Stuck in a dm funk need help!!!!

[EldritchSquid]

Hello all,

as the title says it all after basically 2 years of adventuring, questing, and saving the world.....I am honestly at a loss as to what direction to move the campaign along. So that those of you who read this have an understanding of were I am coming from I will attempt to recap the entire 2 years in as short a manner as possible. The over all premise for this campaign was that all the players started off as human by the way just so that it is clear I am using the 3.5 system for dungeons and dragons. Either way all the players started off as humans attempting to over through a god who has gained his power by stealing it from the other gods rendering them all but completely impotent. The players goal was to seek out lore, relics, and any other information that was needed to over come this foe. The party consists of a cleric to an undead god alt character a half angel/demon fighter, a cleric of the aspect of the hunt (nature god) alt character a demon warlock, a mage (I spliced wizard/sorcerer for the purposes of this game) alt character cleric for a god of virtue/protection, a rogue alt character human fighter, a cleric for the god of dreams/nightmares alt character TBD, and lastly a bard alt character dead. Now since the start the undead cleric, the dream/nightmare cleric, nature cleric, and bard all took feats (that I allowed) to have some kind of ancestry that wasn't human which is no big deal adds flare to their characters while affording them a few special abilities as they progress in level. Now flash forward they have sought out relics to help restore their respective gods to power while taking power from the god that took his power from the other gods. The party went through hell and back quite literally all to have the final show down with this god now up to this point what I haven't explained to y'all is that during the parties adventures they have been traveling back and forth in time so that they can either meet the people the need to for info, but were dead in the present or to gain items/relics. The party showed off against the evil god with the very sword that the god had used to take the power from the other gods using it against him to take his divine powers rendering him a 10th level character who the party could fight. The battle ended with the party imprisoning the gods soul in the past in a pocket dimension were no other beings know to look. When I say the party imprisoned this god I mean it two of the party members sacrificed pieces of their souls/ magic to imprison the dang thing. When the party returned to their current time line several of the party was surprised to find out that none of the party members exist at all in this time line, their families exist but never conceived the party members. This afford the party a fresh start at adventuring in a new world to explore however, this is were the issue lies the cleric of nature has used his influence with the kind of the fey court to seal off all of the roads because the party has repeatedly abused/destroyed/ and often times flat out ignored nature, the cleric of the undead god now a vampire seeks retribution against the rogue for cheating the cleric out of power for his god (this occurred during the initial adventure to over through the evil god), the mage who gained a red dragon as a familiar now has to constantly contest the dragon for control in the relationship and is obviously losing, the half angel/demon is actually wielding the weapon from the evil god that they slew (she took it as a weapon of conquest which is kind of like an ancestral relic in that it get stronger as you do) which is slowly corrupting her with the evil that turned the god (when he was mortal) evil to begin with worse over the half angel/demon has a flaw of hatred of the gods so she will eventually either destroy the curse or be consumed by it mean while because she is a hot blooded fighter the half angle/demon has drawn the ire of some nobles who have hired the rogue in the party to assassinate her. With all of this going on the only thing the bard does LITERALLY write everything the party does down in a book that the player leaves with me just so I can make sure he isn't adding any extra stuff, and because I like reading it from time to time.

Since by this point I have talked your ears off I will finally ask the question; Anyone have any suggestions for were to go from here? I have a few ideas as far as how the party will resolve its quarrel, but after that I am not sure were to take them the party ranges from the lowest level being 5th to the highest being 9th majority of the party is 6th-7th level with one member being 8th. Please be gentle this is my first time using a forum however, I have come to this website to read old post/discussions that have been SOOOOO much help so if anyone out there thinks they can help please I am all ears.

[Scarlet Knight]

I'm sorry; you have to blow up the campaign. When 7th level characters defeat gods, have dragon familiars, and have interparty strife they are beyond repair. My only suggestion is that the maybe gods realize that this party is dangerous to them and turn them into 1st level toads. Then you can start over and run the game right without all the overpowered stuff.

[EldritchSquid]

I designed the campaign to be overly powerful, I personally am not having an issue with balancing out the enemies they fight. Furthermore the relic they used to defeat the god 1: only worked once, and 2: stripped the god of his levels of divinity turning him into a 10th level fighter. What I am looking for are ideas for adventures they can go on. I was NOT looking for a critique of the world. I am not concerned with the inter party conflict it is literally bound to happen. AGAIN what I am looking for are suggestions of unique/interesting adventures.

[Scarlet Knight]

Sorry about that; I misunderstood.


Well, I'm not sure what'll challenge them. They're almost at the level of gaining land. Perhaps being responsible for other lives might do it.

Otherwise you can send them on a quest to the Elemental Plane of Earth and see how well they do if they can't see, move, or breathe. I don't remember if it also has pressure to crush them...

[EldritchSquid]

THAT sounds interesting,

But I would need a hook to lure each in. I am thinking maybe so kind of information about how to fix the world. Another detail I TOTALLY forgot to mention was that they are now trying to fix the world with magic running amuck (which is why they are the way the are).

[Xyril]

I don't know if this would be consistent with your goals for your gaming group, but at this point it seems the only enemies that might prove a challenge are each other. Since intraparty strife has already developed organically, it wouldn't be too hard to nudge them towards drawing battle lines and full out conflict. With some deft DMing, you can probably keep the conflict interesting and delay a decisive final confrontation without making it feel like you're railroading them into artificially prolonging the campaign, but eventually this will mean the end of your campaign. Still, it's better to end on an epic high note than to slowly stagnate as you run out of meaningfully challenging foes.

Alternatively, maybe you can think a way for them to substantially depower each other as a result of their conflict, and hopefully make it plausibly a result of their own decisions and not your need to hit the reset button on the campaign. This would have the added benefit of allowing real stakes during the conflict: If you had some of your players surviving at full strength, and some dying and rerolling, the power disparity would effectively kill your campaign, but a bunch of sufficiently depowered old characters and a bunch of new level ones could potentially campaign together without the strength disparity being a problem.

[Herobizkit]

The play-style the OP is describing appears to me as something akin to Pathfinder's Mythic Heroes.

In 3.5 (3.0?) speak, low-level PC's are awarded Divine Ranks and can take Divine/Epic Level feats.

I don't know how supported Mythic Heroes has been, but I assume there's at least one Adventure Path to showcase the rules in action. Given Pathfinder is an evolution of 3x (and the Mythic Heroes rules are available online), it might be a place for the OP to look into for inspiration (and maybe even conversion).