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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bowbe" data-source="post: 3406233" data-attributes="member: 6328">Part 3: What to Doobee doo bee do?What can you do to make an enjoyable game of high level play?Its time to engage players in their campaign setting/world/universe. The story gets broader and grander at this point or should. I've felt since my first read thru of 3.0 phb and dmg that a good chunk of heart was missing from the game, as my very first D&D campaign went to about 14th-16th level back when I was in middle school /high school. I know that typically when you refer to anything "oldschool" most people dont know what that means or get their hackles all up. They assume it means kick down the door kill and loot, but thats only half the story. I think the whole cohort thing was poorly managed for 3.x ed. In AD$D players had responsibilities. They became leaders, rulers, and gathered followers who were weak and low level that siphoned off cash from their ready reserves. These followers also created a connectedness to the game world. They created role play opportunities. I say do not believe when people tell you that forcing cohorts and such onto PCs is "unfair" to the players, or depletes their magic items or ability to buy "cool buff stuff". Hogwash. Its the cycle of the warrior hero that they attract fame and celebrity as well as danger not just to themselves but also to those that they are responsible to or care for. Its much harder to throw out those instant death spells against enemies when there are innocent civilians or cared for cohorts held hostage in the midst of fiends and villians. At high level, its time to start making allies. Its time to get into the grand universal scope. Powers of light and dark, forces of good and evil and so on. NPCs need not always be enemies or weak followers. They very well could be powerful allies with even more powerful enemies. Alliances of foes with broader agendas than simply "kill the villagers and put their heads on spikes". The monsters in the various monster manuals are not there just as foes as one would think. Many make good allies (not slaves) that think for themselves and have their own rich motivations. A 2nd thing that 3x missed the boat on when it comes to high level games is the DMG's descriptions of relics. Relics descriptions, abilities and powers were better off left to chance with a few suggested things that the relics ordinarily do. I personally liked relics that covered you in warts, gave you a funny smell, or had a chance of ripping apart the space time continuum. That’s high level adventure all the way. Dead is just another level to adventure through in the case of a TPK. We had a guy blow his draws from a deck of many things about 3 months ago and was irrevocably destroyed in the process (drew dunjon, drew the fool). But was he? No. I brought his PC back as an NPC thrall to a great nemesis of the PCs. They had a chance to free him from the nemesis and get the PC back. Of course they let a titan pummel him into mulch instead, but with the body they could have quested for the soul. Not a Lawful good member in the whole group tho but it COULD have happened and would have been a great PC created story arc to follow up on. My best suggestion for running high level, is to go pick yourself up a copy of the original AD&D PHB and DMG and actually read them. Don't read them for game mechanics or ways to min-max a dwarf. Read them for the followers, hirelings and cohorts. Read the DMG for its relics charts and get a feel for what Old School was really about before throwing down the diss on it. Read it for its rich descriptions vs. the more mechanics laced soul-less mathematical information in current tomes. CheersCase</blockquote>

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