D&D 5E The woes of creating high-level pregens

[GrimCo]

I feel you. Creating high level pc casters from scratch can be tedious. We had one shot hack and slash for Labour day and DM decided to try out high lv for once. So, lv 15 it was. I made barbarian totem warrior, friend made champion fighter, brother made ranger 12/ cleric 3. Bladesinger was my first option, but after seeing number of spells, hell no. We all opted for least magic possible just to avoid sifting out trough spell lists.

I have lv 2 fighter/ 10 wizard, but that character is from 8 years long campaign and leveled from 1 to 12. His spell list was currated over time.

 

[kosovodad]

Use DnDBeyond and be done in five minutes.

I make high level NPCs all the time.

How do you decide what magic items to give them? I'm trying to make some high-level pregens for an adventure, and this is the real problem that I'm running into.

 

[Lazybones]

How do you decide what magic items to give them? I'm trying to make some high-level pregens for an adventure, and this is the real problem that I'm running into.

You could prepare a short list of Uncommon and Rare items and let them pick? The old tournament module Ghost Tower of Inverness used a system like this and it was pretty cool, really gave players a sense of ownership over the pre-generated tournament characters. Plus a curated list allows you as DM to include some things that would directly help with the planned challenges in the module, like what OP was talking about with the spell selection.

 

[Horwath]

How do you decide what magic items to give them? I'm trying to make some high-level pregens for an adventure, and this is the real problem that I'm running into.

since we have to live in time where items do not have official price and just rarity(that is even less balanced than 3.5e magic mart), just decide on how much of what rarity of the items

maybe:
1 very rare
2 rare
4 uncommon
5000GP to spend on what not.

 

[Alby87]

Always, always, always hoped that a spell list with one phrease to quick choice spells would have been included in the core books. Pathfinder has it, 3.5 Magic Compendium has it... 20x4 5e no.

Really usefull would have been also pregen lists in the books for higher level. I know those list can be found online... but the PHN feel incomplete.

 

[aco175]

How do you decide what magic items to give them? I'm trying to make some high-level pregens for an adventure, and this is the real problem that I'm running into.

If you are making the pregens for an adventure you made or even want to run, you want to have them make some sense. They should be able to use them and help the game. I ran a convention game last week where I made pregens (2nd and 3rd level) and most had a minor item. One of the mages had a wand that let them change the damage type 1/day. There were some fire monsters and the PC changes an acid splash to cold. They player felt cool that it worked better than the acid since they had vulnerability to cold.

High-level characters get more magic, but you can just focus on 2-3 items per PC and then throw in a few potions and scrolls and such. High level PCs tend to have a magic weapon each. I try to not give out more than +1 armor, but make up the power with another ability on it such as 1/day invisibility or blur for 1d6 rounds or something. A different lower power item each also makes each more unique. A necklace that makes the PC immune to disease is good, and you can have it come in handy or maybe it is a red herring to make the player think that there is disease coming. If it is a maybe handy item, then I would give another more handy thing to make up fir it. Also remember that the players will come up with making it be handy in some way you do not think of.

Another thing I did at the convention was give out some minor potions and such with having them roll for it. The premise was that the steward took some items from the lords treasure room to help the party out and the players rolled for something. Most rolled a healing potion, but one had a climbing potion that came in handy and another a resistance potion that also came in handy.

 

[kosovodad]

since we have to live in time where items do not have official price and just rarity(that is even less balanced than 3.5e magic mart), just decide on how much of what rarity of the items

maybe:
1 very rare
2 rare
4 uncommon
5000GP to spend on what not.

Yeah, this is a good start.... I'll probably start here and work through some solutions.

 

[kosovodad]

You could prepare a short list of Uncommon and Rare items and let them pick? The old tournament module Ghost Tower of Inverness used a system like this and it was pretty cool, really gave players a sense of ownership over the pre-generated tournament characters. Plus a curated list allows you as DM to include some things that would directly help with the planned challenges in the module, like what OP was talking about with the spell selection.

Yeah, that could work too. @Horwath posted a helpful list and I could combine the two.

 

[bloodtide]

It is good to make some generic pre generated characters. Or even take some that are all ready made out there.

So you can have a simple enough 10th level wizard, cleric or warlock....or whatever. Then, using that base, add some spice. Should be quick enough.