D&D 5E No One Plays High Level?

[nevin]

Agreed. I really wanted to like it, but... didn't.

yeah no guides that TSR or WOTC have ever written for High level play have ever been worth the paper they were on.

 

[Zardnaar]

Has anyone ever found benefit from this old book? (And, more importantly, is its advice of any value today?)

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Used it at the time and yed. I broke it out nit to long ago to reread.

It had a prototype template system in it to beef up monsters.

It's roic magic system was overhauled in 3.0 epic level Handbook.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

It probably would have been best if the max complexity of a character was maintain to that of a mid-level PC. From level 1-20, you get the most 10 things. Spells, Cantrips, maneuvers, masteries, expertise, rages, runes, tricks, etc. As you level, you swap out lower level stuff for high level stuff or upgrade the low level stuff.

You mean like 4E?

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Sure, though the fact that some are amazing (Natural Spell, Spring Attack) and others are garbage...well. It's a bit more complicated than just "yeah, feats forever!"

Stuff like Spring Attack did have a lot of prerequisites, though, and E6 would finally be the format where feat chains make some sense.

 

[Minigiant]

You mean like 4E?

4e goes past 10 parts.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

4e goes past 10 parts.

Yeaaah... our number of powers got into the teens well before our levels did.

 

[Oofta]

The issue with gaining experience in high level 5e is that low level play is not like high level play. So you can run a dozen level 1-10 campaigns and still not know how to run 5e at level 14.

This was mostly the issue for WOTC. They playtested 5e from low to mid levels with KOTB. Then they and most 3PP extrapolate new adventures or convert old adventures based on the gameplay of low levels.

It's not like you skip levels 2 through 19.

There should be more advice and support for high level play, it's something that has been brought up in the WOTC podcasts. But as many others have stated the game works just fine.

 

[Maxperson]

with most of the pantheon at their side and don't forget Elves are outerplanars in that book. It wasn't mortals fighting those balrogs it was the Gods and thier most powerful outerplanar followers. They don't die they pass on to the outer realms and are reborn. All that first age stuff is basically Lucifer waging war on heaven till he loses. The second age is a bit more like DND and then the 3rd is your nitty gritty magic poor game. none of the 3 ages really merge well into DND ruleset.

They aren't outerplanars. They are all created in Middle Earth and at some point a bunch of them are invited to live in Aman(heaven). Then many of them leave and do some bad things on the way out.

 

[Quickleaf]

Question... say a published high-level adventure catches your eye. It's for a limited level range, not a 1-20 mega-campaign. What qualities would you need to see in the adventure to consider picking it up?

Specifically, qualities UNIQUE to high-level play. Not good adventure design principles in general.

For example, I think higher-level play tends to involve more hooks based on (a) PC backstories, and (b) past choices/actions of the PCs. Finding innovative ways to hook into those things in the context of an adventure module would be something that would catch my eye.

 

[Zardnaar]

Question... say a published high-level adventure catches your eye. It's for a limited level range, not a 1-20 mega-campaign. What qualities would you need to see in the adventure to consider picking it up?

Specifically, qualities UNIQUE to high-level play. Not good adventure design principles in general.

For example, I think higher-level play tends to involve more hooks based on (a) PC backstories, and (b) past choices/actions of the PCs. Finding innovative ways to hook into those things in the context of an adventure module would be something that would catch my eye.

From experience there was a tie in level 20 adventure in Dungeon for the ELH.

To hit 21 you had to bathe in some sort of magical pool. One of the encounters was an awakened sperm whale with 20 Druid levels and Natural spell.
It just looked interesting to play.