Tips on DM'ng high level campaigns.

[nameless]

I find that at high level play, most of the victory comes in the planning. Reconnaisance (especially divinations) are the key to not being caught off-guard. In an environment where a single save or full attack is all that stands between a character and a dirtnap, knowing what you're walking into is absoutely key.

The painful part of DMing for this kind of campaign is that you need to spend a lot of time preparing a thorough defense against hostile forces. You need to flesh out hideouts, minions, magic items, tactics, contingency plans, etc... natural selection puts the NPCs who don't defend themselves properly out of their misery quickly. The most painful part is that as DM, you won't be able to anticipate the tactics the PCs will use to overcome your defenses, not the first few times anyways. Sure, the obvious ones can be foiled, like flying in through the window of the second floor, or sneaking in invisibly, or the old scry-teleport trick. Only after having all of your carefully placed traps and such thwarted by an ingeniously simple plan half a dozen times will you finally be able to truly pose a challenge to the PCs. And make sure to fight dirty. It's truly amazing what a PC of that level is capable of when put to the test. Remember, knowledge is power, and recon information should be more preciously guarded than the royal treasury.

-nameless

 

[barsoomcore]

If you're going for real-life equivalents of 15th level adventurers, you're looking at the high echelon of the military, ranking officers and grizzled old sergeants (like Sam Elliot's character in We were soldiers).

Thing is, there ARE no real-life equivalents of 15th-level characters. This is a problem that I've done a lot of thinking about, and don't want to hijack this thread over. But to put it simply, I think it's pointless to try and draw connections with real-life figures when talking about high-level D&D characters. People like that just don't exist.

A 15th-level wizard may be old, but his destructive potential is undimmed. He's just as potent a foe as ever -- if not more, since he's had even more time to gather or create magic items. These are people whose personal destructive power equals that of small armies.

This is nothing like an old soldier who knows all the tricks.

These combatants are in the rear with the gear giving orders to the "lower level" fighters, they don't see much (if any) real combat.

That only works if they're REALLY old. Sure, once he hits 53 and is suffering a -3 total on Str, Dex and Con he's not the man he was, but he's still quite a staggering combatant, still got three attacks a round, still got all his feats and magic items and what not. Why would he stay at the back? Surely that would just disgruntle his less-well-equipped men, who are getting killed by opponents he could walk through without risk. Nice.

My point is that 15th level characters have better things to do besides gallivanting across the countryside looking for buried treasure.

Well sure, but I don't think semi-retirement has to be one of them. They're massively powerful individuals who can do pretty much whatever they like with most of the world, the bigger powers notwithstanding.

Of course all this is dependent on campaign style but I think the reality of these uber-beings would create a world very different from our own. But as I say, another thread.