HIGH-LEVEL PLAY in 5e DUNGEONS & DRAGONS - Web DM 

Web DM that level 100 player though

naruto

Yes.

no im telling you that dnd is a great system able to make many different power levels.

Yes, yes it is

Thank you. Sometimes the muse descends.

play a battle siege with the characters

I do adore how you spend most of the podcast just trying to get in your catch phrases. You totally stuck the landing on that one. :)

I'd go to similar extreme lengths to dispose of a powerful enemy.

*Illusionati

Illusionaughty. Open source.

You on the subreddit?

mattbetts01 yupp

I've never been a fan of his rituals mechanically. In practice with his players, (who are actors) it creates fantastic drama. However, as a DM I would hate to have my player's spells not work properly due to what I believe to be some misguided perspective that 'resurrection counters death, so death is never a problem'. Considering all of the options at my disposal as a DM just using spells and lead walls or the like, without homebrewing or changing a single thing, there are many ways to make death more of a complication than "do we have the money for a diamond? Yeah? Okay no problem then." Mind you, I'm a huge fan of Critical Role and absolutely love it. I've been watching faithfully since it first started. My opinion above isn't some hate against the show or MM's rituals, it's just an opinion.

@@JeremyTheGraten the death mechanics has nothing to do with there being actors, it has to do with each time resurrection is used, the DC they have to beat becomes higher, which increases the challenge, rather then making it all the same. in addition, when you tie in other worldly beings who are interested in the souls of the party members, it adds another layer of challenge.

Never apologize for stating an opinion. If it offends someone that you disagree with them, too bad. People these days need to understand an opinion is not a fact, not a personal attack, its just an opinion, nether right or wrong.

I'd say 6/7 do it great, one druid happens to forget her spells a lot, but, the rest do a really amazing job.

dragonfire fucking kelith. She fucks up so many good plans.

Jules Vinckier I agree. If only there was something that could be done *sighs*

.... Keylith has finally had her moment.

Skelebon I'm not got up, so apologies. I'm at episode 65, when they first enter Ank'Harel.

Or they can come back as a undead like Ghouls or Morhgs I’d recommend morhgs they are nasty

The Art of War is an excellent reference for most things in life.

All of those elements are what make high level play so much fun! The PCs don't exist in a vacuum, and the higher level they are, the more they have to be proactive in eliminating threats.

Fun for a DM too. I permanently killed an asshole pc by having a fellow pc kinder pick his statuette of wish from his pocket during our 12-15 level dragonlance campaign in 1990

Brondel is a fallen paladin. So dropping things on people is ok.

In Brondel's defense, he genuinely wooed her before sealing the deal with the potion. It was insurance!! Totes tried to bury her whole family alive, tho.

Oathbreaker pally. And Brondel rolled something like a 32 on his Cha check to woo the princess. Also performed three feats of strength in front of her, besting the other dwarves- wrestling, axe throwing, and meat pie eating.

Seems legit. Heard a Fighter/Bladelock idea I liked where the patron is his wife. Who just so happens to be a high-tier Succubus. It'd be fun to role-play I think

Same here. The planes are a lot of fun!

Same. The gods get involved, the intrigues involve the whole solar system, not just the same planet.

Jim is a DM's DM. He's a national treasure.

JPruInc Amen to that.

Ehh it's Mike! Nice to see one of my favourite commenters on one of my favourite channels. Hope to see your wisdom and experience detailed in the comments of these nice fellows video playlist from now on. ;)

Malcolm Grant Based on the quality of the content of this channel, you might well see me around a lot. ;) And thank you for the kind words.

Have you checked out our Curse of Razel-Sinn series? It's a taste (even if somewhat stiff and artificial) of how I run my games. The workshop series you describe is a a great idea though. Our biggest constraint right now is time.

James Davis Where can i check it out? Sounds really interesting

Your players had to have done really well in order to play some high level games in dark sun. In one of the campaigns I was a player in, it was a -1 level penalty on death and remaking a new character, to a minimum of level 3, and we always died before we could make it to 7th level, we had one Mul Gladiator make it to 7th level, only to fight 40 gith on his own and die.

Psionisists are very powerful and people never really delved into the class. Thrikeen fighter/Psionisist with Psycometbalism was just a beast. Kinetic energy control was very good along with energy containment and accelerate. They were also able to healer like a cleric and could even regenerate limbs at low level. Yeah Athas is a deadly place to live but the players are also deadly.

Cal Arath I see. My group never really played Psionisits, everyone except me seemed to only play Gladiator, Ranger, or Preserver. I had played a Halfling Cleric (Sphere of water) Thief, a Human Templar, and a Half Elf bard. Non of which made it past 6th level, the Half Elf bard died at level 5, the other two made it to level 6.

yeah that's the problem then. It's a world that is centered around psionic power and if you don't have one on your side you will be in trouble. Psionics is an integral part of Dark Sun and is not something that can be left out.

maybe he's just a blurry guy

I told Jim not cast 'Blur' before we started shooting, but he's his own man.

You never know when extra dimensional clones will drop in unannounced. Gotta be prepared.

Web DM Customer Service is aware of this issue.

perhaps he's related to Bigfoot

Proprieties must be observed.

Classic DnD, Eberron, and Epic6 for 3.5 inform a lot of my thoughts on the subject of PC's status in the world.

Me too. Much more realistic that way

Thanks!

Appreciate the feedback. It keeps us going!

It's like herding cats sometimes to get everyone in the same page.

In my opinion, Eberron nailed this one - the majority of NPCs are 6th level or lower.

Jim Davis It makes sense, the pcs can become legendary heroes. You don't want all of the NPCs to be on their level.

Just found this video. I kinda disagree. I think that certain adventurers should be of that level. I think the "hero's association" metaphor is a nice way to do it. Say the players get to level 12. They are now known across the land and tales of their escapades have even reached other continents. Now the heroes that the party has heard about in stories as children and such that havent died along the way contact them. Now the players get the "meet your heroes" moment. That legendary blind monk that punched out a legendary dragon? Yeah, here he is. He's a fucking grump that doesn't get alomg eith anyone and you realize yeah, sure, he punched out that dragon solo. But now you learn that he did so not because he's some noble hero that didn't want to endanger anyone else, he did it because nobody could work with this guy. Meanwhile they discover Princess Super Wizard who sealed the Tarasque literally just got lucky. Shes a shit mage that knows jack shit, the Tarasque was just having a really bad day and rolled 1s on all its saving throws. Now she has it locked in a hamster cage and threatens to let it out anytime she doesn't get her way. They discover that these guys basically just exist as a deterrent against one another. Its the "If you guy bad, we'll all get together and kill you, so don't use all this crazy awesome power to be a total dick." And all these high level NPC heroes have lives of their own. They arent babysitting the players or anything. Hell, maybe they're all low-key trying to get the party to quietly come to hate each other because a unified group of heroes of that power would prove hard to police. So maybe Mister Dragon Punch becomes best buds with the party monk and is a total dick to everyone else. Maybe Princess Lucksalot seduces the party's rogue AND enchants the party's fighter so the two end up fighting over her, ruining their friendship. It would be an interesting entry level plot to high level play, because it would amount to what most high level parties do when they get that high; Dick around with one another. Except these guys are doing it maliciously. I think itd be a good introduction to higher level tactics, skill checks and such. Because lets face it, the only reason why any e of that tier eould hang around on the prime material plain would be to abuse their power and fame little bit. All the worthwhile heroes move on to bigger things. So even if you want to contend that Prime Materia NPCs should stop at level 6 or 8 or something like that, I say their should still be epic level NPCs out there across the planes. Ancient wizards and warriors spoken of in myth that faded into legend. Think... Superman. The kind of hero who says "Yeah, this planet needs me, but honestly some rich guy who dresses like a bat can handle the day to day, excuse me folks, theres a planet devouring monster that wants to make us a snack, so ill go take care of that since that's more something only I can do."

Yeah, I think that's great, but I still believe it's good to have at least a couple of NPCs that are very high level and maybe very well known - and if the players have been hearing about them for some time, attaining the same levels of recognition would feel even better. To draw a comparison, imagine you grew up listening to a bunch of rock legends inducted in the rock and roll hall of fame. You become in turn a musician, and are eventually inducted yourself into the hall of fame. That would feel even more rewarding, wouldn't it ? So for example, having a couple of Mordenkainen-types, high level casters you've heard of during your whole adventuring run just through the spells they invented, might be a good idea. Maybe you can even meet them (but they might not reside on the material plane anymore...)

this is a comment

this too is a comment on a video

Oh dear god. NO! NO! NOOOOO!!!

This is a comment commenting on a comment in a video.

Happy to help your week along! May the dice be ever in your favor!

AD&D had different advancement rates for the various classes. You could have fighters hitting their 20s when the mages were still dicking around in the teens, which kept individual party members from completely dominating play. In 3.5, all classes advance at the same rate. Let's compare a 6th level Wizard and 6th level fighter in 3.5, which is when shit gets insane: Wizard: - Can summon large outsiders - Can drain levels (no save and btw if you can get off two castings with wands or pearls of power, you can drop most enemies at this level singlehandedly) - Can turn your entire party into giants - Can kill someone with their own worst fear (literally save or die) - Can compel any creature of 7 HD or less to do whatever s/he wants - Can scry - Can teleport Fighter: - Gets a second attack Playing beyond even 10th level in 3.5 is basically an exercise in caster masturbation, and by 20th level you're already rewriting reality wholesale with your bullshit Naruto powers.

The foundation for tier 4/epic level campaigns are laid in the mid-game. By 9th level, the PCs are starting to become known personalities in their respective circles - mages attract apprentices, Warriors start building up war bands or mercenary companies, and thieves begin to build their criminal organizations. Even if you forgo the domain-level game, it adds richness and complexity to a campaign to have the PCs become important players in the world.

ToM: great for fast-paced combats without a lot of AoE spellcasting. Imprecise, but still satisfying. Minis: good for dealing with large combats or fights with lots of CC/AoE. Bogs down play and can lead to a "board game" feel. I usually use whatever method I'm most inspired by in the moment.

Prefer to stay away from Theatre of The Mind.

Con: miniatures are overpriced

Reserve miniatures for combat positioning only, and actually, you might find that LEGO are awesome for that, instead of buying regular miniatures.

Pro: tokens (Roll20 'miniatures') are VERY inexpensive, and once you buy them they are unlimited. A token pack of 13 goblinoids (goblins, bugbears, hobgoblins) that costs $5 nets me multiple styles of equipment on each creature, and I can post them as many times as necessary without having to spend $5 PER miniature and then extra money and time on painting them.

I'd recommend 5e Out of the Abyss, if you haven't already. As I was prepping to run it a second time, i realized that there are about 20 major set locations, and that correlates VERY nicely in 20 CHAPTERS of content at a few sessions each, which very much means my PCs will hit 18th to 20th level by the time they fight all the ______at the end of the campaign. So far, it's been a blast!

Techpriest Oni mine usually go to 10 just because we usually do modules. There great fun. Best is red hand of doom, in my opinion.

Shane Hudson use Fabricate to combine your smaller diamonds in to a larger mega diamond.

Shit now all I wanna do is figure out what class/subclass all the avengers are

And you're a wonderful viewer, as always! Thanks for sticking around.

Throw all that out. No one is beholden to any version of the Realms, especially not if its getting in the way of your game. Tired of tier 4 NPC casters? Ignore them. I really don't understand the desire for some (not saying you specifically) to feel like they have to adhere to a certain version of a published setting. Once your game starts, it's your game - do what you want with the setting. In my version of the Realms I've been running, the Spellplague either killed or "de-leveled" the high level casters, and I think that fits with the assumptions of the campaigns released for 5e so far. If all those Lords of Waterdeep are so high-level, why do they need the PCs to defeat Tiamat/Elder Elemental Eye/Demon Lords/etc? My answer: because none are higher than 7th level.

You are absolutely right. I agree with everything you say whole heartedly. And there is no but. I just have to ask:" Why sould I bother with official releases anyway? Why should I buy the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and the Rise of Tiamat - which I have - if I have to rewrite half of it?" I'm not even saying it's that terrible, because it isn't. I like it, but it is as easy to say:" This happens in Eberron, the Cult of the Dragon is the Cult of the Dragon Below, the factions are those from the Living Adventure RPGA campaign that took place on Xen'drik, and so on. The Rise of Khyber, basically." They tell us the Cult of the Dragon is such a terrible threat, even though the Zhentarim are on our side in this conflict, but in essence it is a third tier villainous organization, while the real menace was destroyed by Ed's Gary Stu alterego. Nothing of it adds up and if I have to rewrite all of it to make sense it makes more sense to just move on and not buy FR releases anymore.

Well on that front we agree as well. I've felt all the pre are campaigns they've released for 5e have been lackluster (haven't played/read CoS) - there's interesting ideas there, but it takes a lot of work to bring them out. For instance, with ToD, I made extensive changes to the cult of the dragon in order to turn them into the threat the book seems to present them as - Dragons laid waste to whole swaths of the North and Sword Coast, armies mopped up the survivors, and only places like the big cities of the coast were spared but even then they were chocked with refuges, resources stretched to the breaking point. None of it was in the book as presented. True, I shouldn't have to do all that - I wish the writers of these adventures would take the consequences of the events they're presenting more seriously. In OotA, Orcus has weeks, potentially months, to summon hordes of shadows, specters, and wraiths, undeterred by the confining tunnels of the Underdark, who can overrun the communities of the Underdark. But he's barely given a page of description in the book.

My solution as a player is what I said at the end of my first post. Play for the other team. The character I prepared to play next time in a FR campaign is a librarian of the Library of Shadows in Thultanthar. Her alignment is neutral and she considers herself to be the sole surviver of the City of Shade. She saved books from the library and has now three goals. 1. Restore the library to its former glory. 2. Rebuild Netheril once again. 3. Restore the Shadow Weave. As you can see she probably won't achieve one of these goals, but it is a heroic endeavor of legendary proportions, as the opposition she will meet will be massive.

Literally read this comment as he uttered the statement Well played sir