Help! Level pacing to lvl 20 after POTA...

[Iacon Studios]

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by!

Well, my first true campaign as a DM has been a fantastic experience so far. My group has followed the Phandelver/Princes route, concluding with the destruction of Imix and the return to a natural elemental balance on the Sword Coast.

Great. A hard fought, rollercoaster, learning experience of a win for everyone. Then...the players decided they were attached to the characters and wanted to see their storylines and characters play out to level 20.

This is great, because throughout the story of Phandelver/Princes I, as any responsible DM would, switched out NPCs and altered underlying storylines to tie into the PCs backgrounds and personal stories. This has resulted in a natural trilogy, Phandelver, Princes, and the 3rd act involving the characters personal story arcs and the underlying big-bad.

I'm not short on villains or story. My problem, as a 1st time DM, is plotting the course of actual leveling from 14-20, and how to appropriately stock a dungeon thusly.

The example set forth to me so far has been, for the most part, for a dungeon to level the group. Is that how I should plot this? 6 more "dungeons" each stocked with enemies equal to raise the PCs 1 level? I hate to seem formulaic but I need SOME kind of outline to plot out the last 6 levels so my group can fully experience their stories.

Thanks SO much for your time or any insight and advice.

[Randomthom]

I'd say at this level of play your group are "bigger than dungeons". That's not to say that they shouldn't go into dungeons but they should be grand in scale/challenge/location. Think other Planes or Hostile Cities, Demon Lord's castles or perhaps an underwater temple.

If your players aren't too critical of storytelling you could keep it simple (find the 6 fragments of the magicalmacguffin tablet, to heal/protect/destroy X, they are rumoured to be in a, b, c and d, we're not sure about the other 2).

If you need something more nuanced then I'm the wrong person to ask right now! I'm in work on 3 hours sleep so creativity isn't my strong point atm!

[Tanarii]

It's hard to top the adventure paths. IMO once they wrap up, it's some to retire those characters, and start a new adventure path. If you want a 1-20 adventure path, you need to design it from the ground up.

That said, you definitely don't want to go with dungeons. The 3rd tier is supposed to be threats to entire regions/continents, which is why the adventure paths end in that level range. The final & 4th tier should deal with threats to the entire world, or even the multiverse. (Paraphrasing the PHB.)

[rooneg]

You might want to take a look at some adventures that are written for levels 17-20 to get an idea for what sort of stuff characters at that level can do. Sadly, these sort of adventures are few and far between.

I know DDAL00-01 Window to the Past can be run at that level, and I've heard very good things about it (I've personally only played the Tier 2 version, but I know people who've played the Tier 3 and 4 versions and they liked it). You can get a copy of it on DMs Guild. There are also two other Tier 4 Adventurers League adventures (DDAL05-18 Eye of Xxiphu Part 1 and DDAL05-19 Eye of Xxiphu Part 2) that are coming out soon (they Premiere at Winter Fantasy next month, actual release is April 4th).

High end of Tier 3 also useful for this sort of thing. Some of the recent Adventurers League stuff for that level is considered quite good. DDAL05-08 Beneath Durlag’s Tower and DDAL05-09 Beneath Durlag’s Tower part 2 have gotten good reviews from people who've played them.