Path: ...!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-2.nntp.ord.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2024 14:24:39 +0000 From: Spalls Hurgenson Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd Subject: Re: [boing boing] D&D's latest module, "Vecna: Eve of Ruin," and the trouble with high-level adventures Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2024 10:24:38 -0400 Message-ID: <43jr5jthg3dmtmvs5g5vskgopte9ie7rrt@4ax.com> References: X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 2.0/32.652 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 51 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-Trace: sv3-xxPRyavt/qMegls96Tyss1TnrvZxU8gTyy8GMqxizfoYqfkFTz064u1bkcxHnAt2LQVv08LZDR+GTQI!+NXsGsiEyamYmHcKeMKCYnaBZLjoITPimf1JIDa5baLJq58SkVxSn8AH2dUmNSoSEsxbpiY= X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 3431 On Mon, 3 Jun 2024 12:29:55 +0200, Kyonshi wrote: >Source: >https://boingboing.net/2024/06/03/dds-latest-module-vecna-eve-of-ruin-and-the-trouble-with-high-level-adventures.html > > >D&D's latest module, "Vecna: Eve of Ruin," and the trouble with >high-level adventures >Gareth Branwyn 3:00 am Mon Jun 3, 2024 > D&D isn't very good at high-level adventures. Mostly because it is extremely combat focused, and combat at higher-level really isn't much different than low-level. It's just grindier because all the monsters have higher hit-dice. Despite the hype, you really can't do much more than low-level characters. You're dangerous, but not godlike. Sure, you can cast 'earthquake', but it's still a very localized effect. You might damage a building but so could a fireball. Despite what D&D novels suggest, you aren't tearing up continents or razing populations at 20th level. And, sure, at 20th level you might have followers and influence, but a lot of that is dependent on campaign and DM. Your character isn't immediately promoted to god-emperor just because they've achieved 20th level. Plus, what are you supposed to DO with all that influence? A lot of time it just turns D&D into a strategy game (unsurprising, given D&D's wargaming roots). A lot of the charm and enjoyment in D&D, too, comes from the STRUGGLE. This is especially pertinent at the lower levels, where your characters have minimal hitpoints, skills, equipment and spells. Once you start taking that away, the game loses a lot of its challenge.. and charm. You're either wiping out dozens of low-level monsters (yawn) or fighting critter that have been upscaled to match your level by ramping up their abilities to ungodly levels (equally yawn). (It's also why I feel old-school D&D is more fun than modern editions; the new stuff just gives you too many toys to play with, so you never really get that feeling of vulnerability) That's not to say you can't have fun high-level D&D games, but it often feels like a struggle; you're fighting against a system that just isn't designed to scale up that high. Other systems are better suited to those sorts of power levels (Exalted, for instance) but D&D? It's meant for low-level play. IMHO and YMMV, obvs.