10 tips for running HIGH-LEVEL D&D campaigns

[@l0ker507]

"I paid for the entire Monster Manual, so I'm gonna use the entire Monster Manual"

[@snakedog9694]

Players: "Ha I wonder what monsters in this next dungeon since we're so strong." DM: "Yes"

[@jameswatson9338]

My husband and I almost exclusively play high-level campaigns. We got spoiled on the amazing Epic Legacy features and can't go back. We fight deities, primordials, demon armies, and aliens with advanced technology. In our campaign, the planes between worlds are failing, allowing new worlds to collide. The gods are at war with foreign deities and with each other, since the evil gods see a novel path to world domination. It's a political intrigue story but also provides great epic combat. Much more fun than playing at low levels in my opinion.

[@lukeholdsworth6506]

Heck. That sounds cool

[@howtheygotthere]

I have dm'd and played in both low and high level games and ive noticed for me it's about making the stakes, ive have an 18th level game where we were fighting an ancient dragon and it just wasnt that interesting because the story wasnt done great. On the other hand ive had a low level campaighn where we fought a goblin camp and even for low level characters it wasnt that hard BUT it was set up very well and we all cared about it a lot.

[@jameswatson9338]

@@howtheygotthere Yeah, it's really about the DM and the chemistry between everyone. If everyone is cooperating to tell a great story, it will be a great experience at any level. I just enjoy the wider variety of resources and features provided by higher levels.

[@fenixmeaney6170]

I'm working up to the higher levels My playgroup is just each of us taking turns running campaigns until someone else wants to be the DM So we get a lot of practice playing levels 3-7

[@sebbonxxsebbon6824]

We did the same thing, the DM doesn't burn out because everyone DM's! We all agreed on one set of rules and agreed not to give items that were overpowered at low levels.

[@juliogouvea9447]

Back in the 90's, my table played until we reached Level 36 characters (2nd Edition D&D). It was even harder to play high levels, because back then the DM's were ruthless with PCs and the game system was unforgiven, with many failed saves resulting in straight death. The last battle featured a 2000 HP monster, probably took us a whole day of combat. Trust me, if you have the right DM, you can play almost forever. The only thing, in my honest opinion, that prevents PCs playing high level campaigns is DM burn out.

[@mke3053]

So true

[@apsFoz09]

So true (2)

[@lukeholdsworth6506]

What is it that the DM did to keep a day of combat engaging? Or was it just stuff to do with their character? (character, as in, IRL)

[@vaughn1643]

I once had a group I was running for make 20th level characters. The theme of the campaign I told them was Orcs. They thought I had lost my mind. A few homebrewed orc stats later with orc world shakers. High-level orc tacticians with expertly deployed battle strategies. With their own unique magic system and a not quite averted cataclysm spell, they realized their mistake. The plot basically consisted of an army approaching nearly 25 million orcs invading from 'the north of the world'. The players were forced to make deals with devil for reinforcements. To confront towering north orc generals. Engage in naval battles with Spartan-Norse-style orcs. Even throw down with the ancient bestial spirits called forth by the Orc shamans from before the days of thunder. The death rate was disturbingly high in that campaign but everyone loved it until it fell apart from scheduling issues. The part everybody thought was the most dangerous however was the fact the orcs all had positive intelligence modifiers and could before high-level brain processes. Like critical thinking and advanced strategy. My players had to spend the first few sessions of the campaign realizing that the orcs weren't stupid. Good times.

[@michaelramon2411]

Everyone laughs at the orc until they remember that an orc can earn as many class levels as a human.

[@CaptnJack]

@@michaelramon2411 I had a lower level group 7-8, that was huntng a bandit camp, and were shocked and had to adjust their methods when they realized that the bandit scouting group they found had a sorceror, a monk and 2 capabile rangers, instead of just generic npc bandits...

[@michaelramon2411]

@@CaptnJack This seems to be a 5e/Pathfinder difference. In Pathfinder (1e, at least - 2e functions a bit differently), it is incredibly common for enemies to have class levels, especially if they are humanoids. You basically never see CR 1/3 orcs - you see Level 2 orc Rangers or Level 4 orc Barbarians. But it sounds to me like a lot of 5e DMs only use the base statblock of a lot of monsters (and that WotC's books don't offer huge variety in that sense).

[@coreybonk]

Thanks for the tips! This comes at a perfect time since one of my groups is nearing level 12 on a published WotC adventure that's nearing completion. I plan to chuck the official material at that point and create my own (possibly using some DM Lair material of course!). I'll be referring back to this video and others for ideas as I go.

[@nathanaelthomas9243]

Thanks for the video! I’m worried about my campaign falling flat once we reach mid to high tier play due to my six players out thinking me and doing things I didn’t anticipate. Im worried that continually challenging them is going to take a lot more work to prep content and I don’t want to get burnt out from lots of effort that just gets trivialized. I appreciate this content and would enjoy more topics and help on high level play in the future.

[@TheAurgelmir]

I'm not against negating a characters cool powers. ONCE IN A WHILE. It keeps them on their toes. My campaign has a fighter that's all about the grappling. He grapples everything. That's awesome. But it's also awesome to throw in a character with misty step like abilities once in a while, to really mess up that plan.

[@BlackRainRising]

or project image "hey thanks for making yourself prone with my fake duplicate, hold my spell while you think about your next move"

[@sebbonxxsebbon6824]

Grappling oozes is lots of fun!

[@charlesdefreitas1611]

As a new DM, this video was really helpful for planning my adventure when my players get higher levels. We are trying Tales from the Yawning Portal but I have been adding my own story arc and tying the dungeons together using a deity and demigod. it's been great and your tips were perfect to help guide me.

[@BonzaiBomber]

I ran a 3.5 campaign that ran from lvl 1 and ended at lvl 23. Magic of Incarnum had just come out, and I wanted to play and experiment with the system, and introduce it to my players. We almost exclusively played in the forgotten realms, so I introduced it as a pre-weave system of ancient magic that has fallen out of favor and nearly forgotten. Cyric rediscovered it, and wanted to use it as a source of power that Mystra couldn't cut him off from. Using a ley line that was steeped in Chaotic Evil Incarnum energy, he created a fanatical order of incarnum using followers. They established a stronghold in Narfel. From there they raided villages and turned prisoners into lost. They made alliances with the Hobgoblins of the Giantspire mountains, and began an invasion of Impiltur. The party gets drug into the war, and ends up defeating the Ciric forces. They players were having so much fun that they asked me to keep it going. So the campaign turned into what I call a "National Treasure" style campaign, where the party hunted down additional nodes and increased their power. Eventually they attuned to them all, and challenged the torpid vestiges of the ancient Incarnum gods to gain some of their power. The player's gained divine rank 0, and set about returning Incarnum to the world. Towards the end of the campaign, I found it extremely hard to balance encounters for the party. Either the combat would be in hand in two rounds, or I would halfway tpk them. The party? Beguiler/fatespinner/guildmage. As a Beguiler she had top notch control options. I also ran the risk of any monsters I threw at them becoming a pet. Fatespinner took luck out of the equation. Either bad dice on their end, or good luck on my end. Guildmage gave her access to spells that she normally wouldn't have. Wizard/Psion/Cerebromancer. This player focused on being a Swiss army knife and problem solver. He countered what I threw at the party. Even interrupting my turn and taking an immediate actions. Unseelie Fey Dread Necromancer. She had some nasty pets, and being Unseelie fey floored enemy saves, which made them susceptible to her save or dies. This also combo's with the Beguilers enchantment and illusion spells. She also handled all of the undead that the Beguiler couldn't dominate. Archer? I don't remember the exact build, but fully buffed he could deal over 200 damage a turn. Spellscale Warmage/dracolexi. His main job was to apply some buffs on the archer. He was basically a back up blaster that helped kill whatever the archer didn't insta kill. This was a tough party to Crack. Especially since they were experienced players. They shored up each other's weaknesses extremely well. Ultimately I ended up not worrying too much about challenging them every combat. As long as the combats were engaging and the player's were having fun, it didn't matter. Infact they enjoyed flexing a bit. Still, I had no idea where I would gone next. It was a natural stopping point, and I siezed on it.

[@BizarreM]

I think I'll re-watch this video in two to three years, because we've been playing a campaign for over a year and they're just hitting 6th level next Saturday. But thanks for the information, was about to fall into the pit of "let's just roll the dice and forget about social interactions".

[@darienb1127]

So, the Idea i'm kind of getting with level campaigns is that it's less like a standard fantasy adventure and more like a superhero movie/cartoon. In those, the main threat usually isn't so just "beat the bad guy". I mean, sometimes it is, but there's usually some other complication. The villain has bombs planted around the city, they could be charging up some super weapon, trying to grab the Chaos Emeralds before the heroes do, etc. Also, you have to keep it interesting. If everyone is just gonna wish away thier problems all the time, it wouldn't be fun. Even Superman got the shit beat out of him in the Justice Leauge cartoon. Sure, he almost always got back up (becuase it's Superman), but it allows tension to happen.

[@sonan333]

I came up with a way to have a ton of skeleton minions. But I know that it would be boring for the rest of the group if we had to go through all of those rolls, so I doubt I would ever do this. That being said, here's the basic setup (I don't want to pull up the specifics of this, so if you want more info, you'll have to do the research yourself). You are going to be a warlock/wizard hybrid. Choose Warforged as your race. Ignore any daily powers. Have a bag of holding, and loot any bones you can get your hands on. For subclasses, choose Necromancer for the Wizard, and choose the Celestial for the Warlock. This gives you a boost to your animate dead spell, and it gives you healing magic. You will take either 6 levels into wizard or 8, depending on whether you want that extra ASI/feat. The rest will go into warlock. While the rest of the party sleeps, you will be casting animate dead on the bones you collect, but you will also have to cast cure wounds on yourself to heal any damage you took from the day's adventuring. So, at level 20, you will have 3, fifth-level spell slots that come back each hour. Using cure wounds with this will heal for 5d8, or an average of 22.5, per spell slot. Assuming you have 16 con, you'll have around 150 health, so assuming you are at 1 health and you get average rolls, you'll need 6-7 spells to heal yourself back up, out of your total of 24. Use the remaining 18 spell slots to control 36 skeletons. Or reassert control on 126 skeletons. The wording of animate dead says "a pile of bones...", so it depends on how many bones your gm says needs to be there to become a skeleton, but since the bones are lighter than the flesh to make a zombie, and since you can fit bones into a bag easier, you can carry the components for skeletons easier than that for zombies. If you wanted to take this to its extreme, you could rest for a bit, and then spend time gathering bones to make an army. Then have your skeleton army carry you around, you give them instructions on where to go, and you spend your whole time each day resting and casting animate dead, to control up to 504 skeletons. Deck them out each with a wand of magic missiles, throw some armor on them, and then watch them all get killed by a singular fireball. Have fun.

[@vaevictusasmadi84]

Luke, how do you present high-level diplomatic challenges when "Faces" easily have +17 (or even +18) bonuses to Charisma skills in Tier 4?

[@Synkrotta]

Highly dependant on the party. I ran an intrigue encounter to my party earlier where they were attending a masquerade under the guise of being someone else. They had a party Awareness - score as well as individual ones and different events would lead to different outcomes. Some of them disappearing for minutes might increase their awareness, while others were visibly looking for secret doors. Some were poor dancers and others target of nasty gossip. Even if faces have high Charisma it does not result in them always getting away with dumfoolery or in NPCs ignoring them. And when at high levels people are associating diplomatic meetings with deities or leaders of entire nations and worlds most powerful mages, no-one simply trusts a guy with a nice face.

[@AdeptScholar]

Persuasion/intimidate DC 30+.

[@Synkrotta]

@@AdeptScholar It would be if you are trying to force peace between two raging gods. And even that would not cut it through fully, but might persuade them to even visit one another without trying to kill each other.

[@MeeesterBond17]

Pages 244 and 245 of the DMG helped me out a lot a while back, and I improvised a Social hitpoints system from it - succeed on a Persuasion check (a powerful Emperor might have a super-high DC, say 25 or 30) or perform a favourable action, then roll d6+Cha to alter the "HP" of a hostile NPC. Implacable NPCs have high HP, say, 30, irresolute ones have low HP. Crude, but my players seemed to like it on the few times I rolled it out.

[@John_962]

Really going to have to re-watch this and take notes. I've never run a high level campaign, but I sure would like to and make it fun at the same time.

[@chaosjimthevoidlord3762]

I found this very helpful, since I’ve been wanting to DM a high level campaign for a little while now.

[@Mr_GoR_]

the DM Lair: I'm not going to be doing any more skits in my videos. Also the DM Lair: *Puts a skit in his next video*

[@INeedaName-cb2qw]

I was wondering about that. In what video did he say he's not doing skits?

[@Mr_GoR_]

@@INeedaName-cb2qw he mentioned it in a recent livestream, the last one if I'm not mistaken.

[@deckenpuppel3181]

Haven't gotten there myself yet, but will definitely keep this in mind. Thanks!

[@VaSoapman]

Another tip... Watch the "Final Fantasy 14 A Realm Reborn - End of an Era Trailer" Boss shows up with a huge natural disaster. The guys in that trailer also try to use Wish and Divine intervention level stuff on it. The buildup to that was also "Hey guys the MOON is FALLING!" Don't think there's much lv 20 characters can do about that. Even if the good guys kill that thing, everything got exploded and now you gotta deal with that.

[@Coors.Banquet4819]

I love this video! I’m gonna be honest.. when I started watching your content a year ago I loved the info but not like how you presented it. This is so much more incredible to watch! Keep it up! Thank you!!

[@Zai-kyu]

I'm currently running a campaign that has been ongoing for 3 years, and the PC's have reached lv 19. (They are in the end game of the campaign with 2 major Big bads to go). For the most part the players do their part to play responsibly and the game goes really smoothly. I will admit to having one player who abuses their power to disastrous consequence. Twice now, they have dropped Meteor Swarm with no concern about the consequences of collateral damage. The first time it got them exiled from one of the MAJOR cities of the world they had relied on for getting information about things related to the arcane and nearly got one of their troupe executed. The last session I ran, they were caught between the military forces of their OWN kingdom and the forces of one of the PC's brother (who although is right about a corrupt lord, his means to an end could kill innocents). Most of the party tried to prevent loss of life by either incapacitating for disarming the guards from their kingdom who were attacking unarmed workers (mind you, these workers were escaped inmates working for what was perceived to be a threat to the kingdom, so the guards weren't entirely without justification). There were one or two accidental deaths along the way, but for the most part, the party did well of handling the situation on the up and up. Then the wizard dropped Meteor Swarm on the airships being used by the soldiers of their kingdom, decimating 3 out of 4 of them outright, and heavily damaging the fourth. The 3 that were destroyed ended up killing several dozen soldiers of the kingdom, as well as civilian engineers working on them. THEN the wizard gave chase to the 4th airship as it was fleeing in an attempt to stop it as well, but the airship escaped. Now the group in the upcoming session has to face the consequences of the deaths of so many soldiers and civilians who essentially died in the line of duty. I don't forsee it being a very fun session, but I feel as though I can't let this one slide by without serious repercussions. It's true what you said, not every player is cut out for high level game play and this player is constantly either abusing their power, or in many combats, always blows his highest level spells first, dampening the combat for the others. I will also note, when one of his high level powers gets countered in some way, he is not a happy camper lol. I dread running this next session!

[@israelcowl6764]

Yes! Tomb of beast I and II also Creature Codex and my personal favorite Tome of Horrors

[@theDMLair]

LAIRS & LEGENDS KICKSTARTER - Get notified when the project launches on April 5 ▶▶ www.kickstarter.com/projects/thedmlair/lairs-and-legends

[@Lordlightoriginal]

I ran a campaign for 10 years and it became very difficult day by day. for more videos like this.

[@lawaern3474]

My party is approaching tier 3. So this is pretty helpful. I was going of a bbeg who is a terrifying tanarukk with level 20 spellcasting, with thousands of orcs and demons at their command. Now I realise he needs tens of thousands.

[@israelcowl6764]

nice glad to see you putting out more adventures

[@aidanmusumeci8429]

Oh mighty algorithm take mine comment and feast till your hearts content... this video came in handy as a level 15 + campaign is fast approaching 😊

[@NMcG07]

How did you know?! I was looking for tips to run a L20 game next year. Thanks so much for this video!!!

[@williethenerfherder2193]

My advice is send in a klurichir. Also be sure to keep the vorpal properties of it's melee attacks.

[@rewejuegos6839]

Thank you, i was really needing this

[@sayrebonifield4663]

“Never give a 100th level character an even break!” - The Throne of Bloodstone

[@andrewhalmo656]

It awesome that you are making more books for kick starter!

[@timothyallen3218]

You don't completely suck! Actually your very smart and give good ideas.

[@panpiper]

I played a demigods campaign for five years. Best game I've ever played.

[@pinkycorp96]

I love leaving angry comments. Angry angry angry! But I love your advice. angry angry!!

[@godsamongmen8003]

I wish I could be in a high-level group once or twice, just so I can play with all the toys.

[@forfaerghus8092]

I may be a "sweet summer child," but part of me is looking forward to at least dipping my feet into running high level games. Currently designing a CR 30 boss and I'm trying to motivate my lazy ass to write an arc surrounding one of the Elder Evils (Atropus in particular is awesome, fite me).

[@rowdyparks6770]

Verisimilitude, love that word

[@foxtoxic9722]

For the algorithms! You don’t suck.

[@goranfrka]

nice one Luke :) i never did 13+ campaign , so i appreciate tips

[@shinybugg9156]

Hey algorithm! This guy does not suck!

[@NegatveSpace]

I wonder did older versions of the game have these problems also?

[@williethenerfherder2193]

It doesn't help the fools of WoTC hardly put any content in for high level players. Also back in 3.5 dms only got one book to challenge high level players, and that is the Epic Handbook. Highly recommend you look through older editions for harder monsters because 5e monsters are weak sauce.

[@Beth-cj7ip]

Yay! The skits are back!

[@baronkimble5378]

Amazing advice!

[@MietoK]

Never been high lever, once my fighter was at level 11 but that was something like 20 years ago. I remember that he had +3 sword and +2 shield. And I guess he had a armor aswell. But someday I will hit to level 15!

[@keithmorgan8392]

Hey algorithm, “This guy doesn’t completely suck”. High level (+15th level) is the best.

[@nappahughes8496]

I love bacon!!! Best advice you have ever given!!!

[@tylerwhorff7143]

Ooh Kickstarter

[@beancounter2185]

Excellent! I would give this video three thumbs up if I could.

[@marcfiliuta]

Great stuff!!

[@akarobertpain4517]

oh five T-Rex that's grate gives the BBG's pet TARRASQUE something to play with

[@marcusgurwell]

I would rather bot eat bacon, but thank you so much for the tips. I am using them to create a 15th level homebrew world with some preety min maxed charicters

[@andrewtomlinson5237]

The more powerful they get, the more I push them into the genuine challenges being about their decisions. I've been working on better war-gaming rules for D&D for years, and I use a lot of warfare to challenge them in the higher levels. Not only commanding them in battle, but the process of raising and training armies. Politicking to gain advantages their powers have no real impact on. Travelling to nearby kingdoms to get them to send armies to help is not easily solved by maxed out stat blocks, but by good character play. They quickly get bored of winning every combat, so they look forward to the real challenges of high level. Every once in a while, they will face NPC bad guys. Opposing Characters that are as tough as they are. And most of the massively unbalanced game breaking spells either don't exist in my game world, or I just don't let them have them. How do I get round "Wish"? Simple. No one gets either the spell, or rings, or Genies, or whatever else grants stupid game breaking magic. Oh, and there's no "Raise" or "Resurrection" magic in my world... so no "Respawns" when they blow it.

[@disasterduck13]

Thanks for the video

[@lyudmilapavlichenko7551]

Villian: Beholder. . Epic Villian: Beholder with levels of wizard. 🤔

[@HowtoRPG]

There is nothing in the Monster Manual for high level games without major changes.

[@markgnepper5636]

Great stuff friend 👏 👍

[@bonbondurjdr6553]

If you need resources to run high-level adventures, Follow Luke's advice, and get Godbound! :D

[@sleepinggiant4062]

Know the capabilities of the player's characters. This is how you appropriately challenge them at all levels.

[@alexandraelizabeth8522]

Look, if the gods don't want to step in to save the world, is it really our place to get in the way of their plans? Let's go to the City of Brass.

[@Mr_Putts]

Hey KZbin, he doesn't completely suck.

[@TabooX1984]

Munchkin! 👍👍👍

[@stevieweevyC]

At higher level once characters kinda run the world that's when I turn the group on themselves. By this time they are mature enough to deal death to each other or unite to finish the campaign in one last epic world ending battle. I also like bacon and some times I suck it unlike you.

[@barge489]

At 14th level, just ignore CR. I had a 14th party absolutely run over Fraz Urb'luu.

[@jackcisney737]

About 3 days to late on this one. Just ran a level 13 one-shot

[@MetalXXGod]

Of course people usually don't run adventures beyond 12th level - these aren't balanced from either the player's abilities or the monster difficulty... by the way, the Wish and Divine Intervention spells don't solve anything you just want to... but of course you knew that :)

[@zendikarisparkmage2938]

Luke Hart doesn't suck, but high-level D&D kinda does. At least, it's not my preferred way to play.

[@Frederic_S]

Luke does not suck most of the time ☺

[@colmbright9822]

Hey KZbin Luke doesn’t completely suck

[@JoaoVictor-rg5ix]

Bro. I never played D&D before. I so lost.

[@m.ferashida7422]

comment for the algorythm.

[@jeffjones4654]

Any time the Misbegotten Realms are destroyed, an angel gets his wings.

[@williethenerfherder2193]

You're just mad the Forgotten Realms have badass monsters in it.

[@andrewbowser9326]

And 3.. low level mooks burn resources before the big boss fight

[@shaderhartjr3305]

👍

[@kodiakthebear4422]

I eat the bacon

[@Vindues]

Algorythm comment

[@haz-mattstudio6074]

I can't believe the rogue wasn't involved. Shame. Angry comment complete.

[@trioofone8911]

Eat bacon? 🤔

[@Blobby3822]

Why are you trying to negate my cool abilities?

[@rezavirgiawan6831]

You don't completely suck

[@beammeupscott3032]

Y U NEGATE COOL POWERS?! -.-

[@jgr7487]

even if you are not running a political campaign, you are running a political campaign.

[@KevinVideo]

The players I've ran with over the years are definitely the type where the #10 suggestion of rolling up level 1 characters is basically mandatory. They will completely ignore plot hooks and entirely invading forces because they decided they wanted to visit another town that they hadn't yet. That's much more important, and YOU ARE A BAD DUNGEON MASTER IF THEY CAN'T DO OPEN WORLD SANDBOX. You should be pushing the pause button on the story, just like in a video game, so we can go explore and not do what you want. Oh, you want to "railroad" us into your narrative that you've been doing behind the scenes for the past few months? You're going to have the illithid invading force turn everyone into thralls and blot out the sun because we ignored your hooks for the last few dozen sessions? Whatever. I cast wish and use 100% Divine Intervention to reverse everything you just did. Try to negate my player agency and enforce DM railroading? You get an Uno card. It's largely why I stopped DMing. Overall, good tips.

[@willmena96]

Something that I've noticed is that official modules usually go up to level 13 BUT you're stuck in some weird place like Avernus, Icewind Dale, the Underdark, Undermountain, Chult, etc. So you (almost) never have to deal with the weirdest stuff a strong adventurer can do inside a town or in an “open world". Thanks for the advice, Luke. You're great

[@Klijpo]

I did run a group to level 20 with 5e. The most challenging encounter I put them through was the arcane lab with 6 beholders + minions. That suitably prevented the wizard fron getting up to their usual tricks. In the 'final' battle, the fighter more or less soloed an ancient red dragon and then immediated went on to solo Baphomet in 3 rounds. She later did similar to a Tarrasque (though this was after basically becoming the 'new' Baphomet). She earned her nickname: "The All-Slayer"

[@alphathewolf583]

Martial classes in the endgame tend to be insane with dpr so you have to account for that. One of my players has a knack for builds that deal 100 damage, so i have to account for that when statting out threats as we chug on near 20.

[@ALJessica]

Baphomet (atleast from Mordenkainens), is incredibly week. And his cr 23 is not really up to snuff. He is more like a cr 19

[@weepingwalnut]

@@ALJessica if you want a powerful Baphomet, I recommend you use the Aspect of Baphomet in Fizban’s. CR 30 and can basically bring itself back to life.

[@2g33ksgamingttv3]

@@weepingwalnut you are thinking of Bahamut in Fizban's. Baphomet is a demonlord

[@CharlesBlazer]

I count myself super lucky to have a group that enjoys and maturely plays at high level. High level gives you "permission" to do the epic things you imagined doing when you sat down to play D&D in the first place. In our current campaign, we came across a fortune teller who had the infamously game-ending Deck of Many Things. My bard drew 1 Wish. Then the druid drew the Avatar of Death, and his soul was reaped from this world. So I immediately used my 1 Wish to turn back time to before the druid drew his card. (I had that Wish for all of 10 minutes... heart-wrenching!) The DM handled it brilliantly: Time turned back, but the druid was still dead -- his soul still in possession of the Avatar of Death, somewhere on the River Styx. As a result, our campaign now had an epic Big Bad (the Avatar of Death) and a deeply personal high-stakes epic quest (travel to the River Styx and free the druid's soul), both randomly generated by the Deck of Many Things! To equip ourselves for the journey, we contacted a god who needed help defeating another god. But halfway through that mission, we realized god #2 was stronger, so we betrayed god #1 and offered to "help" god #2 usurp the Avatar of Death and take his place as ruler of the River Styx. All for the low, low price of one druid's soul. By questing to replace the Avatar of Death with an even more powerful, more evil god, I'm sure we're creating the Big Bad of some future adventuring party's campaign. But, hey... That's their problem! That's the cool stuff you get at high(ish) level. What a fun game.

[@jesternario]

I establish political connections with my players party very early on. It helps make the later encounters where they need them feel more natural. For example. My current group came across a prince being held by the same bandits they had been held by (first adventure was a break out scenario). In the next adventure, they rescued his uncle, the king (I day rescued, the king got bored being captured and rescued himself, busting down the door and joining into the fight in the last encounter). After this, they were rewarded with a home, a small amount of gold, and equipment they didn’t get at character creation because it had all been stripped from them before the adventure began. From this point on, they had their own adventures and stories not involving them, but the Royal Family were key players in the story, with members even joining them on adventures from time to time. Eventually, around level 15, the prince turned out to be a would be usurper who had been trying to murder his uncle and cousins, put his father on the throne, and then take the seat for himself later (One player actually asked how long I had been planning that, which was great). The players were instrumental in stopping this assassination attempt, and because the players knew and had interacted with the King and his daughters the entire campaign, it was natural to them that the events happened as they did.

[@krikorajemian8524]

I run 3.5e, and I enjoy being able to use the Epic Level Handbook. My last campaign went to level 22 before the PCs beat the BBEG (Vecna). My current campaign is at level 16, and I expect it to reach level 24 before the PCs beat the BBEG (Tiamat). Some of my players are new to D&D, and they're managing to keep up with the high level play.

[@matthewjackson9152]

The Epic Level Handbook is still my favourite book!

[@erikkennedy8725]

The last campaign I played in ended at level 14, which, incidentally, was the point I realized my Barbarian could leap off a 16 story building, rage in mid-air, do a super hero landing for dramatic effect, and take negligible damage. We were basically superheroes at that point. The session two games later involved an actual appearance of the all-powerful endboss, whom the dm admitted he hadn’t even fully statted out, not expecting us to actually attack him when he tried to kidnap a long-time friendly and beloved npc and threatened us if we opposed him. Yeah, like a group of superheroes is going to let that happen. You could tell our poor DM was making up abilities on the fly for this guy as we used literally every power we had (including finely honed low level tactics like grapple) to separate him from his staff and free her. Which we did. Only to have him magically summon back his staff and just take her anyway. That was the last session. High level campaigns aren’t easy, and honestly I feel for our DM.

[@Scott-ig6nx]

I haven't run a high level in 5th yet, so the lair and legendary stuff has not been a thing. But for everything else, I actually have done those items in the past. Once I get my players past around 10-15th level, it is more about the role play than it is about the combat. Building up story lines, yes there will still be combat but the focus is on developing an immersive and dynamic story. Party members are really working to complete personal quests. Overarching story lines are being completed. For example, my Tiefling Rogue who started an orphanage so he could rescue children from the streets. It was actually a school. During the day the children learned skills like blacksmithing or the like. At night, they learned spy craft techniques. Then, as they got older they because productive members of society, while also spying for me. I developed these in the major cities around the realm we played in. This was started at low level but did not come to fruition until around 15th level. It provided much needed information regarding the BBEG we were going up against.

[@KeljuIvan]

Usually I don't care for the starter sketch, but I liked this one. :)

[@YelloDuzzit]

BUT YOUR NEGATING THEIR COOL POWERS! 👀

[@apsFoz09]

Oh man... Thank you for the rule number 10, its good to see that this is a real problem and not just me being unable to handle my player's character optimizations. All my campaign ended when we reach some level that I am tired of discuss with one player who power abuses, or constant asks for a break in the rules to become even more stronger.

[@theDMLair]

Yeah...high level dnd isn't for everyone...

[@murilobelow7571]

this week i made the final session of a one year long campaing, the players were level 14, everyone died in the final epic battle they were fighting along side with the most powerfull dragon of the material plane to recue the granparent of one of the player(who had a super powerfull demon inside him). intead of ignoring the enemies, the players fought everyone of them, got surrounded and all died. The dragon that used to protect the material plane is dead, the orc empire now have a more powerfull than ever arsenal of legendary epic weapons(things that could summon an army), and the player's granparent is forever sealed. more content to the next campaing

[@beardalaxy]

Throwing my level 12 PCs into an unexplored land where a map doesn't exist yet and they have to find the BBEG who kidnapped one of their children in order to lure them there. Plenty of wild magic and magic radiation that will alter them the longer they stick around. Different kind of challenge with different stakes than just bigger, badder enemies (although those will certainly be included!)

[@rowanash7716]

I’m running a high level evil campaign where the players started at level 15 and are now 17, along with super buffs. One of the things I’ve run a few times is them facing an army of 100s of units. I’ll take a stat block like the guard, reduce each individuals HP to 2, and use mass combat rules from the DMG to ensure the army is landing hits when 20 swarm a PC. Player attacks do cleaving rules and AoE is double damage. The players love it when they do 24 damage with their great sword and you narrate how they cut down 12 people with one mighty swing.

[@jgr7487]

"Be terrifying Be devious Be a DM" should be on a t-shirt.

[@gamermilk6399]

Damage should be x1.5-2 at high level. It's the easiest monster hack.

[@JosiahTheSiah]

Archfey-the "ch" digraph here is pronounced as "tʃ" (as in beach or cheese), not "Ark-fey." Same with archrival, archenemy, archdevil, archdemon, archmage, archdruid. All include the standard English "tʃ" pronunciation for the "ch" digraph. "Archangel" is the *exception,* not the rule. There are etymological reasons, but it's basically because we get "archangel" handed down through multiple ancient languages before its arrival in the modern English language. The other words are more modern additions to our lexicon, lifted directly into English as loan words. I'm not a linguist, so just using my best layman's understanding here 🙂 but my pronunciation is accurate, I checked 😅

[@TheAurgelmir]

Throw out CR at level 15? I threw that out at like 5th level...

[@einCAA]

High level D&D characters are basicly superheroes. So take a page or two from the superhero genre. i.e. Take the love interest of a player character hostage.