Epic High-Level DnD Dungeon Crawls: 3 BEST Tips

Whether your players have just reached max level or have had these demi-god characters for years, you, as the DM, never want to disappoint them in their journeys. I mean, it’s literally in the name, so of course, you want your DnD campaigns to have fun and epic dungeons. But what in the world are you to do to make things still feel fresh and appropriately difficult? ESPECIALLY for max level characters? While every table is different, and play styles vary greatly, I think these 3 tips should give you some ideas!

#1) A Dungeon Is A Story!

At first glance, I get how this tip may not seem super relevant, but I think it’s an underrated way of understanding the nature of dungeons. Ultimately, you want your players to be invested, right? Whether it’s through the deep narrative you craft or the cool lore surrounding your hellish creatures that they mow down. The bottom line is this: If they’re not invested, they’re not having fun. High level or not, this pertains to DnD in general.

So why include this? Well, as the DM, you’re essentially the game engine, the code, the lore master. It’s your job to know your group and facilitate experiences that they’ll enjoy. So remember that above making enemies just have more health, maybe their motivations or simple modes of operation aren’t merely “attack, kill, attack, kill” as DnD usually goes. Does this dungeon have some lore behind it? Was it some machination of a mad wizard attempting to peer through the veil of reality? If so, the enemies that your players face, what were their original tasks?

Think beyond just the simple “they’re there to guard and kill anything that isn’t the master.” Maybe they’re building new tunnels or gathering materials for their master to use for their secret project. Adding one little detail like this could completely change how your enemies operate and could spawn interesting interactions. Making things more difficult for your high-level players isn’t always about enemies hitting harder or having more health; sometimes it’s forcing your players to utilize their wide array of skills/abilities in new ways.

What if you made it so the waves of enemies are literally endless? And the only way to really start affecting things and push forward is to target that which they value more? That resource they seem to favor? What happens if your party destroys their ability to gather there? Let’s say they do such a thing, and rather than these creatures swarming your party, their priority is to seek other regions where that resource could be, thus allowing your party to push deeper.

Remembering that increasing difficulty comes in different forms and that dungeons are wonderful ways of making self-contained stories, you have so many more unique options than you realize.

#2) Single-Use Homebrew Items?

Now, by single-use, I mean within this instance of dungeon crawling. What better way to create difficulty than to introduce an entirely unique mechanic to the dungeon that your players have to learn and adapt to? It’s DnD, so anything is possible! Continuing my example of a dungeon environment created by a mad wizard, what if you have, say, three “special crystals” that, when placed, act like a bug repellent? Now those endless hordes of creatures who swarm over their gathering site have no choice but to vacate and leave your players alone. BUT, they only have three of them.

Now, as the DM, you know there are 5 sites where these crystals can be used. So your players now have to strategize and cooperate on the best ways to utilize them. Do they place one of them at the entrance so that when they escape, they will have easy access? Or risk getting cornered because there are three OTHER sites that happen to have advantageous aspects to them that would greatly help in the final encounter?

How about something different: Only one of your players can use a special tool unique to this dungeon crawl that makes them incredibly useful for 2-3 specific jobs that help push into the dungeon. HOWEVER, they can only do one of these jobs at a time, forcing your players to plan which is the best use for any given situation.

Creating unique items for a dungeon is a great way to keep your players on their toes. Because no matter how high-level they are, learning something new can always bring about fun challenges and new avenues of play.

#3) “Our Enemy Is A… What!?”

This tip is admittedly similar to the previous, but I feel it is still worth including. As mentioned before, incorporating something completely new can be challenging in its own right. If your high-level players are veterans of DnD or have spent many real-time HOURS leveling up their characters, their meta-knowledge is something that will always be a factor, role-playing or not. So why not introduce creatures they couldn’t have possibly expected?

This is where you have to be perhaps more creative than you’re used to, as building new enemies from scratch (relatively speaking) is a more daunting task than simply sifting through a large list of what you could include. However, if you’re comfortable enough to run high-level dungeons, you might be up for the challenge.

You could begin the delve as something seemingly familiar, maybe even include a few known enemies. And let’s say the first mini-boss feels a bit too easy as it’s about to drop. But before your players send the final blow, a beast unlike anything they have seen before steals the kill, dragging the pleading creature into the depths, seemingly unaware, or uncaring of your party. You could make it so only a high investigation or perception could allow them to learn anything useful, teasing that it’s something with unknown aspects and strengths.

Your party continues on, now with the looming threat that something else lurks within the shadows. It becomes clearer that the foes within this dungeon are actively trying to fend off against this unknown, unaware of your presence unless you get in their face while they’re distracted. Why is it here? How powerful is it? And where did it come from?

These questions are yours to answer, and I believe it can be a fun way of making the back-end of DMing more fun as you can truly make something your own, giggling at the thought of how your players will react.

Rule Of Cool!

I feel as though giving tips that are too specific or heavily reliant on certain types of play can be counterintuitive for DnD. I mean, we’re playing pretend, let your imagination run wild! Every DM is different. Every table’s dynamics vary greatly. Every possible combination of classes, campaign themes, and NPCs spawns limitless possibilities. So why not strive to create your fun by making up new things for your party to play with? The only rule that truly matters at the end of the day is the rule of cool!

Now get out there and clear some dungeons!