I'm *so* looking forward to high-level D&D

[Piratecat]

I love high lvl D&D. One of my players just had his PC hit 20th lvl after 11 years of regular play, and he's positively giddy. I'm having a blast as I plot out the next arc of my campaign; it's going to be fun.

Of course, logistics can be fascinating. Here's how they escaped back to the surface from an illithid demiplane deep in the underdark, where teleporting is difficult or impossible:

1. Plane shift into illithid demiplane to kick ass and take (telepathic) names.
2. Cubic Gate from demiplane to Mount Celestia (Plane of LG).
3. Rod of security to celestial demiplane to rest.
4. Next day, Gate from security demiplane back to underdark. Grab things left behind.
5. Plane shift back to security demiplane.
6. Gate back home on the Prime.

It was elegantly done.

 

[Numion]

The first time I used a beholder, it got whooped like a giggly schoolgirl. Those things have a huge firepower, but they are damn fragile!

Our DM built up to the encounter, so we knew what was going to go down. Of 4 PCs two were clerics, 9th or 10th level. We knew the dangers, so only the clerics went in with protective magics on (rogue and barb would've just gotten killed). Beholder comes in, our clerics notably shrivel when our magics are supressed by the anti-magic eye.

"I prepare to cast Blindness on the beholder when the central eye closes"



And it worked. Blind beholder is as useful as a wizard in antimagic field. Not too bad for two 9-10 level characters. A CR 13 beholder. We were pretty damn happy with ourselves. Even more so when we found out that the rogue and barb had gotten their asses handed to them by the Beholders cohort in the next room

 

[Pants]

I'm dming my first semi-high level game right now. The Sun Wizard is 14th Level (very close to 15th), the Gnomish Rogue is 13th Level, the Half-Orc Fighter is 12th Level, the Human Cleric is 12th Level, and the Human Druid is 11th Level.
They are finally getting into the stages where they can play with some of those really powerful spells and abilities. They can Teleport, Fly, and do all sorts of other cool stuff.
Sure it is hard to prepare for and the CR's aren't much of an accurate guide of difficulty, but it's fun running a game where the PC's can kill demons, dragons, influence nobles, and do all other kinds of snazzy stuff. I also like the toys

I'm also looking forward to that 'uber-high level' point (ie 18-20) where 9th level spells come into play and the PC's reach the ultimate power level available to mortals. When Balors, Pit Fiends, Wyrms, and vatly powerful beings become the normal enemy.

Low-levels are fun, mid-levels are fun, and high levels look like they'll be fun as well.

 

[jollyninja]

The first time I used a beholder, it got whooped like a giggly schoolgirl. Those things have a huge firepower, but they are damn fragile!

i am in the midst of my first campaign as a dm in a few years, it is set in a severly altered version of the dragonlance setting (the books were my intro to dnd, i'm revisiting). the character's are between 13th and 16th level after a winter of gaming. anyway, the ranger within the group just almost accidentally killed a beholder. it was invisibly floating above it's minions using the antimagic cone to fullest effect, stopping the pc's from using their buff spells while it's minions hacked at them and caster minions pelted the party with spells. the archer was shooting at a caster with a slightly elevated position behing the rest of the enemies, and regularly hitting the beholder instead! he was verry confused until ti became visible after a few rounds and unloaded with a few rays in the archer's direction.

 

[Trainz]

The first time I used a beholder, it got whooped like a giggly schoolgirl. Those things have a huge firepower, but they are damn fragile!

1- Use more than one beholder (if party is high enough)

2- Have a meat wall surrounding the beholder, filling the slots where the PC's could stand next to it in melee.

Yoinked (I just yoinked myself !). I'm using this in the next games. My PC's are level 16-17, so I'll use 4 of them...

 

[arwink]

Given that it's been a good three years since my first forays into High Level DMing, I'm relatively eager to get back there, but I'm also kind of nervous about it as well. I love some of the flavor stuff of high levels, but it has that high-terror DMing without a net feel to it - I just don't know the territory as well as lower-level gaming and that tends to make me nervous

 

[Gort]

Yeah, my players are just hitting tenth level, so I'm getting ready to introduce my first proper dragon! (they've met a young brass dragon who made them promise not to tell anyone where he was, but that was just a flavour encounter - the dragon followed them around disguised as a cat for a bit, then politely asked them not to steal his 500 gold piece hoard )

Of course, the adult red dragon will be a different matter! Muhahaha

 

[Derulbaskul]

I'm currently DMing two campaigns where the PCs are at 16th level and finished another campaign about a year ago where the PCs finished at 23rd level.

I like high level play but one thing I have noticed: the PCs become a lot more fragile with respect to encounters suitable for their level. Also, if the player is having an off night due to being tired or distracted, it doesn't take long before things go rather pear-shaped.

Actually, I think one of the campaigns may come to a premature end because one of the players is tired of his characters dying frequently because of errors in judgement. Frex, he cast heal on a fairly powerful fiend that was nearly dead after two previous sessions where it was explained to him by the other players, in character, that evil outsiders are not undead and therefore are healed by cure (and related) spells. One round later, his character was dead.

 

[Piratecat]

Frex, he cast heal on a fairly powerful fiend that was nearly dead after two previous sessions where it was explained to him by the other players, in character, that evil outsiders are not undead and therefore are healed by cure (and related) spells. One round later, his character was dead.

Wow. I think I'd have the fiend politely thank him, tell him that their bargain was complete now that he had lived up to his blood agreement, and then teleport away... leaving the PCs to glare at the obvious turncoat.

 

[Darklone]

Wow. I think I'd have the fiend politely thank him, tell him that their bargain was complete now that he had lived up to his blood agreement, and then teleport away... leaving the PCs to glare at the obvious turncoat.

Perhaps that's WHY he was dead 1 round later?