D&D 5E Running High Level 5E is more fun than I thought it would be.

[Oofta]

Encased her in a globe of invulnerability. The cleric asked his god to keep her out of the fight so they could negotiate with her later.

That's ... huh. Okay there are a couple of issues. The target is "self", it doesn't hinder the person that casts it in any way shape or form. The queen could still cast spells or attacked out of it. Or simply walked out. Forcecage might have worked.

 

[dave2008]

Encased her in a globe of invulnerability. The cleric asked his god to keep her out of the fight so they could negotiate with her later.

Interesting, I would have allowed a save (which I am guessing you didn't) which seems to be RAI to me, but obviously that ability leaves a lot up to interpretation.

OK, now that I have looked her up, the real issue I see is that she is only CR 16. For a "boss" encounter I am usually going to have at least one monster have a CR a few (and maybe as much as 5-10 depending on support) above the parties level.

I probably would have re-skinned moloch (CR 23) from MToF to be your Snow Queen and kept the rest of the encounter the same.

 

[Reynard]

That's ... huh. Okay there are a couple of issues. The target is "self", it doesn't hinder the person that casts it in any way shape or form. The queen could still cast spells or attacked out of it. Or simply walked out. Forcecage might have worked.

That's not really relevant. The point was she could neither affect the anyone else or be affected by it. That's what the cleric asked for with Divine Intervention, which is well within the parameters of the ability. And the way I read the ability there is not save: if the ability succeeds (automatic at 20th level) it produces the effect of any cleric spell.

In any case it the top level, once a week character power. it makes sense to allow it. Of course, in the context of a short one shot, there's no probability that it might not be available so you kind of have to take it with a grain of salt as exemplary of actual play. Ultimately the test worked as intended: it showed it is possible to play 5E at 20th level and have it still be fun, which was my whole intent.

 

[dave2008]

That's ... huh. Okay there are a couple of issues. The target is "self", it doesn't hinder the person that casts it in any way shape or form. The queen could still cast spells or attacked out of it. Or simply walked out. Forcecage might have worked.

The class feature doesn't require it to be literally a spell, but like a spell, if I am remembering correctly. Yes, it sounds more like force cage than globe, but I understood the intent.

 

[dave2008]

That's not really relevant. The point was she could neither affect the anyone else or be affected by it. That's what the cleric asked for with Divine Intervention, which is well within the parameters of the ability. And the way I read the ability there is not save: if the ability succeeds (automatic at 20th level) it produces the effect of any cleric spell.

In any case it the top level, once a week character power. it makes sense to allow it. Of course, in the context of a short one shot, there's no probability that it might not be available so you kind of have to take it with a grain of salt as exemplary of actual play. Ultimately the test worked as intended: it showed it is possible to play 5E at 20th level and have it still be fun, which was my whole intent.

I tend to agree with everything here. As I mentioned, i would probably would have allowed a save, but the feature doesn't say you have to. To be clear, I would have allowed a save, but not legendary resistance. Alternately, I may have allowed the queen to spend all of her legendary (all 3 uses) to avoid the globe. That why it didn't have the effect intended, but it does severally weaken the queen's defenses.

 

[Reynard]

I tend to agree with everything here. As I mentioned, i would probably would have allowed a save, but the feature doesn't say you have to. To be clear, I would have allowed a save, but not legendary resistance. Alternately, I may have allowed the queen to spend all of her legendary (all 3 uses) to avoid the globe. That why it didn't have the effect intended, but it does severally weaken the queen's defenses.

I'm sure if I had realized they would end the fight a round and a half afterward, i would have done something similar. I was actually giving it 3 round before she shattered the globe and came on full power. We ran out of time but I doubt she would have lasted long against the whole party and her only real hope would have been to break the warlock's concentration in order to free the white dragon.

But, like I said, it was funand makes me think playing that 14th level group up to 20th is viable.

 

[S'mon]

A decent fight for 5 level 20 PCs is 5 Challenge 20 monsters!

 

[TheDelphian]

I find that upping attack bonus by even a couple of points and maxing damage works better for me, it avoids the slog. But there are plenty of ways to adjust challenges without cheating.

My problem was not a Slog as much as two maybe three rounds and bad guy was out. I wanted longer fights, especially, as I said earlier, run 1-3 encounters in a day so those encounters are meant to last a little longer and be a heck of a lot tougher. It was more a fix to my style of play and easy for me to do.

I often wrote up higher end encounters from scratch, creating new things to fight because the unfortunate side effect, at least in my games, is that the higher the campaign goes the more "Specialized" the enemy gets. Meaning the story/plot/ quest whatever you want to call it means most the high CR things in the monster books are not appropriate to the story/ environment etc. I reskinned some things but still only so far that stretches things.

Not a complaint or bash of the system. I know most play seems to be at the lower end and no matter how much high CR stuff they put out, chances are it still would not quite fit in my game. I don't mind the custom tailoring though I know not everyone is comfortable creating, reskinning etc monsters / bad guys etc. I am.

And I roll out in the open so hit points was always the easiest thing I could manipulate to shift the challenge. I know some people see that as a cheat but I use it both ways to easy up and to pour it one when it comes to encounter. Side effect of crafting home made stuff is occasionally screwing up in both directions Too hard, Too easy. I have to adjust for my own fallibility without making my players suffer. Too easy I usually let roll they should feel like badasses once in a while.

 

[dave2008]

My problem was not a Slog as much as two maybe three rounds and bad guy was out. I wanted longer fights, especially, as I said earlier, run 1-3 encounters in a day so those encounters are meant to last a little longer and be a heck of a lot tougher. It was more a fix to my style of play and easy for me to do.

I often wrote up higher end encounters from scratch, creating new things to fight because the unfortunate side effect, at least in my games, is that the higher the campaign goes the more "Specialized" the enemy gets. Meaning the story/plot/ quest whatever you want to call it means most the high CR things in the monster books are not appropriate to the story/ environment etc. I reskinned some things but still only so far that stretches things.

Not a complaint or bash of the system. I know most play seems to be at the lower end and no matter how much high CR stuff they put out, chances are it still would not quite fit in my game. I don't mind the custom tailoring though I know not everyone is comfortable creating, reskinning etc monsters / bad guys etc. I am.

And I roll out in the open so hit points was always the easiest thing I could manipulate to shift the challenge. I know some people see that as a cheat but I use it both ways to easy up and to pour it one when it comes to encounter. Side effect of crafting home made stuff is occasionally screwing up in both directions Too hard, Too easy. I have to adjust for my own fallibility without making my players suffer. Too easy I usually let roll they should feel like badasses once in a while.

@TheDelphian , if your looking for high powered monsters, you might want to check out some hombrew monsters I have posted: 5e Epic Monster Updates and 5e Hardcore Monsters , they should be closer to what you need.

 

[dave2008]

My problem was not a Slog as much as two maybe three rounds and bad guy was out. I wanted longer fights, especially, as I said earlier, run 1-3 encounters in a day so those encounters are meant to last a little longer and be a heck of a lot tougher. It was more a fix to my style of play and easy for me to do.

May I suggest max HP and max damage, definitely makes the fight more challenging and it is easy to do on the fly.