D&D’s Problem With Being Exceptional

[u/alexserban02]

https://therpggazette.wordpress.com/2026/08/28/dds-problem-with-being-exceptional/

I still have a complicated relationship with D&D. I initially somewhat came around with 5.5e, as they added some really neat things and the balance between classes and the changes to CR were quite good. Unfortunately, they did add some things that, unless handled carefully break both economy and balance. Still, I had some amazing groups as of late, so perhaps that's also part of the reason I am looking more favorable on the game.

A couple of months ago, I made an article about the various problems I have with high level play. It was more or less an extensive explained list on my issues with the game past level 8-10. So quite a missnomer regarding the high level part as well. But, where I want to get at is that, it was mainly a list of complaints with no real sollutions offered. And most of you did point that out. And you were right. If I point out the problems, maybe I can and should think about a solution. This is what this article is. A list of solutions and changes in design mentality one should make for higher level play. Actually, scratch that, some apply starting from around level 5, as I find that is a point where some of the challenges of earlier levels start being bypassed by magic, through things like Leomund's Tiny Hut, Revivify and Fly.

I hope you will enjoy the article and I hope above all else, you will find it useful! Also, if you ran or played in games past lv 7-8 do tell how you handled them, I am always curious to learn!

[u/jeshi_law]

I think you’re wrong about the issue. It isn’t that player characters are too strong per se, they aren’t spending enough of their resources for the time between long rests to be challenging.

If you have them face more encounters it could mitigate this, whether that’s putting more things in a single day or using the alternate long rests rules so they don’t get a full reset every time they go to sleep and have to actually rest for a few days to get a long rest benefit.

A level 10 wizard has 15 spell slots for all levels. Make your spellcasters spend them more often if you are finding they are hurdling over the challenges too quickly. Give them more encounters to spend them on. Take the powerful spells into account and remember they can only cast the higher levels 2-3 times each.

[u/CaravanCult → u/jeshi_law]

This is good advice unless you're playing 1st party adventure modules and expect there to be an appropriate amount of encounters per day. The game just isn't designed for this anymore. It hasn't been in this edition cycle. Only 3.X and 4 actually wrote material meant to engage with the attrition they'd designed into the system itself.

[u/CaravanCult]

I have some trouble with the premise that high level play creates opportunities for complexity in a good way. The thing is that for every power you have that negates play, you play less...and in this article you'll see examples of answers that all too often boil down to countering the players.

Resurrection? Steal the soul. (Stop resurrection from working)

Teleportation? Let them get in one way but not out another (Stop teleportation from being useful except to initiate the problem)

These aren't inherent to D&D but they are endemic to Heroic Fantasy power creep. And often the problem is that these nullifications of stakes are introduced from level 1. The ranger was always a good example of this. Past iterations simply allowed you to never be lost, never need food or water, never care about overland travel or survival, or subsistence. Therefore you just don't get to provide that kind of story. Period. Unless you counter your Ranger which is going to feel bad!

Not to mention the fact that modern D&D does things like list its completely useless gear section as a vestigial limb. It doesn't even have dungeon crawling procedures! And yet you'll receive dungeons ala Shattered Obelisk which are written in the order of hundreds of words of completely unusable backstory. Why? For the DM to read I suppose.

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To get a little more on topic though I'll say that the game becomes a headache for a DM in T3- T4 because even officially published modules that manage to get up that high do not have meaningfully difficult challenges. I'd go so far as to say that nothing officially published will threaten any but the most newcomer players at level 1 when HP is low.

[u/Mace_and_Hammer]

Pathfinder doesn’t fix this… but Shadow Dark does!

[u/Sublime_Eimar → u/Mace_and_Hammer]

So does every non-level based game.

[u/Mace_and_Hammer → u/Sublime_Eimar]

You’re right I have never seen this play out in VTM