Is it harder to be a DM in a high-level campaign?

[Enceladus]

And lastly, I don't like the sort of campaign where teleport is available to any level 9 mage, where people routinely fight flying, stoneskinned and invisible, with the ressurect-o-mat (sorry, the cleric) on stand-by.

Everyone plays differently.

I would never say that you're a bad dm or a boring dm, thats not really very nice and since I don't know you from Adam probably not true. And after graciously answering my questions I gather, you just don't play the same style of game as me thats all. About as far as I go toward low power is a 24 point buy or 3d6 straight down the stats after that its anybody for themself.

Personally I like using those high powered spells as a DM so with the old adage, alls fair in love and war the players get them too.

Don't get down on the bruthah for playin' his game people!

 

[Fenes 2]

(That's why I can't figure out when some complain that adventures like "City of the Spider Queen" is too hard. They should be using Rope Trick between virtually every battle if the adventure really is that hard...)

Not everyone likes the "fight one battle, rest 8 hours, fight next battle, rest 8 hours" approach. There are ways to counter it, but I find rope trick so unbelievable cheesy that I just banned it. A party resting each night or day in an extradimensional hideout is not my idea of Fantasy.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

No offense man, but restricting things because you are too "lazy" or "unimaginative" means you probably should stop DMing. I hate to say that when there are lack of DM's in my area for players sometimes, but if you think divinations are game breaking you aren't using them to the rules. A lot of the answers are cryptic or in rhymes, etc.

Whoopdie do I can teleport and windwalk. So I scry the BBEG and I can teleport to him. He can scry me and teleport to me? Or teleport away? Or cast a low level dimensional anchor?

They can't easily scry someone in 3.0 until they get greater scry. Put some time constraints where they can't go spend an hour casting and then start searching around all day. The BBEG has taken control of the castle and is slaying peasants for fun. You already have a clue where he's at but not exactly. You can't just scry in or teleport in because the king had placed protective magics or even if he didn't you can but when you get there theres too many innocents to just arrive and blast him. Those spells are useful to have but not game breaking if you know they have them and make sure your npc's use them.

Nondetection protects from scrying. any wizard/sorc can have this at very low levels. Misdirection points to someone near them. Perhaps they scry and find the BBEG and arrive to attack to realize that they were misdirected and its just a soldier he brought in as a "dupe". They turn around and "surprise" its a set up and he has 20 guards attack them to capture them.

It's difficult creating these kinds of time constraints - and it isn't fun for the players either. I think it's a bit silly that every major villain must, without exception, have a way to defend themselves from scrying.

Rope Trick = Tent

 

[MarauderX]

Balance, balance, balance.

Back in the day, I remember balancing an OD&D campaign at 22nd level (remember, they went to 36th) and always the wizard outshown the others when it came to BBEG challenges. The only other that mattered was the cleric so he could mass heal and raise people, and never really got the chance to do devestating spells like the wizard. So the biggest thing was preventing it from getting boring for everyone, and not letting them abuse the system. It was hard.

I had to plan ahead so much, and think about how the battles would go to prepare against the wizard and make the fighter and thief (again, pre-rogue) feel worthy of doing something in battle without getting killed.

I think the same goes for 3E, as preparing for the PCs becomes big, but 3E is supposed to be balanced between the classes and having to 'plan against' a certain tactic or PC doesn't really happen.

 

[gfunk]

Apparently Bastion of Broken Souls also takes the time to nerf Commune, but I don't own that adventure - that's the impression I get from Gfunk's Story Hour.

Cordell has an interesting policy in Bastion in that he deosn't exactly nerf spells completely.

If you use spells to contact your deity regarding the Bastion, there is silence b/c of the Ban of the Unborn. Also if you try to use arcane/divine spells to find out about Demogorgon then they are interecepted by one of his heads and also result in silence.

Not, however, other divinations regarding other topics work just fine and you can scry on virtually any NPC in the module.

 

[takyris]

Mislead is a great way to knock out scrying. "Oh, he's left most of his guards and is only protected by a squadron of advanced fire elementals! Let's load up on cold spells and protection from fire and go in, guns blazing!" says the party, shortly before teleporting into a gigantic pool full of green slime.

Dimension Door is great, and it's one of the spells you can load into an Unhallow (think I got the spell name right), so that it goes off as soon as "Anyone who is not evil" teleports into the lair.

Spell Turning can turn that "BBEG dead in 1 round" frown upside down. Also, any bad guy who doesn't have SR is not worth mentioning. It's a 5th level cleric spell. Love it. Use it.

I once had mad mad mad mad mad fun with an advanced half-fiend basilisk who had Improved Invisibility. He was hurting the party in bits and pieces, doing little bad things, and some genius shouted, "Hey, he's invisible! True Seeing will take care of that!" Oh, how he laughed...

For murder mysteries, use those mid-to-high-level spells. The Commune reveals that Badriss killed the duke, but Badriss maintains his innocence even under Detect Lies.

The mystery is not who killed Badriss. The mystery is that the Duke was actually a Pit Fiend, and that the Balor who let Badriss pierce the Pit Fiend's improved illusion also cast Modify Memory on Badriss afterward.

 

[Marimmar@Home]

Not sure what the difference is between that and Rope Trick.

It's all about <i>style</i>. Where a rope trick is just a 'tent' the mansion provides you with single rooms for all and servants. YOu don't have to listen to the fighter's snoring and the ladies can change their clothing without being ashamed.

~Marimmar

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Spell Turning can turn that "BBEG dead in 1 round" frown upside down. Also, any bad guy who doesn't have SR is not worth mentioning. It's a 5th level cleric spell. Love it. Use it.

I would like to point out that Spell Turning doesn't work against Disintegrate ... it's really sad when a BBEG wizard can't last two rounds in combat.

I once had mad mad mad mad mad fun with an advanced half-fiend basilisk who had Improved Invisibility. He was hurting the party in bits and pieces, doing little bad things, and some genius shouted, "Hey, he's invisible! True Seeing will take care of that!" Oh, how he laughed...

That's beautiful! Yoink!

 

[Breakstone]

I once had mad mad mad mad mad fun with an advanced half-fiend basilisk who had Improved Invisibility. He was hurting the party in bits and pieces, doing little bad things, and some genius shouted, "Hey, he's invisible! True Seeing will take care of that!" Oh, how he laughed...

That's just great!

Anyways, high level DM'ing can be difficult, but very rewarding from what I've heard. Although my current campaign will end at about 10th level, I'm planning for my next to go up to the teens.

I think I'll try and break away from my linear approach of planning adventures, and try Piratecat's "flow chart" idea. Also, I think many adventures at such high levels can be created from the player's whims. I'm planning on writing down what other high-level NPCs, armies, and kingdoms are doing, and seeing what the characters do about it.

Yup.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Cordell has an interesting policy in Bastion in that he deosn't exactly nerf spells completely.

If you use spells to contact your deity regarding the Bastion, there is silence b/c of the Ban of the Unborn. Also if you try to use arcane/divine spells to find out about Demogorgon then they are interecepted by one of his heads and also result in silence.

Not, however, other divinations regarding other topics work just fine and you can scry on virtually any NPC in the module.

Good to know I was wrong then