Really high level adventures?

[PatrickLawinger]

My gaming group has hit 18th/19th level now, so I'm in dire need of some high level adventures suitable for the next few levels. I've downloaded the 17th-20th level free adventures from WotC, but does anyone know of any others available (for free or purchase)?

Even better would be planar stuff, since they're currently wandering around the outer planes, but that's not strictly necessary.

Thanks in advance!

High level adventures are really difficult to deal with. Generally, anything written for them has to be pretty high-powered and still generic. By this level, your own campaign world and character histories are very well-developed. As a writer/designer I can safely say that any high level adventure you do use is likely to need massive tweaking by you on the basis of character classes/PrCs, backgrounds, etc.

I would second (or third or fourth) Hellstone Deep and Black Ice Well both by Monkey God.
I would "unsuggest" the WotC adventure path books, the high level ones, in my opinion, blew chunks.

Dungeon magazine often has a some good higher level adventures. Some of them would definitely need tweaking though.

Some of the higher and mid-level modules by Goodman could probably be adjusted for higher levels. I like most of their modules as they are usually easy to fit into a game world.

Now, of course, I have to also suggest some of the Necromancer Games' offerings but really we don't have much in the firm upper level range. We do have locations and levels in some adventures that would be appropriate. Necropolis has some very deadly encounter and trap areas but it is not really a "planar" adventure. A number of locations in Rappan Athuk would definitely be appropriate, but those encounters would have to be wrapped into something else and it sounds like you don't want to have to do that work. Some of the material in Vampires and Liches and Demons and Devils could work too, depending upon your campaign style and PCs

I did put a high level (somewhat planar) adventure titled "Niavark's Revenge" in Glades of Death. It is relatively short, but can be very, very brutal if your PCs aren't cautious. It can be particularly brutal if the PCs are all mixed class/multiclass. It presumes access to spells based on 17th+ level casters.

Patrick

 

[shaylon]

I think either the recently released Dungeon mag or the next one to hit the shelves is going to have a 17th or 18th level adventure set in the Forgotten Realms. Obviously I don't know much about it but I read it in the "this months dungeon" thread.

Good luck.
-Shay

 

[Voadam]

I think the second drow war module is out. It is supposed to cover levels 11-20.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Not that I'm have the best track record when it comes to pre-published adventures anyway.


I have yet to run a High Level (15+) Module beyond page 5.

Simply too many variables. If your party has a bunch of unique races/abilities/prestige classes, I doubt you'll find any really good High Level Modules out there.

Simple fact is Character Abilites vary widely with greater level (esp Magic Users). Modules are very hard to write to take all of the possible PC abilities into hand.

I just use my own adventures (even if its making it up as I go). I know by then my players strengths & weaknesses & am better able to direct an adventure than any module.

That said, Isn't the Bloodstone Series availble for Free Download off Wizard's Website?

 

[WizarDru]

Well, I currently still rate "Lich Queen's Beloved" as one of the best high-level adventures, EVAR. However, you list that as unattainable, so let's look at other options. I'll assume all Dungeon adventures are similarly 'out'.

"Bastion of Broken Souls" is HORRIBLE. AVOID IT like the PLAGUE. It is a virtual map of how to do high-level BADLY. It's primary solution to high-level abilities is to completely disable them (Divination spells? Prevent them from working! Brilliant!). BoBS forces the players to perform certain actions that just don't make sense, and is basically a pointless jump across several planes, potentially dragging an evil NPC along that won't fool the party for three seconds.

I would highly recommend "Legends of Avadnu" (in downloadable PDF form). It featues high-level and epic monsters, as well as a template to make Epic creatures WEAKER, and thus usable for non-Epic play. The monsters are challenging, creative and well developed and illustrated.

I adapted Goodman Games "Crypt of the Devil-Lich" for use as my Tomb of Horrors for my game. It's a little spotty in places, but with a little work makes for a good dungeon. However, if your PCs are powerful enough, transit spells will bypass a good chunk of the dungeon. Misdirecting the players helps against some of this, though.

EDIT: Oh, couldn't you just purchase the issue directly from Paizo, right here ? It's an excellent issue, and I thought they shipped internationally. You can even purchase and download the Tu'narath city PDF, which is quite good, as well....although some of it is regurgitated in the Planar Handbook.

 

[reveal]

Black Ice Well(Monkeygod) 18th lvl, probably one of the best high level adventures.

Black Ice Well is only for 13-14 level. I know; I just ran my players through it. Excellent adventure.

 

[Rackhir]

I tried running Demon God's Fane for an 18th lvl "Anything goes" campaign and found that I had to bump stuff up significantly to make them a challenge, but the characters were substantially above CR18 in terms of actual power. However, I found knowing your characters is the key to running a high level campaign. I gave the characters significantly more headaches with a single maralith than with one of the encounters that was supposed to be like a ecl 20 according to the module.

 

[Mystery Man]

Dungeon magazine often has a some good higher level adventures. Some of them would definitely need tweaking though.

I can vouch for this.
Pretty much doing my own thing for a high level game I'm running now (level 17) but I'm yoinking some stuff from Lost Tomb of the Sphinx Queen and leveling it up. That's a really neat mod.

 

[Vascant]

While I may not use them entirely, Dungeon mag just rocks for ripping things from and using against my high level group. Usually just need to dress up the encounter with a few new NPCs, a little pinch of stratagy and tactics.. Bam! Bread in the oven

I have done the same with the free adventures from WotC as well, some rather good stuff from those guys.

 

[Rystil Arden]

However, I found knowing your characters is the key to running a high level campaign. I gave the characters significantly more headaches with a single maralith than with one of the encounters that was supposed to be like a ecl 20 according to the module.

This is exactly my opinion on the matter as well. I've said before that once you reach high levels, it is literally impossible to create an adventure for a "standard" group of that level because unlike at low levels where the power of different adventuring parties doesn't vary too much, at high levels, the variance is huge. So huge that it will often be enough so that any one set of players are highly likely to find a published adventure for their level to be pathetically easy or devilishly impossible, based on that deviance. For instance, I have a group of three players at levels 18-20 who I would confidently put into a published module for level 25 characters and expect them to clean up, based on what I've seen of published modules' difficulty. I've seen them kill a Great Wyrm Green Dragon that had 12 levels in Dragon Ascendant, 12 in Bloodscaled Fury, and 12 in Hidecarved Dragon. But even when these characters brought in many allies (including a level 27 Archmage) to fight against a single CR 14 NPC I created myself, they were all either killed or forced to flee.

So I guess my main point is that you have to know your players to make an adventure with appropriate difficulty at high levels.