Reblog: How the Game Changes by Owen KC Stephens

Link.

Owen Stephens does a fairly good job of pointing out how in D20 D&D and its iterations how the core gameplay changes at higher levels (9th and above), and how a lot of adventures and game designers don't always take this into account.  From teleportation to scrying and other powerful spells, the classic "kill the bandits" adventures doesn't hold much water when you should be tangling with demon lords and archmages.

I think that it's a good thing that high-level play feels different than low-level in terms of powers and scope, but with 3rd Edition it's not just reskinned monsters and static number increases.  The tactics are different as well, and you want to avoid a feeling of sameness and acting like what worked at 5th will be just fine at 15th.