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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Peni Griffin" data-source="post: 4112205" data-attributes="member: 50322">This is the reason every campaign I've ever been in wrapped up at high levels.  If you pass the DM's ability to challenge the party, you stop having fun.  Simply jacking up the numbers, whether the degree of CR or the number of opponents, merely makes the problem worse as it increases the rate of progression and number of resources available.First thing I'd do is, take some time off.  Tell them "Somebody else needs to DM awhile or maybe we should play board games; I'm getting stale."  Take a month of downtime.Second thing I'd do is, I'd take the month to examine my campaign and figure out how to increase the challenge level by means other than simply throwing bigger and badder monsters at them.  What can you do to make the ongoing plot threads more intrinsically interesting, so as to present role-playing challenges rather than combat challenges?  Can you change the environment they work in - take their dungeon-optimized skills onto a ship, under water, or to another plane, someplace where their established strategies don't work  as well?  Are there any antagonists who have had a chance to study their techniques and prepare countermeasures for them?  Does anybody have noncombat feats or skills that they don't normally get to use; and if so, can you generate a scenario in which these skills are a more effective means to the goal than combat?  Can you create situations that deprive them of resources in a way that they will accept as logical and fair (anti-magic zones, traps with Mordenkainen's disjunction, an oxygen-rich atmosphere inside an airship in which electric and fire-based attacks are too dangerous, a kingdom in which resource X is a royal monopoly and they have a motive not to piss off the enforcers, etc.) within the setting?  How can you run antagonists more effectively?  Can any of their established allies turn traitor?At the end of the month, you will either have a lot of inspiring ideas for how to handle these characters, or you'll realize that you've reached your limit and can't salvage the campaign.  If the former, good.  If the latter, your players have had a month to get used to not running the characters and may be more willing than you expect to start something new.The third thing I'd do is consult with some of the players - you know which ones -  on how the players and DM can work together to solve this problem.Good luck.</blockquote>

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