Summary
When running a campaign for high-level or expertDungeons & Dragonsplayers, it’s especially important that you, as a Dungeon Master, craft a captivating adventure hook to get players engaged in the campaign. However, this can prove challenging. Balancing the needs of all of your players, all while setting up a compelling first adventure, is a tricky tight-rope act to walk.
That’s why we’ve created this list, which has some inspiration for creating captivating adventure hooks for high-level play. you’re able to use any as your starting point for a standalone adventure or a longer campaign. Here are the best adventure hooks for high-level players.
Starting Level
10+
There’s no better way to start a campaign with expert-level players than to drop them right in the middle of the action. For this adventure hook, you might want to give your players a dossier on a conflict between two war-torn nations, which will serve as the setting for your campaign.
Inform players of the nature of the conflict between two sovereign countries, and then ask them each to pick a side based on the little information they know. From there, players will be dropped into battle as high-level fighters, forced to do battle with one another, or potentially discover that the war they’re fighting in has ulterior motivations.
5+
For this hook, explain to players that they have been traveling on a ship across a vast ocean. However, one night, while the party sleeps, an archmage attacks the ship for an unknown purpose, stealing a piece of the cargo. The party is caught in the middle.
The ship is decimated, leaving the party without their gear and exhausted on a nearby desert island. This will force high-level players to think creatively and rely on other skills and abilities. Plus, if they ever want to get their gear back, they’ll have to track down the mage who attacked them.
This next adventure hook is ideal for players who want tostart very high level. For this hook, explain to the party that a mysterious new deity has entered the pantheon, toppling the hierarchy explosively. They have laid claim to the pantheon and the world below, unleashing an apocalypse unlike anything the world has seen before.
Players will have to deal with a crumbling social order, deciding who they can trust as allies in this brave new world. This is also a great adventure hook to introduce to an ongoing campaign to shake things up later down the road.
1-3
This hook is best suited to seasoned D&D players, who have likely played a campaign or two, but want to start at lower levels. Introduce the campaign in a classic way, having the playersmeet in a tavernand get approached by a mysterious stranger. Then, unfurl your twist.
The mysterious stranger should be a player character from a previous campaign, perhaps even the entire table’s previous party. This party beseeches the new party for help, raising a flurry of questions. Why is the table’s old party so underpowered? What happened to them? And, how can the new adventurers help?
7+
The old world is ending, and the new world struggles to be born. For this adventure hook, explain to the players that they have a limited number of days to evacuate the planet they currently find themselves on, for the core is melting down, and the planet will soon be uninhabitable. Players must find a ship to escape on.
This will leave the party stuck in Wildspace, with no initial direction. However, they may soon discover that the destruction of their home planet was no mere stroke of fate, and perhaps there were some more sinister motivations behind its collapse.
12+
For this adventure hook, explain to the party that the pantheon of gods the world they live in has come to know and love has mysteriously vanished. Perhaps they were defeated by something greater than themselves, or perhaps they ran away. Whatever the explanation, there are now open seats in the pantheon.
Mages and powerful magic-users of all kinds compete to assume a role in a new pantheon of gods. Players must decide if they will participate in the race themselves or try to assert a new world order without gods at all. This adventure hook is best suited to extremely high-level play.
4+
For this next adventure, have the players approached by a criminal syndicate of some kind and beseeched for help. While the syndicate’s motivations are unclear, they explain to the party that they need their help unblocking a passageway the syndicate has used for ‘trade’ deep in the Underdark.
Players may have to decide whether or not they can actually trust this syndicate. If they do accept the quest, though, they’ll be forced intoa dungeon crawlthrough the Underdark, which always makes for a great setting for expert-level players.
An eccentric noble approaches the party, asking for their help. He claims to know of a ritual that can permanently bestow the power of flight upon a non-flying creature, without the need to cast a spell or drink potions. The secret lies somewhere in the elemental plane of air.
The party will have to travel through the elemental planes to unearth this secret, and subsequently decide whether it’s a good idea or not to turn over this secret intel to the noble, or use it for themselves. Enticing treasure and a dash of political intrigue are always great for high-level players.
3+
For parties and tables that love roleplay, this next adventure hook is extremely roleplay-based. Inform players that, in the kingdom they currently preside in, two opposing factions are organizing respective coups. Lay out the motivations for each carefully.
Then, allow players to choose a side, perhaps even splitting the party if they so desire. From there, have players assist in letting the coups play out, and see which one comes out on top. This is great for roleplay-based intrigue, and seasoned players who want to start at lower levels.
Any
This last adventure hook is only going to prove right for certain tables, but can be fun if your players are up for it. At the end of a previous campaign arc, have the players inadvertently travel back in time to the start of the same campaign arc, and let them know they may have missed something.
While the party, at one point, might have thought they were victorious, let them know that there is actually a mission within the previous mission that they missed. Then, let players explore the same campaign arc again, uncovering new NPCs, new sub-missions, new treasure, and much more!
