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<blockquote data-quote="J-H" data-source="post: 9353811" data-attributes="member: 7020951">I wrote, tested/ran, and published a 13-20 campaign called Against the Idol of the Sun.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/against-the-idol-of-the-sun-a-5e-high-level-campaign-log.677209/" target="_blank">Here's the campaign log</a> if you want to read it (it's long!).-The 5-8 encounter adventuring day definitely went away.&nbsp; 1-2 encounters per day, tops, even with overland travel.-Most combats had at least one objective besides &quot;beat the enemy.&quot;&nbsp; For the set-piece attacks on enemy cities, this was &quot;Do X to destroy the altar and set back their plans for the enemy BBEG (a god) to gain power to manifest on the Prime Material Plane in person.&quot;&nbsp; For travel encounters, it was often &quot;steal an air-skiff&quot; or &quot;make sure none of the Aarakocra fly away and tell the others where we are.&quot;-More and better magic items are good.&nbsp; I raised the attunement limit to 5.-I only had one full caster by the end (players dropping/joining), a Warlock.&nbsp; Wish was pivotal in the final fight - he had it from a magic item.Long combats did take 3-5 hours.&nbsp; How long would you expect it to take for a high-level group (any system) to assault, say, the home temple of an earth goddess in the middle of a city, guarded by about two dozen mundane guards, 4 priests, a high priest(ess), and a divinely empowered huge crocodile beast with Earth Glide and a half-dozen mouths, with the altar they have to destroy causing fissures to open under a target every round (save or fall in, fissures close next round and entomb you if you don't get out)?I don't think ANY system is going to run set-piece battles like that quickly.&nbsp; The difference at high level is that the players are capable of surviving and winning those scenarios, where an 8th level party just doesn't have sufficient resources unless ALL the enemies are low power / low HP / don't have exotic effects going on.For my current campaign (BG2 in 5e), I am capping full HP growth at level 10.&nbsp; Beyond that, they get 3, 2, or 1 hp per level.&nbsp; This will let me scale back HP bloat on both sides of the screen.&nbsp; By 20th level, Fireball was a nothingburger to them (except the time they took 16 Fireballs at once).&nbsp; That's my big takeaway and change.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="J-H, post: 9353811, member: 7020951"] I wrote, tested/ran, and published a 13-20 campaign called Against the Idol of the Sun. [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/against-the-idol-of-the-sun-a-5e-high-level-campaign-log.677209/']Here's the campaign log[/URL] if you want to read it (it's long!). -The 5-8 encounter adventuring day definitely went away. 1-2 encounters per day, tops, even with overland travel. -Most combats had at least one objective besides "beat the enemy." For the set-piece attacks on enemy cities, this was "Do X to destroy the altar and set back their plans for the enemy BBEG (a god) to gain power to manifest on the Prime Material Plane in person." For travel encounters, it was often "steal an air-skiff" or "make sure none of the Aarakocra fly away and tell the others where we are." -More and better magic items are good. I raised the attunement limit to 5. -I only had one full caster by the end (players dropping/joining), a Warlock. Wish was pivotal in the final fight - he had it from a magic item. Long combats did take 3-5 hours. How long would you expect it to take for a high-level group (any system) to assault, say, the home temple of an earth goddess in the middle of a city, guarded by about two dozen mundane guards, 4 priests, a high priest(ess), and a divinely empowered huge crocodile beast with Earth Glide and a half-dozen mouths, with the altar they have to destroy causing fissures to open under a target every round (save or fall in, fissures close next round and entomb you if you don't get out)? I don't think ANY system is going to run set-piece battles like that quickly. The difference at high level is that the players are capable of surviving and winning those scenarios, where an 8th level party just doesn't have sufficient resources unless ALL the enemies are low power / low HP / don't have exotic effects going on. For my current campaign (BG2 in 5e), I am capping full HP growth at level 10. Beyond that, they get 3, 2, or 1 hp per level. This will let me scale back HP bloat on both sides of the screen. By 20th level, Fireball was a nothingburger to them (except the time they took 16 Fireballs at once). That's my big takeaway and change. [/QUOTE]

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