D&D General What does "This adventure is for mid-level adventurers" mean to you?

[MGibster]

I think of mid-tier as 3-7 but that's because I rarely run anything that goes past 10th level.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Higher power level and more options. My Baldur's Gate II campaign is up to 11th level (after 55 sessions and close to 2 years) and they are starting to have the power level to successfully pull off fun crazy stunts and really start to see payoff with "we are substantially more powerful than we used to be."

High level is also where you get to use the good magic items and have more loot variety and customization. You won't usually see a Vorpal sword or a fully completed Hammer of Thunderbolts in an 8th level campaign, but in one going to 20 they are not particularly disruptive.

My big campaign previous to that ended at 20+ with a couple of epic boons each. The 20th level vengeance paladin with Resilient: Con put up Aura of Power (the one that gives Evasion vs spells) and face-tanked a deific avatar for the entire final battle. The Warlock used a 1/week item to cast Wish to insta-cast Antipathy on the deific avatar, which caused almost his entire army to break and run for at least a little while.

That's stuff you can't do at low levels.

ohhhh, so you LIKE that players can cut loose and do all the crazy stuff a lot of DMs struggle with handling? that makes sense. i started DMing my first campaign last summer (with a5e) and i've found that i also look forward to levelling the party up (to the point i might be doing it a little too fast - we started at level 3 and after 24 sessions they're level 7) so that i can throw more loot and enemies at them without worrying about blowing the campaign up.

That said, it was a complicated battle and I'm planning to keep my statblocks simpler this time around. No more battles with three different kinds of supporting spellcasters!

yeah, i've also found that i kind of hate spellcaster statblocks...despite the fact that i just made a spellstriker NPC not 4 days ago, lol.

 

[J-H]

ohhhh, so you LIKE that players can cut loose and do all the crazy stuff a lot of DMs struggle with handling? that makes sense. i started DMing my first campaign last summer (with a5e) and i've found that i also look forward to levelling the party up (to the point i might be doing it a little too fast - we started at level 3 and after 24 sessions they're level 7) so that i can throw more loot and enemies at them without worrying about blowing the campaign up.

[/QUOTE]
Yes

yeah, i've also found that i kind of hate spellcaster statblocks...despite the fact that i just made a spellstriker NPC not 4 days ago, lol.

I no longer track spell slots for NPCs - it's just busywork when they won't last more than 3-8 rounds anyway. What's more important is making it easy to pick from appropriate options. Here's a sample of an Arachnomancer statblock's spellcasting section. I wrote this last night. He has a Poison Spray cantrip as a bonus action, but it only happens if he's within 10' of someone.

Spoiler: Length

Actions​

Spellcasting. Spell to-hit +10, Spell save DC 18
Concentration
Control
[] [] 4 Greater Web (C, 60’ cube; difficult terrain, lightly obscured. Each creature starting turn or entering for the first time on a turn must make a Dex save or be restrained. Breaking free requires a successful DC 18 Str check). .
[] 5 Insect Plague (C, 300’, 20’ radius difficult terrain/lightly obscured; 6d10 piercing damage on appearance, enter for first time on turn, or end turn; Con save half). 6th level spell.
Minion
[] [] 8 Summon Beast (C, 8th level, Land/spider; AC 19, 60hp, Pack tactics, 4 attacks at +11 for 1d8+12 piercing)

Non-Concentration
Attack
[] [] 4 Ray of Sickness (60’, spell attack, 4d8 poison damage; Con save or poisoned until end of caster’s next turn)
AOE
[] [] 7 Spider Blast (60’ cone, 10d8 poison damage, Dex save half; on a failed save, the target is covered in spiders and takes 4d8 poison damage at the start of each turn. Removing the spiders requires a successful Dex save, or sustaining 15 points of fire damage).
Utility
[] 4 Dimension Door (Teleport up to 500’ with 1 passenger)

Bonus Actions
Poison Spray. One target within 10’ must make a DC 18 Constitution save. On a failed save, the target takes 4d12 poison damage.
2 [] [] Misty Step (30’ teleport)

Reactions
1 Absorb Elements (Gain resistance to an elemental damage until start of next turn)
1 Shield (AC +5 until beginning of next turn)
6 [] Counterspell
3 [] Counterspell

I will probably add Blight and maybe Vitriolic Sphere on there, as otherwise his non-concentration damage is 100% poison. Each box is a use of it (for printed copies) and the spell level is there in case someone is Counterspelling.
He has two Counterspells, but they're at specific levels so he can't just counter-spell-lock a player caster.
With only a +1 on his Concentration saves, I expect him to spend half his turns re-casting a Concentration spell. 8th level Summon Beast is actually a pretty good minion. 4d8+48 is 66 average damage on hit, which isn't too far off from a Disintegrate's average 75 damage. If the spider stays alive for 2 rounds it's worth casting.

Note no flipping or referencing of any other content is required to run the entire casting block, and it's not a huge amount of page space.