the PF1 APs might be worth a 5E conversion using milestones.

Resource icon T

Age of Worms Adventure Path

May 24, 2015

This is a conversion of the Age of Worms adventure path from 3.5 to 5e. You will need a copy of the

• Tormyr
• 5E Conversion Library

 

[UngainlyTitan]

May be it is just me, I am not the most attentive reader these days, but all the advice I have seen is for making high level encounters. Now, I did not find making encounters all that hard, (a bit tedious but not that hard, though perhaps hard to predict how they will go) it is the campaign frame I have difficulty with.
I am not sure I need a hardcover high level adventure path but I think I would find a complication of 1 page outlines of campaign frames with perhaps some opening encounters and the like, very useful.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, it was much more than now. When magic resistance kicked in, the baddie could literally just walk through a wall of Force, for example.

Brought up earlier in this thread. 5.24 introduced greater magic resistance, for atb list the Rakshasa - monster auto makes all saves versus magic/magical effects AND any spell attacks targeted on it AUTOMATICALLY miss.

As long as not overused, that's a nice/nasty surprise against a high level caster. But not fatal, most casters can then shift to support buffing.

I brought that up.
You can also do stuff like magic missile or summons.

5E has the ingredients just scattered. Anyone own Descent into Avernus?

 

[nevin]

One thing I've noticed about high-level play is it becomes even more important to actively manage spotlight time - letting class features dictate this can result in some nasty imbalances, such as letting a spell skip another character's moment.

Don't let fabricate skip the blacksmith fighter's montage.

flip side don't let spell hate kill the wizards fabricate montage when he or she tries to do some cool high level magical item or such.