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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 1815904" data-attributes="member: 1757">This, unfortunately, is very true. I needed a lot of practice to get good at handling high-level play as a DM, and to this day, I run pretty much every major encounter (EL = EPL or higher) faced by my (21st-level) PCs as a demo beforehand just to make sure that I didn't overlook something that might kill them too quickly.An excellent summation of the so-called walkover "problem." However, the other end of the encounter spectrum is equally important, IMHO: Namely, those encounters that at high levels have the potential to quickly decimate the party via save-or-dies, ridiculous amounts of damage per round, and similar common aspects of high-level play. To the end of keeping these sorts of things in check, I tend to believe in implementing a hero or fate point system by the time these effects are commonly in play, so that a single unlucky roll doesn't spell character death. That said, combat tactics at high levels tend to get very scary, and you have to be prepared for this style of play. My favorite parallel for high- and epic-level D&D play is the superhero style of The Authority or more recent JLA comics. Very rarely does combat involve attrition, prolonged clashes, or chases. Instead, it becomes much more sudden and hit-and-run oriented; the use of teleportation and divination effects becomes ubiquitous; and the winner is almost invariably the one who releases the most devastating smackdown in Round 1, period. That means that you need to focus on a few things:a) Stealth. This is a big one. IMX, the best way of actually lasting through a high-level encounter without dying or inflicting absolutely colossal amounts of damage in the first 1-2 rounds is to stay out of sight. Stealth is infinitely more useful than protection at these levels.b) Escape routes. A huge number of your foes at this level will be able to teleport or otherwise use supernatural escape methods; you should be prepared to do so as well! A dimension door or other spell or item is a must at higher levels.c) Blanket protections. As hong's example notes, a key assumption of encounter design at higher levels is that you'll be able to simply ignore a good number of your opponents' offensive abilities. It takes surprisingly little to ward against some otherwise devastating effects; make sure that you're loaded up on magic circle against evil, death ward, and eventually mind blank, and you'll be able to walk through encounters that otherwise pose a substantial challenge.d) Look for better ways to hurt than just dealing out damage. In general, the ability to incapacitate, insta-kill, or otherwise cripple your opponents is the critical determinant in high-level encounters; straight hp damage often is not worth it, since many high-level monsters have more hit points for their CR than you want to wade through. Wall spells (to keep monsters out of combat entirely), save-or-dies, and even grappling can be better ways to handle encounters than straight-up hack-and-slash. Skill use also can be remarkably powerful at these levels; once your Diplomacy skill gets up there (and it can get into the 40s by 11th+ level), talking can be as good a way to resolve dangerous encounters as fighting.e) "Suggested encounters per day" is for chumps. At these levels, you should be able to use your superior movement and other abilities to rest practically between every major encounter. Most DMs will try to stop you from doing this, but that just means that you should try to rest and recuperate at every turn. If you prove better at this than your DM is at stopping you, you can begin practically every combat with a full complement of spells and limited-use abilities, which can turn encounters from insta-kills to smoother sailing.Finally, keep in mind that the easier availability of true res and similar effects at high level means that the designers understand that there are a goodly number of "insta-kill" encounters at this level. If your DM tries to put limits on the use of these abilities, it's worth informing him that he should consider adding a fate point or other system as compensation, since PCs will die at these levels.</blockquote>

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