High level campaigns in Dungeons and Dragons are a rarity. The dynamics of keeping a group of players together tends to limit this phenomenon to a few select groups. Groups of players of this fine game come apart for various reasons: changes in work schedules, changes in marital status, real life deaths of members of the group and more. But every player looks at the player’s handbook, for whatever edition they are playing, and imagines what their character could look like at 15th, 20th, 25th or even higher levels. In 1st Edition it was theoretically possible, if unlikely, for a character to reach the 30th level in some classes.
There were very few attempts to create super high level games by TSR and other major publishers of the time. But there were a few. And Joe Mohr has attempted a couple of these super high level dungeons which are available for free on Dragonsfoot. I will link them below:
Rampage – an epic battle with the legendary Tarrasque!
Treasure Vaults of Tiamat – an encounter with the Queen of Dragons
Other High Level Adventures By Other Authors
There have been some fairly high level campaign adventures produced by other authors. Some of these will be listed below.
The Forgotten Temple of Baalzebul – An OSRIC High Level Adventure
H1 Bloodstone Pass – A high level 1st Edition Adventure using the Battle System
H2 The Mines of Bloodstone – A high level 1st Edition Adventure using the Battle System
H3 The Bloodstone Wars – A high level 1st Edition Adventure using the Battle System
H4 Throne of the Bloodstone – A high level 1st Edition Adventure using the Battle System
WG6 Isle of the Ape – A high level 1st Edition Adventure
CM6 Where Chaos Reigns – A high level adventure for the Companion Rules of the Basic Set
S1 Tomb of Horrors – A high level adventure for 1st Edition
Return to the Tomb of Horrors – A high level 2nd Edition Adventure
Bastion of Broken Souls – a high level 3rd Edition Adventure
Q1 Queen of the Demon Web Pits – a high level 1st Edition Adventure
CM1 Test of the Warlords – a high level adventure for the Companion Rules of the Basic Set
CM3 Sabre River – a high level adventure for the Companion Rules of the Basic Set
Die Vecna! Die! – A high level 2nd Edition adventure
The Apocalypse Stone – a high level 2nd Edition Adventure
High Level Adventures for 5E
And Yes. You Fifth Edition folks get some love too. There are some very high level adventures out there that are written specifically with 5E in mind. Unfortunately, most of these, are not official WOTC products. But that does not mean that none of them are any good. Some ones that you might want to take a look at include:
Epic Legacy – Voyage On Astral Seas
Epic Legacy – Frostpine Horror
Epic Legacy – Trouble in Paradise
The last four of those are from Wizards of the Coast and are for 17-20th level. The first one above, Voyage on Astral Seas is a Pay What You Want file (no not one of mine) which claims to be for level 26.
Creating Your Own High Level Adventures
Ultimately at high levels it is kind of difficult to create generic adventures because there are variations in power by the time one gets to that kind of level. One campaign’s 15th level wizard might be more powerful than one in another. It might be better to make your own which is tailored to the skills and power of your own adventurers. Fortunately there is an excellent product that was written for 2nd Edition but which is really not very system specific. What little about the book might be specific to 2E is easily modified.
I love that picture. I tried to kill my king too. This guy succeeded though. I applaud him for his awesomeness. But back to the point of this article. This book gives you tips on how to challenge players of epic levels. It also gives you suggestions on modifying monsters to make them more challenging. And it gives you ideas on ways for your adventurers to advance that are not all combat related.
Conclusion
High level games are possible in Dungeons and Dragons. There are some products that have been written about the subject which I listed above. There are probably others that I have forgotten to include here. If you can think of any please let me know and I will update this to include them. I seem to recall one about three liches, like myself, but I have forgotten the title of it and did not include it here. Ultimately it is up to the Dungeon Master to challenge the players to keep a campaign going. Otherwise it will wither and die.
