D&D General Tips for starting at higher-level?

[Shardstone]

@Shardstone How did those multiple-turn-solo-monster combats run in terms of time spent at the table? More generally how long did your high level combats take?

The solos end up having to be semi-set piece or full on set pieces, so they can take between 30 minutes to an hour. At high level, due to the amount of options, the amount of hit points, the saving throws, wild effects, I feel like this is unavoidable.

I've since made other changes to combat to make it more enjoyable. I know you have your own stuff that you write up and run, so just keep in mind that any high level combat needs to be explicitly FUN above anything else, since you'll spend like 45 minutes on average in each one. There's a lot of spectacle and a lot of engaging bits and nobs you can introduce to your encounters to do so, but without these, you end up spending an hour each session bored out of your mind. It's very much a game about "the joys of combat" at high level, way more so then at low level imo.

Naturally there's ways to speed this up; if you embrace the rocket tag nature, you can get combats in under a 30 minutes, and I had some like that. A low survivability but big nuclear attack or effect can be pretty fun from time to time, especially if gets Surprise so that it can try and do its "thing" before getting disintegrated.

I also used minion rules too for swarms. A swarm that changes at certain HP break points can be an encounter by itself with your players narratively taking out dozens of foes as they fight through an army or something. These encounters go a lot faster, usually like 15 minutes max.

 

[Quickleaf]

Something I'm going to try for with my Vecna game is to have the players build their characters with no additional starting equipment. Then I'm going to roll the appropriate number of treasure hoards for the first two tiers. The players will spend the last part of session 0 dividing up the loot they've acquired over the first 10 levels. I might just go ahead and roll up the loot first, allowing the players to build around it, preventing "useless" items that require a specific feature to use.

If you start your Vecna campaign soon and still keep track of this thread, I'd love to hear how your "treasure horde" approach to starting gold/magic at high level looks!

 

[Stormonu]

From what I remember of my higher level games, the party is past the point where gathering information is a problem or a goal (such as a mundane murder mystery or puzzle or trap). It has to switch to knowing what to do with the information they've received.

Likewise, high-level characters can't really be boxed down. Dungeon walls rarely restrict them, overland travel can be easily shortened or bypassed and remote locations are no longer remote. Areas that can't be reached without using magical movement come into play as well as being able to cast movement spells enough times for the whole party to reach the destination.

Traps are no longer about discovering and avoiding them, but need to be nefarious things the players willingly have to stick their assorted limbs into to solve them, tanking damage as they do so. (Note: they'll still finds ways to get through them unscathed)

Also, this becomes the time where characters have enough power that they can split up and tackle challenges separately, at the same time and then meet back up together at some point to face a bigger challenge. The challenge becomes DMing that without boring the other three while the fourth goes off to do their part of the quest. If you allow the party to hang together all the time, it becomes so easy for them to trivialize encounters they run across. Encounters are easier to build if the entire party's guns isn't pointed at them all at once and you can get the players buy-in on being heroically semi-independent. Even an encounter or two that forcibly splits the party can help.

Last of all, major fights can be a grind so I'd recommend making them occur less often and find other ways to challenge the group. It's harder to do, but if you can manage it, the variety helps - and keeps the PCs from just focusing on continuing to upgrade their firepower (the game does a little better when the PCs see the need to broaden their abilities, rather than laser-focus them).

Get familiar with the character's sheets and look for ways to design encounters around their non-combat abilities, skills and background information - especially those rare-to-use ribbon abilities. Group has a character with the Scribe background? Set up an encounter where the characters need a tidbit of information from the local metropolis's library half-way across the world only to run into bureaucratic red tape that restricts their access - meaning they need to bribe, influence, sneak into the library or risk divination magic that's being watched for by the enemy, with consequences and advantages for each approach. Especially if those consequences affect other encounters down the line.

 

[Shiroiken]

If you start your Vecna campaign soon and still keep track of this thread, I'd love to hear how your "treasure horde" approach to starting gold/magic at high level looks!

I converted everything down to 70,798 gp, with the following magic items. I rolled a few class specific things, so I'm allowing a choice of options to prevent the players from feeling like they need to play a specific class. Additionally, I typically allow magic item trading during downtime, so I've included a few options for that as well.

Magic Items
Potion of Healing x14
Potion of Climbing x6 (may trade in 2:1 for Potion of Healing)
Potion of Acid Resistance
Potion of Water Breathing
Potion of Hill Giant Strength
Potion of Superior Healing
Spell Scroll: Mending
Spell Scroll: Dancing Lights
Spell Scroll: Resistance
Spell Scroll: Purify Food and Drink (may trade in for cantrip scroll of choice)
Spell Scroll: Earth Tremor (may trade in for cantrip scroll of choice)
Spell Scroll: Detect Poison and Disease (may trade in for cantrip scroll of choice)
Spell Scroll: Find Familiar (may trade in for cantrip scroll of choice)
Spell Scroll: Flame Blade (may trade in for level 1 scroll of choice)
Spell Scroll: Feign Death (may trade in for level 2 scroll of choice)
Spell Scroll: Summon Fey (may trade in for level 2 scroll of choice)
Oil of Slipperiness
Dust of Sneezing and Choking
Dust of Dryness
Elemental Gem of Earth
Ammunition +1 (player’s choice)
Ammunition +2 (player’s choice)
Driftglobe
Decanter of Endless Water
Boots of Striding and Springing
Quiver of Ehlonna
Periapt of Wound Closure
Hat of Disguise
Weapon +1 (player’s choice)
Boots of Elvenkind
Amulet of Health
Elven Chain
Mantle of Spell Resistance
Necklace of Prayer Beads (Curing, Favor, Smiting)/Instrument of the Bards (Canaith Mandolin)
Rod of the Pact Keeper +2/Wand of the War Mage +2
Staff of Healing
Flame Blade