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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kalendraf" data-source="post: 1008755" data-attributes="member: 3433">From my experience, it does become noticeably harder to DM at higher levels.  There are a number of factors that contribute to this.First of all, at low levels, characters tend to be very generic.  They have limited resources, and only minor differences in their skill points, feats or other abilities.  As a DM, it is usually easy to predict how a low level group will handle a specific encounter.  And it is tends to be easier to design balanced encounters and adventures for low-level groups as a result.As the characters become higher level, they become much more diverse in terms of abilities, skills, feats and equipment.  In more and more cases, they'll surprise you in how they handle supposedly difficult situations.  They will have abilities, spells or items that easily overcome various hurdles that you as a DM were not expecting.  This is good for the players, but sometimes a big letdown for the DM.  For example, the climax battle against the big, bad demon ends on the 1st round of combat via a one-shot power-attacked critical hit smite from the Paladin.  The session is cut short as the prime nemesis dies a few hours before you expected, and you have nothing else prepared for the night.  On the flip side, the CR ratings of monsters and EL's of encounters seem to be less predictable at the higher levels.  I've seen supposedly easy EL7 encounters kill characters in 10th level parties, and I've seen the same 10th level party plow thru an EL13 like a hot knife thru butter.  There's a risk as DM to overestimate what a party can handle, and this takes experience to judge.  Until then, expect a few character deaths along the way.Another problem at higher levels is that characters gain so many options that even single rounds of combat can begin to take a very long time to resolve.  With multiple attacks per round, multiple feats coming into action, and spells that will require cracking open the book to decide exactly how they work in various situations, the game can really drag out.  That can make the game more difficult to DM with so much happening in a single round to keep track of.If you want practice DM'ing at higher levels, I suggest trying a one-shot adventure.  You could try making it yourself, or buying one or maybe get lucky and find one for free online.  There's no real harm in a one-shot adventure of doing something wrong, and it's probably going to be a learning experience for you and your players.  After you get the hang of it, DM'ing across low to high levels should now be easier to handle.</blockquote>

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