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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8698655" data-attributes="member: 2629">As a suggestion: If you have not experienced a fun high level campaign, consider watching a little bit of a highly rated high level streamed game.  Also, consider taking another look at the Masters of the Realm and Masters of the World sections in the Tiers of Play part of the DMG, and looking for guidance on how to run high level games, and look into some of the video guides for running high level D&D.  I've watched a few, and do not universally agree with them, but many of them have some good points.My advice: Think about Comic Books.  At low levels, your PCs are Street Level heroes like Green Arrow and Daredevil.  A few thugs are a good match for them.  There are many threats that are as far beyond the PC as an Ancient Red Dragon is beyond a 1st level Fighter.As the PCs approach those middle levels their power levels rise and greater threats are reasonable - and many of the threats that would challenge Street Level heroes become ridiculously simple.  We don't see Marvel Comics often throw a few bank robbers with clubs at Iron Man, except as a lark.  If there is a murder mystery, Iron Man can analyze the facts and solve it in seconds as easily as a cleric can find a missing person with a spell.  As PCs approach high levels, a lot of things that would challenge a Mid Level PC also become trivial.  A high level PC can often banish a Demon or Devil one with casting of a spell.  They have enough spell slots to use a Disintegrate to remove a wall without sweating it.  They can solve riddles by chatting with a God.  Like a Superman or Doctor Strange in the comics, they can do almost anything with a little thought behind it - but they can still be challenged.  Look at some of the well written and interesting high power comic characters to be inspired for ideas for high level campaigns.  You'll see there are often difficult decisions on where and how to use their amazing levels of power, for example.  There can be demands upon the PCs and questions of morality and responsibility.  One other thing to consider: High level is expected to be much quicker than mid-level.You may not find that these high level games are something you want to run all the time - but that is ok.  Know why?  Because the game, in the way it is designed, assumes you want to burn through higher levels faster.  The amount of time you'll spend at each level, assuming you use experience point advancement, isn't linear.  In the DMG you can find the 'recommended EXP per adventuring day' and you can also in the PHB calculate the amount of experience required to advance a level.  By diving the required experience by the recommended experince, you can get a nice estimate of how long you should be spending at each level (YES - there is some simplifcation here ... this is estimated, not precise, obviously).They think you need 1 adventuring day to reach 2nd level and one more to reach 3rd.  That means that the expectation is that you do not need to Long Rest until you're ready to advance a level!At third level you need about 1.5 adventuring days, meaning you'll likely take 1 long rest mid-level.From levels 4 to 10 you'll need over 2 adventuring days to get the experience.  You'll range between 2.13 adventuring days up to 2.33 ... but regardless, the expectation is that you'll be taking 2 long rests mid-level.From 11 to 20 it drops to an average of 1.6 adventuring days to get another level, with a range of 1.48 up to 1.73.  This means they expect you to take 1 mid-level long rest.  All in all, the total expected adventure days you'll take to go from 11 to 20 (10 levels) is a little over 14.  That is over an adventuring day less than the 15.5 you're expected to spend between 4 and 10 (7 levels).  How does this work out in game sessions?  If we assume 1 encounter per hour, and 7 encounters per adventuring day (following the recommendations in the books), and 4 hour D&D sessions:It'll take you about 6 sessions (6.125) to advance to level 4.To get to 5, it'll take you about 4 (3.9) more for a total of about 10 (10.03) sessions to get to level 5.  To get to 7, it'll take you need about 7.5 more (7.685).To get to 9, it'll take about 8 more (7.93).To get to 11, it'll take about 7.5 more (7.62).Then every 2 levels from there on out is about 5.5 session (5.7,5.5, 5.5, 5.4)</blockquote>

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