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Message: <blockquote data-quote="paradox42" data-source="post: 3521096" data-attributes="member: 29746">The answer to that question sort of depends on what, precisely, you mean by "handle." But IME the main challenge in ultra-high-level games- particularly Epic ones- is acquisition of information, oddly enough.With the resources PCs have at those levels, preparation is everything, and attention to detail is extremely important (because it's the detail you overlook that invariably kills you- remember the one little spot on the heel of a certain otherwise-invincible Greek hero). Everything at these levels hinges on the old Scry N' Fry tactic (a.k.a Scry-Buff-Teleport), and every entity that survives very long will expect this tactic and plan accordingly. Therefore, such an entity will plan for ways to cancel out scrying (perpetual Mind Blank is an excellent way to start, since it also protects against a lot of attack effects), use Teleport-redirection traps in its lair or just tolerate life in a Dimension Locked zone, etc. This, in turn, means the PCs have to come up with ways to get around these blanket immunities/lair protections/superbuffs. And that means that they need to know which effects the enemy is using.It's an arms race, in effect, and everybody has access to the "nukes" of D&D- cute spells like Disjunction, Time Stop, and other things DMs who've never run high-level games have nightmares about. But because everybody has them, everybody expects enemies to have them, and plans accordingly- thus restoring a tenuous balance. Like any arms race in the real world, collecting information on your enemy (or even, in some proper Epic plots, on who or what the enemy actually is) is a game everybody plays, because whoever falls behind in that game loses. A Diviner or Seer, at these levels, actually becomes quite possibly the most valuable party member, because without the information the party has virtually no chance of penetrating the enemy's defenses (or finding out who to go after or where to go for that matter).The key point to all the above? Every single information-gathering spell hinges on you, the DM, telling the party something they (probably) didn't know before. This means that you, the DM, have even more complete control over the plot than you did even at low levels. If the party ignores your adventure hooks, you can draw some enemies out of the woodwork and attack the party with them- the enemies have access to the information spells too, after all, and should be expected to Scry N' Fry the PCs the same way the PCs would do to them. Players who have any interest whatsoever in the game will want to know who hit them and why, if only for revenge. Of course, if the PCs don't ignore your plot hooks, you can just run the adventure as planned. The enemies presumably would hit the PCs as above, but they're just too darned busy dealing with the PCs being inconveniently proactive against them to do anything about it...When things finally come down to combat, the fight will typically be short (in game terms), and extremely brutal. One-hit kills (or at least one-round kills) will be common, except in the case of the absolute-most-ridiculously-powerful creatures. Because preparation is so important, it will be extremely rare that PCs do not enter a fight fully rested and at full strength- PCs at these levels will take every opportunity they can to recover between fights and maintain peak effectiveness. Naturally, you can have enemies Scry N' Fry them during rest periods if they miss a ward or two, but players who've come up from low levels won't miss such wards often (if at all).As one final bit of advice concerning high-level and Epic games, I advocate reading the Story Hour forum heavily- and particularly concentrating on those stories that reach these levels. The "Savage Sword of Meepo" group, Piratecat's SH, JollyDoc's adventure paths, and of course Sepulchrave's SH are all excellent examples. Seeing how the PCs in these games handled their high-level plots and opposition will help you better figure out how to run your own.</blockquote>

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