I'm revisiting WotR after a little break and planning my next run at it. Obviously we won't be using Mythic rules - instead I've taken the advice that a Mythic level is more or less two regular class levels and run with it. Characters in our game will be advancing to 25th level, though they will still be limited to 20 levels in any particular class. I'm encouraging characters to use this opportunity to dip where they think appropriate in their builds. This is where I'm planning on having the characters automatically level throughout the campaign, with them starting at 2nd level:
2nd - Vol. 1, Part 1: The Fall of Kenebres
3rd - Vol. 1, Part 3: Amid the Ruins
4th - Vol. 1, Part 4: The Wardstone Legacy
5th - Vol. 1, Part 4 (After destroying the Wardstone)
6th - Vol. 2, Part 1: Crusader’s March
7th - Vol. 2, Part 2: Siege of Drezen
8th - Vol. 2, Part 2 (After defeating Soltengrebbe)
9th - Vol. 2, Part 3: Into the Citadel
10th - Vol. 3, Part 1: Rebuilding Drezen
11th - Vol. 3, Part 2: Into the Wounded Lands
12th - Vol. 3, Part 4: The Ivory Sanctum
13th - Vol. 3, Part 4 (Just before final battle)
14th - Vol. 4, Part 1: The Midnight Fane
15th - Vol. 4, Part 2: A Demon Lord’s Favor
16th - Vol. 4, Part 3: Landfall on Colyphyr
17th - Vol. 4, Part 4: The Nahyndrian Mine
18th - Vol. 5, Part 1: Audience with the Inheritor
19th - Vol. 5, Part 3: The Ineluctable Prison
20th - Vol. 5, Part 3: (About midway through the prison)
21st - Vol. 6, Part 1: The Defense of Drezen
22nd - Vol. 6, Part 2: Storm King’s Shadow
23rd - Vol. 6, Part 3: Threshold of the End
24th - Vol. 6, Part 4: Closing the Worldwound
25th - Vol. 6, Part 4: (Just before fight with Deskari)
I will be adding in some homebrew material throughout, to ease some of the 'accordioning' of the level progression, including some encounters during the initial attack on Kenebres, some side quests before heading out on the Crusader's March and a fair bit between books 3 and 4... but does that look about right? Any concerns over timing vs. power levels?
Builds will be pretty standard (20 point buy) with a few house rules (like the feats Power Attack, Deadly Aim, Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise and Eschew Materials being free to anyone who meets the pre-req's), and when the characters hit 21st and beyond I plan to add in a few little extras to reflect that they've reached an 'epic' tier of play and to keep the power curve steady. One of the things that I like about this approach is that the characters will not only have the chance to actually get to their capstone abilities, but will actually get to use them for a while, theoretically all the way through Book 6.
I'm also restarting this AP after a break. We are scraping mythic as well.
I've heard of the 25th level cap for non-mythic play, but I'm still wondering if 20th level is enough. When my players reached the Ivory Sanctum, their level was per the AP and they were getting nailed by the monsters. I never experienced the issues everyone else experienced. Our battles were very hard.
We still did experience the "rocket tag" more than at 6th level, but that's usual for the game. The issues we had were more about the rules, the action interrupts, etc.
I've been reviewing the battles in book 6 vs 20th level players, I think it's a possibility.
Do you not think they players could survive 20th level and this campaign?