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

[robus]

Oh by the way. When I ran my campaign after about 12-13 level I just maxed hit points on all the bad guys. The fights were ending way too fast for the players to feel challenged. It is a simple fix for my problem that didn't require me to do much finagling.

I also max hit points, but I find leading the initiative slot to chance is too risky. I now ensure bosses are high in the order and let the PCs figure out where they fit in.

 

[Reynard]

Instead of starting another thread on the subject: what is the best setting for high level (14+) adventures? Why?

 

[S'mon]

Instead of starting another thread on the subject: what is the best setting for high level (14+) adventures? Why?

I've been running high level 5e in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy and in Paizo's Golarion, specifically Varisia, as well as more recently Forgotten Realms and Primeval Thule. Of them all I would say Golarion is the best setting to very easily accommodate level 14+ PCs doing epic deeds, most of the APs are built around such activity in the last two books. The high magic level also works well. I mashed up Rise of the Runelords, Shattered Star, and the adventure Seven Swords of Sin, and am now bringing in stuff from Return of the Runelords. Very easy to convert PF to 5e and results in a lot of very nasty monsters!

Conversely I find Primeval Thule and Forgotten Realms seem to work best at lower power level, Tier II especially. Wilderlands is gonzo enough to handle high level stuff but less set up for epic questing than Golarion.

 

[Oofta]

Instead of starting another thread on the subject: what is the best setting for high level (14+) adventures? Why?

In my campaign that went to level 20, it shifted from a city/immediate surroundings to regional. There were side-quests to The Shadowfell and Feywild, but that's not all that unusual in my campaign.

In another campaign there was more travelling to different planes and pocket dimensions, but the group always ended up coming back to the prime material for the main action.

In my current campaign they may, possibly, might end up going to what is effectively the Abyss and have to fight there way back. But the players always have a big say in direction so there's no guarantee.

I have a big world with a lot of history, I want to take advantage of that. I also like people to know that when they are high level PCs there will be cascading effects in future campaigns. Their hero ended up defeating the false emperor? Well, that becomes part of the world's history and the PCs have the possibility of becoming legends.

If the campaign just goes off to some other plane of existence I lose some of that. In addition, travelling to other exotic realms only stays exotic and special if it's uses sparingly. At least for me.

 

[TheDelphian]

Homebrew campaign I have used since 3.5 came out. My memory for names etc make running campaigns I by too big a pain in the buttocks. I also tend to change to much in long adventure modules that it ends up about the same amount of work.

Campaign had a little travel then they based out of one of the three major cities, a large open port based on trade and no royalty etc. Was run to keep business open and going. But not as corrupt as one would make it out keeping people safe and happy was a big thing so it wasn't all business just money was driving government force.

Most campaign was pretty normal till 13-14th level where the town was threatened by an invading force and since it had no standing army or even a wall the players being local heroes (after stopping the disease cults terrorist attack) went and kept harassing the enemies fort and ended up protecting the town from the biggest nastiest invaders while others fought rank and file troops.

They later found out the entire attack was a nihilistic cult trying to free a dragon that was said to be the world ender.

They found out because despite repeated so frigging obvious it hurt for me to try to inform them that something was up. (the warforged who does not sleep, cannot dream . . . Had a nightmare) The players insisted on a long rest after fighting the war all day.

Well Consequences . . .

The rest of the campaign after 16th was all about stopping the dragon and it was the campaign ender (I was moving away so needed to wind it up) Since they had to trail the dragon through a swamp it was fun no big world teleporting, flying etc just a slog through a nasty fetid swamp. Almost like a low level party. Nice part it wasn't on me to build a big end to the game the players did it for me.

Other high lights were a trip to Far Realm to rescue the Warlock's familiar who they had inadvertently sent plane shifting. A unique Familiar who was an Undead Imp. Found out our plane was what drove the Far realm denizen's mad so therefore characters were slowly losing it while the beholders and cranial giants were actually nice folk not the nut bags they met on their home plane. Also the Angel they found there had gone made so reason's to engage / fight a good guy. Subdue him and send him home for help.

Those are the parts that scream high level play to me. And of course the group of adventurers who legally took over one side of the city post war while the players knew they were bad guys because the other party somehow knew the invasion was coming and were perfectly set to take over. The party could just not kick down the door and kill them they were the other saviors from the invading army. was fun.

 

[The Green Hermit]

My plan is to have them travel to other planes in order to finish their long-term quest.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

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.

Bringing in more gribblies if the situation allows is the best way to increase the difficulty of a fight. Chopping down the reinforcements that the bad guy just brought in is more satisfying to the players that just whacking on a single monster than simply won't die. It also makes the fight harder, rather than just longer due to the reinforcements having actions to oppose the players.

 

[TheDelphian]

Bringing in more gribblies if the situation allows is the best way to increase the difficulty of a fight. Chopping down the reinforcements that the bad guy just brought in is more satisfying to the players that just whacking on a single monster than simply won't die. It also makes the fight harder, rather than just longer due to the reinforcements having actions to oppose the players.

well with the exception of the final boss fight and I think one fight with a Kraken almost all my fights were with moderate size groups and maybe a few minion types. and I tended to mix my groups a bit.

Example
The army patrols of the attackers were made of
Advanced Ogres - nastier ogres but nothing special the brute force
Hulking Owl Bears - Same thing but with their sense were the watchdog/ trackers
Arc Hawks - air elemental type birds shot lightning bolts etc. Easy to kill except fast, Flying and smart enough to range the crap out of the party. Also had a life sense so were the scouts for the patrol. Usually last to die and most would escape but annoyed the players as they flew shot and hid every round behind trees etc. They had Cunning action as long as they were flying the entire round.

So I would have 3-4 of each and organized well but not super tactical. Tended to rush party and beat them down in accordance to their orders which were to kill interlopers and maintain secrecy of their existence.

Big Boss alone tend to die quickly and alone. I try for bigger groups but not hordes. A horde is a pain to run even using minion rules but a group of 4-6 is easy to run, allows for some useful tactics and allows player to use tactics and respond function as a unit. They feel good knocking out an equal size group which is better sometimes than ganging up on a single bad guy.

Of course ganging up on say a Dragon is fun in any world but those are exceptions.

I only had maybe 3 dragons the entire campaign to fight. Made my institute my knew metaphysics rule. Dragons grow not by getting old but by growing in power and authority. the larger the region the control the stronger bigger they get. this way they can level up with the party if the party avoids them. Like my party did. Eventually thinking they had to go deal with this dragon before it had control influence over the area they considered theirs.

 

[Reynard]

Tonight we played the third session of the game that inspired this thread. They went toe to toe with a neothelid and unsurprisingly they erased it within a few rounds. Solo monsters without lair or legendary actions don't even have a chance. (For the curious, we are playing levels from Dungeon of the Mad Mage,and I am running them pretty much as is.)

I like high level 5e more than I ever liked high level 3.x. I figure we will continue with DotMM during the social distancing and see what develops.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Tonight we played the third session of the game that inspired this thread. They went toe to toe with a neothelid and unsurprisingly they erased it within a few rounds. Solo monsters without lair or legendary actions don't even have a chance. (For the curious, we are playing levels from Dungeon of the Mad Mage,and I am running them pretty much as is.)

I like high level 5e more than I ever liked high level 3.x. I figure we will continue with DotMM during the social distancing and see what develops.

Have you run into any issues with contribution balance within the party for non-combat challenges? That is the biggest issue I've had with higher-level games.