u/EmbarrassedYou354

Heyo!

I have been getting back into D2 to just do everything and two of my friends who have never really played the game are wanting to do the same. I went ahead and made a new character, but I have been playing for quite some time.

Now while we go through some of the old content like shadowkeep (they wanted to experience everything lol) we are getting vastly different leveled gear. I am getting gear that has gotten me up to 400 power level, another friend has gotten up to 367, but one friend is for some reason stuck at 302? We have done every activity together and we are really confused. Any insight here? Its been a bit since ive played, especially with a new light so I don’t know what could be causing this.

Thank you!

Howdy! First time posting here, but I am a pretty seasoned GM of about 10 or so years now. I have ran various games from duets to full scale 10+ party member games. However, the through line with all of these games is the have never had players get past 10th level. Whether it was a short campaign, or scheduling conflicts, I have just never had the opportunity to run a game above that.

However, my current game has been running for a long time (~5 years now) and they are about to hit level 15. While I normally am really good at making complex fights with different objectives or some hard hitting bosses, I’m struggling capturing that same experience since they hit level 13. Either my fights have been a breeze where they can just ignore the other objectives, or way too difficult where it almost leads to a defeat/tpk.

So, I’m hoping my fellow DM/GM’s can help with some advice on how to make combats feel balanced and fun at high levels, I don’t want to just add more health or do more damage (unless that is just how peeps do it haha).

Additional context: It is a 7 player party, all of which are level 15 and mix of classes (Wizard, Rogue, Warlock, Ranger, Druid, BloodHunter, Paladin/Sorcerer)