first time DMing

[True believer]

hello people!!!


my friends convinced me to start a new campaign as Dm ( it is my first time :D ) , the catch is that they wanted to play as lvl 20 PCs !!!!
I have manage for some sessions to keep them busy with a evil litch wizard , but know i find it difficult to continue my story interesting enough for 3 lvl 20 PCs , primarily because of the lack of dm experience!!!

Until now i have send them to find a artifact that has the ability to raise and control all the dragons ( sounded good at the time) , this artifact consists of 3 parts scattered all over Faerun , also i will add a more divine character to my campaign

I tried to found some ready adventures online in order to help me progress my story in a way that will help me add my own ideas , but there are not so many for that level. Any ideas ?

[Wacky89]

It's very unwise to start to DM for level 20 characters, where you need alot of experience

[atemu1234]

It's very unwise to start to DM for level 20 characters, where you need a lot of experience

Agreed on this. Start low-level, maybe not level one (that too may require experience; not killing players at that level takes finesse), that way you can deal with them, and if they're new too, they can learn before being thrown into the deep end with a led weight.

[daremetoidareyo]

At this level, PCs can solve any problem really.

2-3 phase boss fight: Fight a dragon that never lands (dragons on the ground die, unless they have an awesome burrow speed and a ring of X-ray vision), has class levels, and access to dimension door as a spell like ability. The dragon uses breath weapons, lots of quickened dispel magic, and runs out of spells before he/she ever actually engages in melee. If the dragon loses the first match, have him retreat and planar bind some big evil stuff + hire nighttime ethereal assassins riding huge phase spiders to interrupt PC sleep + detect alignment on the party finding the evil and chaotic characters to offer huge rewards for delivering both the liver and brain of the party caster, so the next battle is even tougher.


Fantasy wish fulfillment: send gobs and gobs of orcs & trolls at something the PCs care about. Something like 400 Orcs and 100 trolls, led by a troll with marshall and war chief class levels. Then let the PCs just mop them up. Use this massive display of power to get an NPC to offer a big quest that requires big PCs.


Race an anti party to an artifact: Create an equal and opposite party for the PCs to race against to an artifact in a realm that disallows teleportation (& most flight) like some part of the plane of pandemonium. Make that party cohesive (NE, LE, LN) and tough. The PCs then have to decide to outpace the smarmy competition or defeat it directly. Put a high level illusionist in there and some dude who has the cutpurse feat if the PCs win the race so that they have to chase the evil party down for some piece of awesome gear that was ganked.


A conflict that cannot be settled through combat: murder mystery in an anti magic field, heck yeah?

[Anachronity]

Playing level 20 as a first-time GM is basically just saying "screw all the rules". Level 20 characters can have massive variances in power, and depending on how experienced your players are it's very possible that some of them might not have much fun while others do everything.

On the other hand, you really have the freedom to throw anything at them. This might seem like a good thing, but it also means you have to know your options and use a lot of creativity. If you mindlessly throw CR20 monsters at them they're going to laugh off half of them and get annihilated by the other half if their characters are unoptimized (see massive power gulf above).

Basically the PCs can do anything which you don't explicitly say they can't, and if you're a new DM I'm guessing you're going to have a hard time justifying denying them of their more overpowered shenanigans. I'm guessing you don't even have half an idea of what all but the most lazily-made wizards can do at level 20 (no offense to you, it's just that high-level casters really are that overpowered). I would suggest at least restricting them from spellcasting classes and equivalents (psions, artificers, etc.). If you're determined and you go this route I would also suggest going light on the monsters with tons of spell-like abilities as well.

Some examples of what a caster could do...

-instagib dragons with shivering touch or love's pain without ever getting near them

-travel to other planes on a whim

-cause devastation in a miles-wide radius through any of a number of methods

-create permanent prismatic spheres inside of demiplanes they've created to house their clones which serve as backup lives while they greater teleport into the big bad's layer with a stack of 2,000 parchments with explosive runes cast upon them before detonating them all for well over 10,000 damage.

-turn into a 72-foot tall flaming gelatinous cube for a day or more.

-cast gate or planar binding (seriously, just read those spells and then search through the Monster Manual for what a 20th level character could summon. The answer is ANY OUTSIDER IN THE BOOK)


and all of this is what a single character in your party of four or so could do.

[True believer]

It seems that i made a mistake about my questions wording . Excuse me , English is not my native language.



I dont have any problem with the monsters or the enemies of the party . Due to the fact that i am an experienced player i have fight , and read about ,a vast variety of monsters etc. I currently have add to the party a wizard/mindbender/urpriest/ theurge to act a an ally on the party but the sad truth is that is an evil foe sworn to kill them. The party's wizard is not such a difficulty for my due to the fact that i love casters , so i usually can handle him with another caster in the foe party.


The element that is difficult for my is how to present them the clues in a manner that i dont make it too difficult neither to easy ( the hign number of ranks in the wizards knowledge skills hurts). I know the obvious answer is : NPCs !!!! But to tell you the truth i always liked a few hardcore investigations as a player and i want to follow that habit as a dm

[LTwerewolf]

With investigations keep in mind the characters might think of things the players don't. Allow for extra skill checks, intelligence checks, wisdom checks, etc. "Your character figured out X" or "given that your character has experience with Y, (s)he has figured out Z."

[True believer]

With investigations keep in mind the characters might think of things the players don't. Allow for extra skill checks, intelligence checks, wisdom checks, etc. "Your character figured out X" or "given that your character has experience with Y, (s)he has figured out Z."


usefull advise , thank you. I will add it immediately :D

Anything else ????