Hello, I have been DMing for roughly 5 years, but all my campaigns have ended around level 5 until my recent one. I am having a hard time finding any reading material to help me balance encounters around level 9-15 and help understanding how my BBEG can hinder the party in there travels. Lower levels were easier with the latter as I could usually balance him to be strong enough to do it himself, but now I worry about their 1 round nova/nuke potential.
at the higher levels the usual challenges like travelling across the world become far easier, the party have access to spells like Teleport and transport via plants. But it should not be easy.
For instance Teleport requires the caster know where they are travelling to, if they don't there is a chance of the teleport going wrong, this in itself can make for interesting story telling as the party appear above a volcano plummeting down for instance. If they can't tell you the tree they are travelling to using transport via plants they cant travel there, and if they don't know the sigil of that teleportation circle then they cant go there. But remember as well, they only get so many of these a day and it burns other spell slots so another option is to not enable them the chance to rest after teleporting.
This ability to travel easily opens up huge possibilities for you as a DM, they can now travel to different planes so you can give them access to different challenges and fights.
in terms of balancing encounters, you get to go to the top end of the CR list, picking the harder monsters to fight. Suddenly you can have the party come across a dragon as part of a random encounter, or have to fight off a group of wyvern riding bandits instead of the normal horse mounted ones at lower levels. As far as the BBEG goes, magical null fields, traps that require clever thinking, having multiple minions that back him up (your low level BBEG might have been the body guard, now they BEG has the body guards present to back him up).
You can also now give your BBEG access to the higher power spells, meteor swarm, finger of death, power word kill. These spells can take out party members even at high levels.
Clone is another great BBEG tactic. One BBEG my players faced over and over created a clone instantly after dying so it was ready, he then hid for the period it took the clone to be created. Eventually the party worked out what he was doing and so the adventure became the party hunting down his lab and trying to kill the clone, or trying to get there before he could create a new one.
One thing to do is to stop thinking in singular terms. There may be a leader for an organization or group - but the challenge of higher level combats is often in balancing a larger number of relatively equal strength opponents so that the party just can't ignore the yard trash and take down the boss or similar.
Also, opponents are typically more intelligent, knowledge, have more options and use better tactics. All of these provide greater challenges.
In terms of references, you could look at published WoTC hardcover adventures. Things like Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Tales from the Yawning Portal or Candlekeep Mysteries all have higher level content which might give you an idea on balancing things a bit. Similarly, there is a large number of published modules on DMsGuild - either for Adventurers League or for 5e that may include some suggestions for balancing the adventures for varying parties.
Just use CR 3-9 NPC henchmen. They seem to work against high level parties. All BBEG must be legendary, but use lots of creatures instead of one. A samurai or paladin can do Nova damage, but thats useless against lots of henchmen like knights, archers, mages, war priests, all that low hp jazz(maybe not the war priest) use ancient dragons and demon lords and explosions and man I am going too far.
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When you thought you knew about spellcasting - you played a warlock
Why are most bard colleges a pain to type? I mean bard college of valor, compare to champion or evoker. Same goes for sacred oaths: paladin oath of devotion. That's even worse.
I don't think WoCE were very creative with the rogue and ranger subclass titles. I mean ranger archeotype? Roguish archeotype? Bro! Fighters are better but still is somewhat unsatisfying compare to a monastatic tradition or sacred oath.
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Hello, I have been DMing for roughly 5 years, but all my campaigns have ended around level 5 until my recent one. I am having a hard time finding any reading material to help me balance encounters around level 9-15 and help understanding how my BBEG can hinder the party in there travels. Lower levels were easier with the latter as I could usually balance him to be strong enough to do it himself, but now I worry about their 1 round nova/nuke potential.
It isn't really the BBEG - it's an illusion but can still cast a spell or two before she laughs and fades away.
It isn't really the BBEG, it's just a mini boss instead.
There are henchmen willing to jump in the way of an attack - just make it happen.
There are henchmen that present a danger in an of themselves - casters, healers, archers, iron golems.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
at the higher levels the usual challenges like travelling across the world become far easier, the party have access to spells like Teleport and transport via plants. But it should not be easy.
For instance Teleport requires the caster know where they are travelling to, if they don't there is a chance of the teleport going wrong, this in itself can make for interesting story telling as the party appear above a volcano plummeting down for instance. If they can't tell you the tree they are travelling to using transport via plants they cant travel there, and if they don't know the sigil of that teleportation circle then they cant go there. But remember as well, they only get so many of these a day and it burns other spell slots so another option is to not enable them the chance to rest after teleporting.
This ability to travel easily opens up huge possibilities for you as a DM, they can now travel to different planes so you can give them access to different challenges and fights.
in terms of balancing encounters, you get to go to the top end of the CR list, picking the harder monsters to fight. Suddenly you can have the party come across a dragon as part of a random encounter, or have to fight off a group of wyvern riding bandits instead of the normal horse mounted ones at lower levels. As far as the BBEG goes, magical null fields, traps that require clever thinking, having multiple minions that back him up (your low level BBEG might have been the body guard, now they BEG has the body guards present to back him up).
You can also now give your BBEG access to the higher power spells, meteor swarm, finger of death, power word kill. These spells can take out party members even at high levels.
Clone is another great BBEG tactic. One BBEG my players faced over and over created a clone instantly after dying so it was ready, he then hid for the period it took the clone to be created. Eventually the party worked out what he was doing and so the adventure became the party hunting down his lab and trying to kill the clone, or trying to get there before he could create a new one.
One thing to do is to stop thinking in singular terms. There may be a leader for an organization or group - but the challenge of higher level combats is often in balancing a larger number of relatively equal strength opponents so that the party just can't ignore the yard trash and take down the boss or similar.
Also, opponents are typically more intelligent, knowledge, have more options and use better tactics. All of these provide greater challenges.
In terms of references, you could look at published WoTC hardcover adventures. Things like Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Tales from the Yawning Portal or Candlekeep Mysteries all have higher level content which might give you an idea on balancing things a bit. Similarly, there is a large number of published modules on DMsGuild - either for Adventurers League or for 5e that may include some suggestions for balancing the adventures for varying parties.
For every BBEG the players defeat, there is another BBEG that was controlling that BBEG
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
Traps in the battle space, especially pit traps that are roughly 40 feet deep.
Just use CR 3-9 NPC henchmen. They seem to work against high level parties. All BBEG must be legendary, but use lots of creatures instead of one. A samurai or paladin can do Nova damage, but thats useless against lots of henchmen like knights, archers, mages, war priests, all that low hp jazz(maybe not the war priest) use ancient dragons and demon lords and explosions and man I am going too far.
When you thought you knew about spellcasting - you played a warlock
Why are most bard colleges a pain to type? I mean bard college of valor, compare to champion or evoker. Same goes for sacred oaths: paladin oath of devotion. That's even worse.
I don't think WoCE were very creative with the rogue and ranger subclass titles. I mean ranger archeotype? Roguish archeotype? Bro! Fighters are better but still is somewhat unsatisfying compare to a monastatic tradition or sacred oath.