Been running 5e for about nine/ten sessions over four months.  Players are on cusp of 4th level.  At this rate it will take a while to hit high levels.  Life makes it tough to play more.

Now that 5e has been out for a while, anyone playing or running at 10th level + yet?  How is it going?  Successes, Flaws?  Still fun?  Anything unexpected?  Thanks.

The group I am DMing for is 9th level and one encounter short of 10th. The group I am playing in just topped level 10 after a hiatus as the DM had to travel.

Play-wise it has been going pretty well. The combats have still been smooth and still are over in about 4-5 rounds. Things for us just click along that well.

Lower level critters are still a viable threat if used well and so far the casters. Me, Kefra Daern and Nox have not been grandstanding the melee fighters. We tend to do alot of damage all at once or in an area. But cannot sustain that like the fighter types can.

YMMV of course as I am sure Doom will chirp in to harp about how overpowered casters are, yadda-yadda, ad nausium.

My elf got to 53rd level and killed Odin and makes Thor carry torches for him.  It's awesome.

Quote from: Matt;835388My elf got to 53rd level and killed Odin and makes Thor carry torches for him.  It's awesome.

Since elves have nightvision. That is just being mean. Bad elf! :rolleyes:

Quote from: Omega;835391Since elves have nightvision. That is just being mean. Bad elf! :rolleyes:

You should see what the 43rd level antipaladin does with angels he captures.

I'm having difficulty convincing my DM that my level 19 Ochre Jelly Paladin cannot be tripped.

8-9th level, which is fine. I think this is mid level in D&D terms isn't it?

Yes, I'm going to chirp in, because I feel my actual play experience is valid. Is that ok with you, dude?

At least now I understand your bias about wizards not being too powerful, you play one. I imagine if you worked for Ben and Jerry's, you'd argue the ideal weight for a human being is 400 lbs.


I have a group of eight players in the Tiamat campaign, most all of them are 9th level now.

It still works, though magic is getting overdominating. They met a dragon and a bunch of followers. Dragon gets put in wall of force, no save. Finally manage to break concentration. Dragon gets banished, no save (special character ability). Use counterspell to counter a shield, dragon gets banished again. Dragon makes save!  Dragon gets banished again, players mop up extras, and then dragon dies when banish wears off and party blasts it when it comes back. Thing is, that's what every fight against a big monster is going to be like past this point.

Meanwhile the other spellcasters are dropping fireball after fireball after ice storm after lightning bolt after so many other AOEs. The fighter just sort of ran around doing BMX tricks.

The fight was in a tent camp, so luckily (kinda) the wizards couldn't get protected on all sides, though at this level wizards have better AC than the plate wearers (shield ftw!).

Thing is, spellcasters get so many spells that a 4-5 round fight at this level still lets them drop nuke after nuke after nuke, and still have plenty of spell power left over do it all again in another fight. Fights at this level would have to run 20+ (1) rounds before the fighters "yeah, but I never run out of sword swings" could be a real factor.

But the game is still fun and very playable.(2)

(1) Note: 20+ is hyperbole. But fights would have to run way more than 4-5 rounds before a 9th level wizard would run out of fireballs and more effective spells.
(2) Note: "very fun" is hyperbole, YMMV.

Did I tell you guys about how our 40th level assassin killed Gandalf with an awesome backstab?

Quote from: Doom;835434Yes, I'm going to chirp in, because I feel my actual play experience is valid. Is that ok with you, dude?

At least now I understand your bias about wizards not being too powerful, you play one. I imagine if you worked for Ben and Jerry's, you'd argue the ideal weight for a human being is 400 lbs.


I have a group of eight players in the Tiamat campaign, most all of them are 9th level now.

It still works, though magic is getting overdominating. They met a dragon and a bunch of followers. Dragon gets put in wall of force, no save. Finally manage to break concentration. Dragon gets banished, no save (special character ability). Use counterspell to counter a shield, dragon gets banished again. Dragon makes save!  Dragon gets banished again, players mop up extras, and then dragon dies when banish wears off and party blasts it when it comes back. Thing is, that's what every fight against a big monster is going to be like past this point.

Meanwhile the other spellcasters are dropping fireball after fireball after ice storm after lightning bolt after so many other AOEs. The fighter just sort of ran around doing BMX tricks.

The fight was in a tent camp, so luckily (kinda) the wizards couldn't get protected on all sides, though at this level wizards have better AC than the plate wearers (shield ftw!).

Thing is, spellcasters get so many spells that a 4-5 round fight at this level still lets them drop nuke after nuke after nuke, and still have plenty of spell power left over do it all again in another fight. Fights at this level would have to run 20+ (1) rounds before the fighters "yeah, but I never run out of sword swings" could be a real factor.

But the game is still fun and very playable.(2)

(1) Note: 20+ is hyperbole. But fights would have to run way more than 4-5 rounds before a 9th level wizard would run out of fireballs and more effective spells.
(2) Note: "very fun" is hyperbole, YMMV.

You have some cheese with that whine? Fuck you and man up already. It's obvious you prefer fightes.Too obvious in fact, it's tired and boring.

Quote from: cranebump;835414I'm having difficulty convincing my DM that my level 19 Ochre Jelly Paladin cannot be tripped.

With an arrow no less.

Friends finished RoT, (I had to retire after HotDQ due to their grueling schedule. sleep is a good thing.) and our stable of characters have quite a few floating between 8th and 13th? (IIRC). The biggest worry is Leomund's Tiny Hut as it wipes the whole S/L Rest economy, especially in AL play as GMs have limitations on their responses (like, how many monsters available, or burying the 'hut' in debris and letting the party smother at the end). If unchecked it can revert to typical WotC high level D&D with novas shooting their wad and the party calibrating its pacing to how many novas they have left.

Best advice: harass them in dangerous areas to cut off injudicious Long Rests, eliminate the existence of Leomund's Tiny Hut spell completely. Just like spell memorization times screw with AD&D spellcasters strategic flow, S/L Rests manage 5e's strategic flow.

Uh...RoT? HotDQ? S/L? AL?

WTF? PDQ.

Quote from: Matt;835536Uh...RoT? HotDQ? S/L? AL?

WTF? PDQ.

Rise of Tiamat. Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Short/Long, Adventurers League.

What The Fuck, Pretty Darn Quick.

:cool:

Quote from: Marleycat;835482You have some cheese with that whine? Fuck you and man up already. It's obvious you prefer fightes.Too obvious in fact, it's tired and boring.

I know, I sound like the guy that whined about fights in 4e taking too long, or whined about how "easy" skill challenges printed in the rules were harder than "hard" skill challenges.

And, yeah, the Hut is a little problematic, especially with its wording that absolutely nothing can pass through--the DM pretty much has to houserule or else the players are always perfectly safe all the time.

The big drawback of the hut is it's opaque, which means anything around is going to know it's there. Of course, it's not opaque from the inside, so the monsters can't wait in ambush right outside the hut and attack from all sides--wouldn't want the spell to have even the slightest inconvenient drawback, after all.

Still, the monsters can wait a room or two over, and that's pretty much what you have to do if the players use the Hut in anything like a living dungeon.