High Level Pathfinder (Part 1 Plan Ahead)
Knowing a rough outline of what you have planned is invaluable. I tend to outline things at least five levels beyond wherever my group is currently at. That way if they decide they don’t want to do a particular adventure or skip to the end more quickly than I expect, I have a vague idea of where they’ll be headed next. I can usually wing the first part of the next adventure if I have to.
Campaign Outline
- Modron March I: Modron March [Level 4]
- Infinite Staircase 1: Planewalkers [Level 4]
- Modron March II: The Unswerving Path [Level 4]
- Modron March III: Ambushed [Level 4]
- Interlude in Sigil: Aasamir’s Revenge
- Infinite Staircase 7: Reflections [Level 5]
- Well of Worlds: Recruiters [Level 5]
- Infinite Staircase 6: Dream Well [Level 6]
- Modron March IV: Politics of the Beasts [Level 6]
- Infinite Staircase 4: In Disarray [Level 6]
- Interlude in Sigil: Harbinger House [Level 6]
- Infinite Staircase Tale 2: Lost Sovereignty [Level 7]
- Interlude in Golorian: Hunting Dragon Turtles [Level 7]
- Interlude in Arborea: A God’s Favor
- Modron March V: Modron Madness [Level 7]
- Modron March VI: Law in Chaos [Level 7]
- Infinite Staircase 5: City of Air [Level 8]
- Infinite Staircase 8: Kyton Challenge [Level 8]
- Modron March VIII: Camp Followers [Level 8]
- Infinite Staircase Prologue: Ants vs Salads
- Dead Gods 1: Circean Embers [Level 8]
- Dead Gods 2: Crux [Level 8]
- Dead Gods 3: Masks [Level 8]
- Modron March IX: Sidetracked [Level 9]
- Dead Gods 4: Message from Thanatos [Level 9]
- Dead Gods 5: Bottom of the Multiverse [Level 9]
- Dead Gods 6: The Vault of the Drow [Level 9]
- Dead Gods 7: The Ruins of Pelion [Level 10]
- Dead Gods 8: Deepest Pandemonium [Level 10]
- Modron March X: The Flower Infernal [Level 10]
- Vault of Lost Souls [Level 10]
- Modron March XI: The Last Leg [Level 10]
- Dead Gods 9: The Dead Book of the Gods [Level 11]
- Faction War [Level 11]
- Die Vecna Die [Level 12]
- Demon God’s Fane [Level 13]
- Paladin in Hell [Level 14]
- Building a Better World 1: Apocalypse Stone [Level 15]
- Interlude: Coliseum Morpheoun [Level 15]
- Building a Better World 2:Picking up the Pieces [Level 16 - 19]
- Building a Better World 3:True Test of the Starstone [Level 20]
Don’t get overwhelmed. I started the outline when I realized I wanted to interweave Modron March and the Infinite Staircase adventures. Anything that says interlude was likely added an adventure or two before it happened. The original outline had less than a dozen entries. When I first wrote this, there were some question marks on which Infinite Staircase Tale would happen where. I left room for the players to pick. As the game went on, the outline grew.
Around level 11 or 12, I realized I had nowhere to go past A Paladin in Hell. Levels 15+ were a void. There weren’t any good higher level Planescape modules to steal from. Paizo’s high level modules are rare and didn’t really fit. So I decided to strike out on my own. I found the Apocalypse Stone and it sparked some ideas. The characters are tricked into stealing a stone that acts as a planar cornerstone for the world. They were told it was the Test of the Starstone, a path to divinity. Instead the stone anchors it into place in the planes. I decided that the near apocalypse that is caused would end with planar travel being cut off. The characters would have to travel to several domain hot spots, the vistegial remnants of the world’s connections to the outer planes. They would have to absorb the energy through a ritual, becoming a conduit for that domain.
Once each character is a conduit for for domains, they will be able to perform a greater ritual to restore the plane to balance. They will then have the opportunity to take the actual Test of the Starstone and become new deities of those domains for the reshaped world. Or they could choose to relinquish the domain power and retire as mortals. We’ll see when we get there.
There was only one problem. The characters are based in Sigil. They don’t care very much about any particular prime world. The impact of seeing a place they loved destroyed isn’t as great if they don’t have a real connection to the world. Fortunately, Bort the Fighter is from “Ancient Greece”. A version of our world where mythology is true. So even if the characters only have a loose connection to the world, the players are intimately familiar with it. They’ve already worked with the Greek Gods in an interlude in Arborea before. I just needed to lure them to “Ancient Greece” to begin the arc.
So with this in mind I decided that the paladin they would be rescuing during A Paladin in Hell would be a paladin of Apollo. Back tracking further, I made him the same paladin they’d worked with during the Modron March (Ambushed, Infernal Flower). To make his connection a little more immediate, I had him be the one that asks the party to come with him to the Demon God’s Fane. During the course of that adventure he was corrupted by a demon spirit and slain in the final battle. A Paladin in Hell began at his funeral, at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Since I knew where I wanted things to go I could drop hints and clues several adventures ahead.
So they are currently travelling to domain hotspots around the world. This actually makes it easier, because now they know what is going on. So I can ask them which domains they plan on hitting up next. So far they’ve tackled:
- Knowledge – Bort the Archivist
- Madness – Bort the Binder
- Trickery – Bort the Rogue
- War – Bort the Fighter
Since I already have a good idea which places they’ll hit next (Strength, Luck, or Runes) I can think ahead. Knowing where your group is headed, or likely to be headed, is key to staying one step ahead. Even if they take an unexpected turn, you’ll always be halfway prepared in your mind.
Tags: high level, pathfinder, rpg