Fanaelialae
Legend
Private Sanctum also shuts down scrying (permanently, if cast every day for a year).
D&D 5E Running High Level 5E is more fun than I thought it would be.
Oofta
Legend
I'll have to remember that one, it's not even that high a level. Especially if the BBEG has been around for a long time, between this and Forbiddance there are a lot of things that can be done to shut down most shenanigans permanently.
I have a group that is on the cusp of 14th level after 3 years of play. They're hard to drop and they keep ganking my Big Bad Evil Guys. Yet somehow they still feel like they're constantly on the verge of defeat, the cusp of death. They have access to gamebreaking spells. Yet somehow they haven't broken the game. We're still having fun and the story keeps getting crazier, deeper, more meaningful. This is my first time playing at this high of a level...and it's great fun so far.
jmartkdr2
Hero
Tha's because you get so few high-level slots - sure, they can skip a lot with a teleport (if they have something from the target location), but that's you're 7th level spell for the day. You only ever get one of those.
Most would-be gamebreakers are really just encounter breakers, and those are easily mitigated by having multiple encounters.
TheDelphian
Explorer
It is somewhat difficult to Scry but it still works, the Teleport still works but that is probable your only spell at that level. It is 7th level I think. as for buffing, not a lot of that in 5th, you might have one or two buffs on a person. they can be powerful but they use up precious spell slots. a caster has less to less than half the slots a similar level in 3.5.
in PF 1st edition my 17th level wizard has 11 1st, 10 2nd, 10 3rd, 6 4th, 6 5th, 4, 6th, 4 7th, 3 8th, 2 9th
in 5th a wizard has 4 1st, 3 2nd through 4th, 2 6th and 7th, 1 8th, 1 9th with no real means to change those numbers.
that impacts buffing almost as much as the concentration rule which keeps buffing to 2-3 spells on each character at best unless you specialize in them.
I know I could elevate all those numbers but I could do that in both systems so the point of getting a great deal better is mute to me.
Now Nova is a different horse. In my game it was common, due to my style, for characters to nova. It was expected and just part of common strategy. The world as the characters experienced it was that they fought 1-2 things a day while traveling and usually had to deal with a few layers of protection to get to the big bad. It was my style and I adapted to it by having very nasty encounters and not being easy on them during them.
Dungeons being a little more difficult but characters knew going into a place / location to be more conservative.
For those that cry the players are metagaming my style, like I said this is viewed from the character's experience and it is what they learned to expect. We only have X number of firefighters in a city because we have X number of fires. This is experience they have learned from the real world, not the fire chief or city Metagaming the real world.
To address the original question there is a huge difference in 4 rounds of buffing in 3.5/PF and 5th ed. In 5th that is probably 3 wasted rounds.
The game I'm running is at 11th level now, and I'm really looking forward to hitting the higher levels. It's fun to just throw things at the PCs and see how they react.
This has been my experience in 5e. I was fearing a sudden major escalation in PC capabilities post 15th level, but it’s not manifested. They’re a lot harder to hit with lower tier monsters, but apart from the etherealness issue I’ve noted elsewhere, they’ve not felt that much different.
I freaked out one of my players a year ago when I said I don’t even bother to check the challenge anymore, I just throw what seems thematically cool at them
so far they’ve managed to cope, though there have been some tense moments.I find that AC is highly dependent on magic item availability. In my high magic Runelords game PCs can get ACs in the mid 20s easily enough, but then they are fighting super-powerful enemies, so it works ok. In my low-magic/low-wealth Princes of the Apocalypse game there are few items, and PC AC averages around 15 at 11th level. In most respects the PoTA game plays more like 6th level in 1e-3e.
Todd Roybark
Hero
The ‘swingy-ness’ of spell saves, often perturbs me in 5e.
The escalating Proficiency bonus helps this, quite a bit. Magic, feels a bit more reliable at higher level, (baring going against a monster’s ‘good’ saves).
At mid- levels, I feel for the PC casters, when I am rolling on a hot streak.
Yet, the fact that full casters are going to have one 7-9th slot until 20th level, coupled with Legendary Resistance, means those precious spell resources are going to get blown, frequently.
Consequently, Spell Scrolls, are no longer hum drum items, at higher levels.
I have a house rule were average hit points is the minimum on level gain, and you can keep a higher roll. Every PC has decent to formidable to downright scary hit points.
For some reason it brings me joy, to watch the group make tactical retreats when their non Hit Point resources run low, instead of just when Hit Points are near exhausted.
It has lead the group to hate with a profound, and fiery passion certain adversaries, that consistently ‘check’ them, instead of just clobbering or killing them, ( and vice versa).
Stalemate, at high level was very hard to maintain, (in my experience at least) in prior editions, and just opens up so much Role Playing Potential. I look forward to Epic Boons, because of it.
Has this also been other people’s experience?
The escalating Proficiency bonus helps this, quite a bit. Magic, feels a bit more reliable at higher level, (baring going against a monster’s ‘good’ saves).
At mid- levels, I feel for the PC casters, when I am rolling on a hot streak.
Yet, the fact that full casters are going to have one 7-9th slot until 20th level, coupled with Legendary Resistance, means those precious spell resources are going to get blown, frequently.
Consequently, Spell Scrolls, are no longer hum drum items, at higher levels.
I have a house rule were average hit points is the minimum on level gain, and you can keep a higher roll. Every PC has decent to formidable to downright scary hit points.
For some reason it brings me joy, to watch the group make tactical retreats when their non Hit Point resources run low, instead of just when Hit Points are near exhausted.
It has lead the group to hate with a profound, and fiery passion certain adversaries, that consistently ‘check’ them, instead of just clobbering or killing them, ( and vice versa).
Stalemate, at high level was very hard to maintain, (in my experience at least) in prior editions, and just opens up so much Role Playing Potential. I look forward to Epic Boons, because of it.
Has this also been other people’s experience?
