High level modules?

[Lance Berg]

I asked about this a few months back; there seem to be very few modules
for higher level characters, which I'd think would be the area of -most-
interest.

The HOTU campaign takes you up to 27 to 29 total character levels,
somewhere in there (depending on play style etc), the HOTU expansion,
however, allows you to go up to a combined level 40.

When I asked about this before, the consensus seemed to be that HOTU had
only recently come out (in terms of how long it takes to make a module)
and that they would be forthcoming.

I've taken several months off from the game, and now I'm looking around
again and still find practically nothing; one module that lists levels
1-40, but it looks suspiciously like an arena kind of deal, a handful
that say they are for 26-30, and a few that say either 1-any or any-any.

Unless I'm reading this wrong, and people are using the level range to
indicate starting point, rather than the expected level range over the
whole module, there's almost nothing (perhaps literally nothing,
depending on what kind of modules the "any" ones really are) out there
in terms of a post HOTU campaign module or series of modules that will
take you up to 40.

I'n not -too- suprised by this, since one of the other things we
discussed was the relative difficulty of making modules that work at
this rarified level, since different character builds are so wildly
different in terms of what they can and can't do; its much easier to
design a module or campaign for people in the 1-10 range and have it fit
everyone, more or less.

But I'd really like to pursue my HOTU characters post campaign, without
doing what my kids do, which is run outlandishly overleveled characters
in modules, turning them into walk thrus by and large (although
sometimes the bosses apparantly scale up to become kind of scary)

Lance

[Artemus043]

Post by Lance Berg
I asked about this a few months back; there seem to be very few modules
for higher level characters, which I'd think would be the area of -most-
interest.
The HOTU campaign takes you up to 27 to 29 total character levels,
somewhere in there (depending on play style etc), the HOTU expansion,
however, allows you to go up to a combined level 40.
When I asked about this before, the consensus seemed to be that HOTU had
only recently come out (in terms of how long it takes to make a module)
and that they would be forthcoming.
I've taken several months off from the game, and now I'm looking around
again and still find practically nothing; one module that lists levels
1-40, but it looks suspiciously like an arena kind of deal, a handful
that say they are for 26-30, and a few that say either 1-any or any-any.
Unless I'm reading this wrong, and people are using the level range to
indicate starting point, rather than the expected level range over the
whole module, there's almost nothing (perhaps literally nothing,
depending on what kind of modules the "any" ones really are) out there
in terms of a post HOTU campaign module or series of modules that will
take you up to 40.
I'n not -too- suprised by this, since one of the other things we
discussed was the relative difficulty of making modules that work at
this rarified level, since different character builds are so wildly
different in terms of what they can and can't do; its much easier to
design a module or campaign for people in the 1-10 range and have it fit
everyone, more or less.
But I'd really like to pursue my HOTU characters post campaign, without
doing what my kids do, which is run outlandishly overleveled characters
in modules, turning them into walk thrus by and large (although
sometimes the bosses apparantly scale up to become kind of scary)
Lance

Endless Nights III is a "Rougue" like module, with random quests, with
encountes which scale to your character.

It has a few bugs (some problems with the henchmen), but the good points
far outweighs the bad. Any non-hacked characters will be challenged,
regardless of class or level.

[Brian G. Vaughan]

Post by Lance Berg
I asked about this a few months back; there seem to be very few modules
for higher level characters, which I'd think would be the area of -most-
interest.

I've played a few "epic" modules, but they're designed so that character
level is, mostly, irrelevant.

Epic characters, in D&D, don't go on dungeon crawls. They rule nations,
they pursue plans that take centuries to carry out. Elminster and Szazz
Tam are epic character. Drizzt Do'urrden isn't.

There are only a handful of creatures in D&D powerful enough to
challenge an epic character. And most of them aren't in NWN. I think the
last thing anyone really wants to see is dungeons with 10x10 rooms with
Ancient Red Dragons. And that's about the toughest thing you've got in
the toolset. Many spells and special abilities become useless at epic
levels, because they don't scale above the maximum for normal characters
-- level 20.

D&D works best with characters around levels 5-10, pretty much by
design. Lower levels are interesting for creating new characters. Above
that, things get dicey, and they start breaking down completely around
level 20. I'm surprised HOTU worked as well as it did, but it's pretty
much the limit of how far a character can go and be challenged.