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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 9793751" data-attributes="member: 9254">Expect party creep.  Familiars, steeds, homunculus, awakened trees, rocks True Polymorphed into elementals, etc.  So give the baddies a couple extra CR of "class feature minions" on top of the xp budget but there's no XP reward for the PCs any more than from Summon Monster.  And killing those much weaker followers has psychological and tactical loss impact.   World building should continue, don't rely on cool powers.  Keep the PCs grounded and interested in the world.  Heck, have some of those party creep be more than window dressing.  You awakened that tree, now its got some questions about your camp fire.Give them lands and people to protect.  Let the recruit guards, village priest, a bard-librarian, alchemist-apprentice wizard, druid-herbalist, etc.  Have the party spend money on books, labs, tools, etc.  In return give them a couple healing potions, flasks of alchemist fire, and low-level scrolls every month or two.  Have it be somewhere with issues, so even "down time" can include goblin raids.  Could even suggest they negotiate from a sense of overwhelming power.....And then later have the goblins come and ask for help when a dragon comes to claim goblin snack-slaves.Be prepared for multiclassing.  The teen levels for many classes are "...and another use of X".  Picking up a other class adds flavor and options.  Have suitable world building events.  A Fighter-16 becoming a cleric-1 is a notable conversion and should be a big deal.Heroes have a lot of options to avoid perma-death.  So mentally treat PC death more like unconsciousness with a wake-up tax.  Use up big painful AoEs on the party early and often.  Expend magic items. Like, totally.  Use ALL the charges on wands.  That mage sustaining a spell? Eat 11 magic missiles.  Goblin minions of a lich? Equip them with slings and use those flasks of alchemist fire.Similarly have weak NPCs run away often.  The fighter slaughters a bunch of goblins in one go and the rest run screaming in different directions.  Then have reinforcements arrive from multiple directions, maybe in waves or clumps.  Let enemies use decent tactics.  No rest, no recovery.    Have a couple snipers or casters drop attacks on the party after 45 minutes. Meanwhile those 45 minutes let the enemies fall back and regroup based on what they saw in the earlier attacks.  Or maybe they cast teleport circle and the baddies just leave. Also make the bases traps.  Nothing like a Mirage Arcane to create a cave complex that is inside a volcano.  By which I mean the volcano is real, its the caverns that are the Mirage.  Go ahead, dispel that illusion the surrounds you.  Watch that rock wall holding back the lake of lava fade.And have the baddies use Revivify, Raise dead and Clone.  Clone is really good as it encourages powerful lieutenants to fight to the death because "I'm gonna Insta-res!" and it gets the bbeg information on the heroes immediately.  When one of those clone vats breaks open, the BBEG fires up Scrying on that lieutenant's base.When they find the actual BBEG, let the BBEG slip in and out of the mix and fade back.  Lich has Alter Self up to throw a Synaptic Static.  The medusa-assasin uses a bow at long range.  Evil cleric casts Warding Bond on its favorite lieutenant, essentially doubling its HP.Also, when the BBEG needs to be in 2 places, use Project Image and Simulacrum.  (Or ask for a Miraculous simulacrum)   Because that is what the players will do.  So do it back.  Or even better, do it to them first.  Use it as practice. Let the players find ways to nerf those tactics.  Then use what they learned back on them when they get those powers (at least when fighting older/wiser foes)</blockquote>

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