How to Run a High Level Dungeons and Dragons Campaign

Many players enjoy the higher levels of play most of all in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. A high-level campaign gives the characters access to massively powerful items and spells and allows them to rub shoulders with the movers and shakers of the campaign world.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks
• Character sheet

1. Advance the overall story of the campaign to the final stages and reveal the main antagonist, if you hadn't already. Tie up any loose ends from previous sessions and allow the characters to complete any unfinished business they may have with any of the non-player characters in the game.

2. 
    
   A high level character summons a monster

   Consider how the character's abilities and spells could interfere with the story of the campaign. When the characters can raise each other from the dead, speak with spirits who have passed on to the afterlife, summon powerful monsters from other worlds, fly over mountain ranges and send telepathic messages over hundreds of miles, many of the standard storytelling devices of the game become obsolete.

3. Throw hordes of normal enemies or a few extremely powerful enemies at the characters during combat. During the high levels, the characters should be able to vanquish nearly any foe you can come up with, so don't be afraid to use the strongest and most frightening of the monsters detailed in the various monster manual books.

4. Make the characters the center of attention in the area where they are living. When they have reached the higher levels, they should be either working directly with kings and bishops or even ruling their own cities and nations.

5. 
    
   A Power Hungry Wizard

   Ignore the smaller issues and look at the bigger picture. The characters should no longer be dealing with problems like solving murders or helping out small towns, but instead should be handling issues of massive importance like repelling entire armies of giants and dragons, thwarting the machinations of demon lords and evil deities or preventing insane wizards from achieving godhood.

6. 
    
   The Nine Hells

   Give the characters the means to travel the planes of existence if your players are intrigued by planar travel. By the time they have reached the highest levels, there won't be much to challenge them on their home worlds, so they should move on to places like the Nine Hells or the seven mounting heavens of Celestia to be directly interacting with the primal forces that shape their existence.

7. 
    
   A character with powerful magic weapons

   Allow the characters to regularly find, create and use the most powerful of artifacts and weapons.

8. Let the players take time away from the main story to build their own legends by doing things like founding their own cities, taking over control of a nation from the despotic tyrant who currently rules it, starting a college of wizardry or searching for the means to ascend to the heavens to become deities themselves.

Tips & Warnings

• Conclude any of the various story lines surrounding the important non-player characters who have become familiar to the players. Romances or marriages could end with raising a family or a messy break-up, merchant contacts could end up working for the characters as they build their own businesses and close friends could meet their demise while protecting the group from an unknown threat.
• Don't allow the players to get out of control with their characters. While they are incredibly powerful at the high levels, there will still be other non-player characters, monsters or even deities who could easily crush them if they decided to go on a world-wide killing spree.

Resources

• Official Dungeons and Dragons Website