D&D 5E Just Finished a Lv.1 thru Lv.20 Campaign -- Ask Me Anything

[Scribe]

When the tide began to turn against the kraken, he attempted to use a wish to escape...and our artificer (no longer a bumbling student) burned the 9th level spell slot he had been saving to counterspell it. When that happened, everyone sat up in their chairs and cracked their knuckles, including me. It was about to GO DOWN.

Chad Counterspell, once again showing up.

 

[CleverNickName]

How long were typical high (17+) level "boss fights' in real time? Did they take an hour? More? less? I am prepping con games for 17th level PCs and could use a benchmark even before I start playtesting.

Ugh, high level combat is the worst.

To build a "Hard" encounter for five, 17th level characters, I had to pretty much use Legendary monsters. That's monsterS, plural. So every round I had to track multiple Legendary actions, sometimes a Lair action or two, and probably all of their summoned minions and bodyguards. To say nothing of the players, who had so many class features and spell options to consider that one single round of combat could take 20 or 30 minutes to resolve.

It wasn't uncommon for "boss" battles to take more than 3 hours to resolve. Regular, non-boss combats were much faster, usually resolving themselves in about 30-45 minutes or so.

 

[CleverNickName]

Chad Counterspell, once again showing up.

You leave him alone. He saved the day!

 

[Scribe]

You leave him alone. He saved the day!

Hey, I'm a huge fan!

 

[Weiley31]

Is it annoying or pointless to do according to all the naysayers of 5E or those who only play up to level 10?

 

[CleverNickName]

Is it annoying or pointless to do according to all the naysayers of 5E or those who only play up to level 10?

Don't listen to strangers who try to tell you what you will enjoy. Only you and your friends can tell you that!

My best advice:
Talk to your players often. Ask them how things are going, and listen to them when they answer.
If everyone is having fun, keep going. "Everyone" includes you.
If not, wrap it up...no matter what level they're at.

Our game was enjoyable across all levels. That said, the campaign was at its most fun when the characters were between 6th and 12th level. For my gaming style and my players, that was our "sweet spot." Combat was long enough to be exciting but not so long that it dragged. Characters were versatile and effective, without being same-y and godlike. Monsters were tough enough to be a threat, but not so tough that the party was in constant fear of death. Treasures still felt rewarding, rare, and mysterious.

Your experience will be different.

 

[CleverNickName]

I worry that someone might read my previous post and say "see? SEE?! I told you the game wasn't fun at high levels!!" But that's not what I said.

That person missed the first sentence of that paragraph. So I'll reiterate, just in case you are that person: our game was enjoyable across all levels. No matter what level the characters were at, the game was still a lot of fun, and was still an enjoyable way to hang out with our friends every other Friday night.

 

[pukunui]

Thanks for doing this, @CleverNickName. I can say it is similar to my experiences playing up to 20th level.

Out of curiously, how did the artificer have a 9th level spell slot? Don’t they normally max out at 5th level slots?

 

[CleverNickName]

Another member of the One-Twenty Club!

Thanks for doing this, @CleverNickName. I can say it is similar to my experiences playing up to 20th level.

Out of curiously, how did the artificer have a 9th level spell slot? Don’t they normally max out at 5th level slots?

Sorry, that was a typo. It was a 5th level spell slot vs. the 9th level wish, and the artificer got lucky on his d20 roll. That's why everyone sat up at attention...it was a very dramatic moment!

 

[Wasteland Knight]

You described your game as a sandbox, but I assume at some point the game funneled towards the final act of saving the world/stopping the main villain. Was there a specific level where this happened?