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<blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 8312220" data-attributes="member: 6677017">The biggest reason higher levels aren't used by many groups is because of the assumption that you should start at 1st level.I played in a 3e game that went from 5th to 20th level over the course of a few years.I've run a 3-session 5e one-off game at level 20.Games (should) start at the level they make sense, not necessarily 1st level.I also agree that WotC shares responsibility for this with their publishing model.For one of their mega-adventures, why not start at 7th level and have it run to 20th?While I don't know whether the plot of Descent into Avernus could handle it, the Lower Planes would be the perfect place for it. The Blood War, with armies of creatures of all levels presents the most plausible place in the D&amp;D Multiverse for high level combat encounters designed more or less like lower-level ones.While it rarely makes sense on the Material Plane to have battles against a CR 20&nbsp; foe, with 5 lieutenants of CRs 15+, a squad of half a dozen CR 11s, a few hundred CR 3-7s with a CR 8-12 leader for every 50 or so, and an endless stream of CR 2-s as the high level equivalent of &quot;difficult terrain&quot;, that sort of setup is downright canonical for the Blood War. And there isn't just one of those, there is an endless supply!My 20th level one-off involved a kraken with aboleth servants. It's rather ridiculous to have very many threats like that on the same Material Plane, but the other planes are ideal for all the high-level combat encounters you want, perfectly plausibly.The DMG really should have gone into this stuff.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Sword of Spirit, post: 8312220, member: 6677017"] The biggest reason higher levels aren't used by many groups is because of the assumption that you should start at 1st level. I played in a 3e game that went from 5th to 20th level over the course of a few years. I've run a 3-session 5e one-off game at level 20. Games (should) start at the level they make sense, not necessarily 1st level. I also agree that WotC shares responsibility for this with their publishing model. For one of their mega-adventures, why not start at 7th level and have it run to 20th? While I don't know whether the plot of Descent into Avernus could handle it, the Lower Planes would be the perfect place for it. The Blood War, with armies of creatures of all levels presents the most plausible place in the D&D Multiverse for high level combat encounters designed more or less like lower-level ones. While it rarely makes sense on the Material Plane to have battles against a CR 20 foe, with 5 lieutenants of CRs 15+, a squad of half a dozen CR 11s, a few hundred CR 3-7s with a CR 8-12 leader for every 50 or so, and an endless stream of CR 2-s as the high level equivalent of "difficult terrain", that sort of setup is downright canonical for the Blood War. And there isn't just one of those, there is an endless supply! My 20th level one-off involved a kraken with aboleth servants. It's rather ridiculous to have very many threats like that on the same Material Plane, but the other planes are ideal for all the high-level combat encounters you want, perfectly plausibly. The DMG really should have gone into this stuff. [/QUOTE]

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