You can expect 8th level spells from at least 1 player, fairly fast combat, everyone can probably fly, they can probably escape fairly easily with magic, so feel free to put something really scary they should run from in there, good luck thinking of what though.
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Beyond 12th level, there is no such thing as a "standard" party.
Beyond 12th level, there is no such thing as a "standard" party.I'm pretty sure that most group won't use their only ranged character as monster bait... or their wizard as food... or poisoning one another before a big fight...
1. Eh, I can do a high AC boltslinger. One handed cross bow, a buckler, mithral breastplate, and scaling bonus to AC when in light armor. Add in some of the various abilities that remove AoOs with loading and shooting crossbows, and they can be a fine tank. Good fort and reflex, decent wisdom for grit...
2. I know of how to use the paladin for food. It was the odd result of a thread discussing cannibalism, the harsh realities of sea travel, and the realization tht paladins have restoration and decent healing abilities. Of course, I realized the only moral choice in that scenario was for the paladin to suffer the pain of getting cut up fo food and healing himself, rather than allowing another to suffer.3. I am not familiar with all the pathfinder options, but some pokemon builds rely on poisoning yourself to activate rather conditional special abilities. I wouldn't be suprised if pathfinder had "get +4 str when poisoned" type abilities that no one bothers to use.
Expect lots of "counters" to special abilities and attacks and barriers and hazards.
Expect lots of immunities and resistances, and not just to damage and energy types.
Expect a lot of Save or Die situations. Expect initiative to REALLY matter.
Expect the PCs' action economy to really out balance the bad guys'.
It's the number of actions per turn you (or each side) gets.
For example, 4 PCs vs 1 monster usually has the 4 PCs attacking 4 times against the monster, then the monster attacking once against the 4 PCs.
But if one of the PCs is a druid, the PCs might get 5 attacks per round due to the animal companion. A high level sorcerer with Quicken Spell might get 2 spells off per round. A fighter with the Leadership feat essentially controls 2 characters. High level warrior-types get multiple attacks per round. A cleric might use planar ally to gain a celestial ally. The wizard might use simulacrum to create copies of himself. The bard might charm allies who will fight for her. A necromancer might have undead minions. And pretty much any spellcaster can summon allies with summon monster or summon nature's allies.
No problem! I hope I explained it clearly.
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You're in a bad situation when it comes to designing a high level adventure - you haven't done it before, and you have no idea of the party's makeup or capabilities. Usually my first advice for a newbie high level GM is to match the enemies against the party, but you can't do that. But here's what advice I can give:
Feel free and make the goal of the adventure seem impossible. 15th level PCs have capabilities and resources to deal with practically anything, so nothing should be off the table. Psychic lich in an airless dungeon? Go for it!
Several monsters is a better threat than one big one, but high level monsters can get complex. Make sure you examine the stat blocks for anything you use to see how they should fight. Don't be afraid to have reinforcements show up if the players are winning too easily...
...but also let them win a couple of seemingly tough fights pretty easily. Part of the fun of playing high levels is using your nifty toys to win what should have been a tough battle.
Make the adventure require the high-level things, as opposed to shutting them down. For example, it's better to require teleportation to even reach the site than it is to simply shut it down inside. Imagine a dungeon of completely isolated rooms, where each room tells you the location of 1 or 2 more and you have to use teleportation magic to travel between them as you discover them.
Hope some of this helps!
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Unless it's a fiendish, half-dragon, undead door with 16 levels of barbarian. :-P
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"Mock, Mock"
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"Who's there?"
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"Mock, Mock"
Who is there?
Oh, good, I want a ride in the T.A.R.D.I.S.
:-P
Well, it's better than the mock tunnel that Wiley Coyote paints on mountainsides.
OK, sorry about that Galadryel.
Most high level parties will be well equipped to deal with swarms (most magic-users have some kind of area effect spell), but a lot of high level characters become super specialized and focus on their magic items, and therefore lack some of the mundane equipment lower characters use, such as alchemist fire.
Higher level parties are better equipped to both be more mobile (higher speed, fly, dimension door, haste, passwall, freedom of movement, spider climb), AND shut down their opponent's mobility (various wall spells, create pit, summoned monster mobs, stone shape, etc.).
Another thing to consider is that high level combat takes longer than lower level combat. Iterative attacks, large lists of spells prepared or known to choose from, lot and lots of dice to roll and add up, multiple conditions and buffs to calculate and re-calculate.
So don't over plan too much. Depending on how long or short your session is, you might only have 1 or 2 combat encounters.
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For more ideas, take a look at the GM's Guide to Creating Challenging Encounters and the associated discussion thread. When you're looking at an average party level of 15, you need to think about having some of the encounters be around CR18-20 to provide a challenge.
Also, since you're thinking about high level encounters, remember that single boss-type monster fights rarely go well. There's a good thread, Combat advice for a DM - single foes, attacks of opportunity and combat mobility, on things to throw in to spice up and make a high-level encounter more challenging. Hope this helps!
You might want to pre-roll damage rolls since they're often 4d8+6d6+37 x4. And that can take a lot of time to add up. :-P
And seriously consider stealing--I mean borrowing--the Legendary Actions rule from 5th Edition, and possibly even Legendary Saves (3 times per day, when you fail a saving throw, you can choose to succeed at it instead), and Lair Actions (special environmental effects that gets its own action at initiative count 20, losing on ties, like sprays of lava, ghostly shades, entangling vines, falling rocks, earthquakes, poisonous clouds, etc., thematically tied to the BBEG).