D&D 5E The challenges of high level adventure design.

[Quickleaf]

That's interesting. I don't know how you would contrive the situation such that there is no way the party can long rest at that level. it might make a cool climax to lower level adventure, though: the quest was to get a 50 year dead individual ressurected and the party delivers the corpse to the cleric capable of doing it, but just after the casting the BBEG shows up to capture the ressurected and the cleric and the PCs have to protect them until they can get a long rest and wipe the floor with the bad guys.

Do deadlines not work at higher level? That's what I'd rely on if I was trying to use that idea of "spell with (narrow window of) consequences." If they can't accomplish the quest before midnight, the curse on the kingdom becomes irrevocable... that kind of thing.

But your point about it requiring effort from the GM to create/contrive reasons why rest isn't possible is well received. I've seen that become a noticeable challenge/issue as early as 5th level when our wizard had Tiny Hut become available. I probably sound like a broken record harping on the delimiting of Tiny Hut in 5e, but for me that's the poster child of everything I dislike about D&D's "magic" – for me, nothing about that feels awe-invoking, mysterious, wondrous, or any of the other adjectives I associate with magic. But that train has left the station, circled twice, and gotten booster jets at this point.

 

[cbwjm]

Do deadlines not work at higher level? That's what I'd rely on if I was trying to use that idea of "spell with (narrow window of) consequences." If they can't accomplish the quest before midnight, the curse on the kingdom becomes irrevocable... that kind of thing.

But your point about it requiring effort from the GM to create/contrive reasons why rest isn't possible is well received. I've seen that become a noticeable challenge/issue as early as 5th level when our wizard had Tiny Hut become available. I probably sound like a broken record harping on the delimiting of Tiny Hut in 5e, but for me that's the poster child of everything I dislike about D&D's "magic" – for me, nothing about that feels awe-invoking, mysterious, wondrous, or any of the other adjectives I associate with magic. But that train has left the station, circled twice, and gotten booster jets at this point.

Yeah, I don't use the impenetrable dome of force for tiny hut, all it does in my games is provide a comfortable place to rest and is able to block line of sight. Enemies can still shoot into it or pass through it.

 

[LordEntrails]

I always err on the side of caution when really I should remember this when creating my adventure scenarios.

By tier 4 any party should have at least half a dozen ways to break off contact and flee. Throw the book and then some at them, if they can't win by combat, they can flee and try a different way. A TPK (or even a single perma-death) at high levels is hard to do. A DM has to try and setup a situation that is inescapable, or the players have to choose to fight to the death.

 

[MarkB]

That's interesting. I don't know how you would contrive the situation such that there is no way the party can long rest at that level. it might make a cool climax to lower level adventure, though: the quest was to get a 50 year dead individual ressurected and the party delivers the corpse to the cleric capable of doing it, but just after the casting the BBEG shows up to capture the ressurected and the cleric and the PCs have to protect them until they can get a long rest and wipe the floor with the bad guys.

Or it turns out that the 50-year-dead NPC is a BBEG and is really scary even with a temporary -4 penalty to everything. Can they put him down again before he escapes to somewhere that he can recover his strength?