D&D 5E High Level Adventure Ideas

[Reynard]

5E has a distinct lack of high level (13th+) content. I know there is some DMsGuild content but even that is spare.

So, if you want high level adventures for 5E, what do they look like? Planar adventures? World shaking events? Deep dungeons full of Balrogs and liches?

Given that most of the 5e adventures end around 10th-13th, what would a big 12thish to 20th adventure look like?

 

[Zardnaar]

Probably extra planar or a death trap dungeon type Adventure.

Flying castlesor crystal dungeons over lakes of fire/lava.

 

[Delazar]

the giant lairs of Storm King's Thunder are great for high-levels. How did the author think that a lvl 9 party could tackle a dungeon full of giants escapes me, but I guess the idea was to avoid the fights? For your high-level party, just make sure the end goal includes confrontation

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Hard to say; at those levels, the PC's have SOOOOO much leeway in what they want to focus on that I couldn't say "what would an adventure look like". If I had to take a stab at it...I'd say that most LIKELY it would involve large threats to the PC's "personal dominions/endevours".

Usually, for my players, at least in 1e/Hackmaster/BECMI games (nobody's gotten past level 7 in our 5e campaign), those are the levels when the PC's are using their vast wealth to buy titles, land, build inn's, ships, keeps, churches, etc. So "The caves nearby are infested with hobgoblins!" isn't enough to motivate them...but add in "Hobgoblins that have been drawn to the caves over the last year. A dark and powerful force is obviously massing an army to likely wage war against [insert PC's land/inn/keep/town/etc]!". So more about "we need to do this or our stuff is going to get broken" as opposed to "we need to do this because the towns stuff is going to get broken".

After that motivational push, the skies the limit! That hobgoblin leader might be an arch-devil worshipping Warlock with a gateway to Avernus, for example. Or maybe it's just some rich noble with delusions of grandeur and a reach that far outmatches his ability to hold whatever he gets, who knows?

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Oofta]

My last campaign that went to 20 had a mix. The major story was about a dragon that was trying to take over the region. The dragon had polymorphed into a human and was pretending to be the lost emperor. In addition, the "emperor" was creating half dragon clones.

Lots of custom monsters, the group was basically acting as a strike force shutting down the "factories" and going after other high value targets.

The sub-plot was a sleeping god giant they had to counter by entering it's dreams. So basically whatever wild stuff I could come up with.

I do use fiends as inspiration for monsters, but I wanted a campaign that didn't fall back on the old "travel the planes and fight demons and devils" trope. But just a bit of reskinning, some custom monsters with a half dragon template and voila, fights could be as challenging as I wanted.

 

[J-H]

I'm running one now, and I'll publish it on DMG after it's done in a year and a half or two years. Party starts at 13 and should go to multi-boon territory. It's a large hexcrawl in an area foreign to them, where they're trying to stop an evil god from manifesting in the flesh on the Material Plane. There's a main enemy temple/city and four supporting ones with high temples for subservient gods. Their enemies are Aaracokra and can fly, and have daylight-only flying ships, so everyone else has a mobility disadvantage.

Unless the party wants to take on a few hundred to thousand enemies at a time (depending on their tactics), they'll have to build alliances with and between the different factions, and coordinate cross-country movement and timing.

The enemy high priests can chuck multiple 9th level spells per day.

I have no idea strategically how they will choose to "solve the problem." There are two possible Weapon of Mass Destruction solutions (a sleeping kaiju and an old lich with a "cleanse city" spell that takes 1 hour to cast, which would totally get direct warnings to the numerous priests in the enemy cities when he starts), or maybe they'll try to start a rebellion, or do something with religion, or just build a big army and smash things flat.

At this level, it's not my job to figure out how the party will solve something. I just set up the situation and trust that they'll handle it - or that they'll figure out they need to bug out in time to have some of the party survive.

There are a number of dungeons scattered around because those are fun, but they're a bit tougher than what I think you'll find in most modules. One is a multi-mile Aboleth lair (he's probably going to be neutral/allied) with 3 boosted Aboleths and one very boosted Aboleth plus a ton of warlocks; another features an isolated community with a Mirror of Lifetrapping mounted in the ceiling near the entrance. Another is a "stuck in time warp" lab where the final fight is an ogre wight death knight accompanied by two invisible beholder zombies for a fight in a big AMF.

 

[Eltab]

A powerful demon / devil has already been summoned into the material world and is serving as a conquering general. Defeat its army, contain it, confront its summoners and defeat them (it may cooperate willingly with the heroes for a bit), then banish it back from whence it came.

Kinda like the FR lore for ... my moniker, come to think of it.
3e sourcebooks Heroes of Valor and Masters of Ruin (wording may be a bit off).

 

[LordEntrails]

So I'm working on it for my campaign. I'm upping and pulling back multiple enemies that they fought (or are about to fight) and have gotten away or will be more than written.

Spoiler: Strangers in a Cave - DON'T READ

Or you will spoil the campaign for yourselves!

Between levels 12 and 20 they will be facing (though they may not actually fight) (at least);

• the lich Iniarv
• Ebondeath (a legendary dracolich with resources)
• Amelia Cassalantar; who has fled Waterdeep, gathered allies and will be using multiple devils to act against the party
• an escaped lieutenant Talos cultist who if he lives through his next encounter with the party will turn to working behind the scenes
• A deathknight dreadnaught (from Sleeping Dragon's Wake, but actually played with capabilities given it) that can submerge itself, and going to be hard to catch and kill/sanctify
• An ever annoying revenant, who is getting stronger each time it returns
• Xanathar - Perhaps as part of a return to the Undermountain.
• Manshoon - there is a possibility that they will cross paths with him again and if so he may actively seek to kill them this time.
• Perhaps a few ties to the elemental plane of earth, as part of a tie in to an early campaign I ran that and with tie ins to the returning kingdom of Bessilmere in the Dessarin Valley.

 

[Richards]

In my last 3.5 campaign, the 20th-level party ended the campaign by assaulting the Underdark drow city that had been sending waves of goblin and orc slaves to attack the neighboring surface kingdoms. Of course, the PCs had just returned from a six-adventure side trek to Gamma World, so the Underdark assault included the PCs in power armor and mechs....

In my 3.5 campaign before that, the PCs gathered the pieces to a Universe Seed, which ensured the creation of the universe to come after the death of the one they inhabited (and in the meantime caused the deities of that future universe to be patterned after themselves).

In my son's prior 3.5 campaign, at 20th level we dealt with a lich with a nearly-indestructible phylactery, fought off an invading army of religious fanatics (they worshiped the lich as a god), and stopped an intended invasion of the Material Plane by an army of devils (including the pit fiend who sought to slay my PC's two-year-old daughter, as she was one of the last two remaining members of my PC's dead wife's bloodline and her death would have opened up the gates to the Material Plane).

Johnathan

 

[Dragonsbane]

After 13th level we went planar and kingdom-changing