Old DM New to High Level Adventures - Help

[Dr. NRG]

First, if you are fearful of what your players might be able to do, use some of their own tactics against them. If the players are constantly kicking BBEG butt with X tactic, don't hesitate to use X tactic (or a relevant variant) against them. This is THE inherent balancing factor built into the game.

It's as simple as the old adage, "Anything you can do, I can do better." When the improved invisible flying sorceror runs into an enemy flying improved invisible sorceror with true sight on and fire resistance 30, he will learn fear...

Second, DMs often fall into a situation where each of their players has a huge amount of time to spend detailing and charting their particular character's capabilities. Players have a very strong incentive to maximize their capabilities, and to optimally use the party's capabilities in concert. DMs, however, do not have as much time per opponent to spend.

There are two possible solutions. The first one involves spending a whole lot of time detailing your biggest, baddest NPCs to PC levels. This can be fun, provided you have the resources and time to invest. This is the path one of my current DMs loves so much that he fills the Rogue's gallery full of detailed back stories on the lives of NPCs that have just faced the party.

The second solution is to take shortcuts. If you notice that the party seems to beat down NPCs with low Will saves, add 5 to the Will saves of "boss" opponents. Players neither need to know the stat blocks of opponents, nor should they know them any more than their characters would. If you find that the tanks in the party are decimating opponents like a meat-grinder, add Spring Attack to a bunch of enemies. As you may be able to tell, this is more my DM'ing style. If you feel locked to the books, the players (having had time to study the intricacies of their PCs' abilities) are likely to beat up their foes (your creations) too easily. However, the books, stat blocks, etc. are there as a guideline. If you free yourself to diverge from absolute fidelity, you open a whole realm of possibilities. For example, in a 2E campaign I DM'ed, I found that the archers and melees were pounding foes with too much ease -- I implemented something like Damage Reduction for certain high-level enemies to solve the problem. It wasn't in any of the books, the PCs had no idea why these guys wouldn't drop as easily, and it made the world more realistic in that PCs are not all-knowing. There are, or IMHO should be, abilities out there that characters have neither seen nor heard of. If you agree, make some up and use them... If not, invest as much time into prepping each NPC and their tactics as the players spent building their characters and defining their party tactics.

NRG

 

[d12]

In a recent campaign-ending combat, our party's 12th level cleric managed to get through the SR on a CR 17 elemental-creature with a harm spell. Even though I house rule a save on the harm spell - the bad guy rolled a 1. Ouch. He dropped to 1 hp. It was the bad guy's turn next. He got four attacks in on the offending cleric and KILLED him (I mean we're talking -40 hp here - VERY dead). Then the party sorceror moved in and finished the bad guy off. So, even though said cleric was dead, it was a very heroic (sacrificially heroic) moment.

If the party's 12th level sorceror is using improved invsibility and fireballing everyone then that's great - as long as he's having fun. One day they're going to run into a bad guy sorceror using stoneskin, improved invisibilty and fireball.

So, in short, embrace the power. Those nasty deadly spells like disintegrate, harm and finger of death spell a short end for many badguys but badguys use these spells too. Fortunately, a raise dead is relativly cheap if you are 12th level.

 

[Celebrim]

Don't be afraid to unload. Remember, in 3rd edition, dying has extraorinarily little consequences. Raise dead is readily accessible to your party.

For my part, I'm always on the look out for the weakest foes I can still successfully challenge the party with. This requires a little meta gaming on your part. You will have to look carefully at your parties strengths and weaknesses. What is the minimum BAB needed to have at least a 10% chance of hitting everyone in the party? Can I put such a creature in a defensive position so that the party has a fairly low chance of hitting as well? What is the minimum TOUCH attack needed to have at least a 10% chance of hitting everyone in the party? It probably won't be that high. What low powered monsters can I put in the module with such a touch attack? Stirges? Shadows? Wraiths? Be on the look out for creatures like Mephits who can do a little damage to just about anything. These sorts of monsters become your new grunts.

What is the weakest monster with at least a 25% chance of winning a grapple against everyone in the party? What happens if a horde of otherwise weak monsters accept the AoO and all try to grab on to the PC's in a tidal wave of flesh? At the very least, you give the PC with combat reflexes and great cleave a chance to really show off his abilities. At the best, you force the fighter focused on taking down single large foes to rethink his position.

Does the party rely heavily on a single player for missile fire? If so, a large group of relatively weak archers in a defensive position will force the rest of the party to chip in. What will the party do against a dozen or more dispersed low level spell casters all hurling dispel magic, lightning bolts, magic missiles and other low level high power spells?

Force the players to act as a team by assembling small groups of monsters that act as a team. Select creatures so that each player has at least one foe that is a danger to him, even if such a foe would be no problem for someone else in the problem. A couple of varguoille's or anything provoking a will save can still be a severe threat to even a high level fighter. A stealthy creature with grapple can be a serious problem for a wizard. Traps are a serious threat to a cleric. Constructs and undead are serious problems for rogues. Combination like this can be easy to handle if the party works together, and embarassingly difficult if they dont.

Templates are your friends: Fiendish, Air Elemental Creature, Half-Fiend, Skeleton, Multi-Headed. They keep the encounters fresh and unexpected.

Don't be afraid to give monsters alot of low level expendable items - potions, scrolls, alchemist fire, tanglefoot bags, wands, etc. Don't be afraid to start min maxing monsters, especially old stand buys. A troll with just a level or two of cleric returns to respectability. A minotaur with a few levels of barbarian and a masterwork axe will make a decent grunt.

Don't be afraid to through canon fodder against the party from time to time just to let them clean house. Don't be too worried when your cannon fodder turns into a challenge and your challenge turns into a one turn kill.

My experience with PC's is that they are absolutely lethal any time the players themselves have a good idea what is going on. Don't be afraid to put the players in unknown situations. Confusion about what do to can make what is on paper a simple or even trivial problem into a one that the players will remember as a real horror show.