The Epic-Tier Divide: Bringing Your DnD Campaign Into the Wild World of High-Level Play

3 Wise DMs

Super-powered archmages, alien vampire gods, Tiamat and the devil himself – once your campaign crosses about level 15, it’s all on the table. But the same is true for super-powerful spells, legendary artifacts, and a hundred other things that make the players as tough as your wildest villain creations. This is why epic-tier play just isn’t the same as everything your campaign has been through before.

As you hit the endgame of your campaign, a couple things happen. First, your story should be coming to a head, which means the game gets less flexible, but you still need to allow room for player agency. At the same time, the game gets a little crazy. This is when it pays off to bring in your coolest ideas for monsters, magic items, and more. You want the ending to be memorable and unique.

In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about how they bring their games into the epic tier, what changes, and how they shift from story-building to creating a really satisfying end. Along the way, they talk about their own campaigns entering the final leg, the BBEG villains they’ve introduced and how to spar with a high-level party without the PCs or BBEG getting killed before the big showdown.

1:00 Several of our games just crossed level 15, and this is how they feel different

4:00 The Malbion and Vampyr: Super-charged endgame villains in our campaigns

8:00 Why the endgame is a bad time to introduce the deck of many things

13:00 Introducing the BBEG, the first fight with them and shifting focus to the climax of the campaign

31:00 Make sure the players don’t lose their agency as you start wrapping up the story

44:00 Should you let your party talk the Great Old One back to sleep?

51:00 How high-level spells change the game for the players and villains

56:00 What’s awesome about moving into higher-level play

60:00 Final thoughts