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At D&D Experience, I will be DMing a paragon tier adventure. This will be the first paragon tier adventure I've DMed (I've been DMing heroic tier since the get go, and back to Red Box Basic before that.)

Anything I should watch out for with paragon tier PCs?

I'm already expecting crazy Action Point rounds because everyone will have a paragon path.

I'm not particularly concerned about optimized PCs, and I don't want this to turn into a debate about that. If some person / group wants to show up with a finely honed killing machine of a PC / party, that's fine with me.

One thing I was wonder about is rituals. Haven't seen much of 'em at heroic tier (though the few I have seen cast have been very cleverly used). Not sure what to expect at paragon tier.

Joshua,
You can see a decent discussion of ritual use here: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
My post has the list of all rituals I've personally found useful up through and including 14th level.
If you PM me which adventure you're running (I've seen most of the paragon stuff at DDXP), I might be able to point you to specific shenanigans that might arise in your adventure.

The specific adventure I am running is CORE 2-2 Rising of the Dark. It involves... wait for it... underwater combat.



I'm sure the players will be overjoyed to bust out their javelins to avoid the underwater attack penalties.

Also, I'm sure that there will be at least one fire-mage at the table. Because it is a law of the universe that whenever a D&D adventure takes place underwater, there must be at least one PC who relies on fire to deal damage.

But, these are paragon tier PCs so they'll have to muddle through somehow. ;-)

There's also a skill challenge where certain rituals are called out that can be used to help. That seems straightforward enough.

(The adventure even addresses what happens if the PCs use a portal-type ritual to bug out. Heh.)

Careful with spoilers!

(You can use brackets around the word "sblock" and then end it with the same but using a "/sblock" to start and end a spoiler section).

Regarding that type of combat, the adventure should have some rules on it.

When judging paragon, I find that a few things really jump out:

Complex monster stat blocks
The stat blocks can be pretty intense. Most creatures will have several attack powers, plus one reaction or utility power or an aura or similar "feature". I usually use a highlighter or underline with a pen the powers I expect to use offensively, then star any defensive or conditional power. I sometimes write #1 and #2 if two powers should be used in sequence (grab, then squeeze!).

The toughest is when you have one monster that has a lot of powers. Some elites fill the page. In that case I make notes at the top of the page about what power I use when. This avoids the DM being dazed (save ends).

Terrain matters
Terrain is really important. You can't skimp on prepping the Features section of each combat.

Flexible skill challenges
At this point the players have seen a lot of skill challenges and know their PCs well. You want to empower them rather than shackle them and reward creativity. If they come up with something plausible, use a DC from the listed options based on how well you think it could work and ad-lib the situation. Allow rituals based on the situation - don't be afraid to ask them for the rules and how they use it, then give them the RP around it. In general, one ritual should yield one success unless it is obviously going to completely bypass the skill challenge. If the challenge is crossing a gorge and the gorge distance can be completely bypassed by a ritual, so be it. If it is about crossing wilderness and they can fly, give them a success or two, but they still have to land for food, check out things they see, etc.

Figure out your system for tracking conditions, marks, bloodied, etc.
As I blogged here (others have elsewhere as well), there are a lot of ways to track these. You just need one that you feel works for you. Tracking things poorly is not an option, though placing some of the responsibility on your players can work well. Typically, what worked at H1 will not necessarily work here, but what worked at H3 should work fine here. If all you do is look for the common conditions in each encounter and have some clear way of tracking them, that will be a huge plus.

Trust players
... that aren't 11th. When a PC is 11th they get a new paragon path feature and power, a new paragon feat, and might have retrained for a second new paragon feat. That is a lot! You might ask for levels and note how many players say "11". Those might bear some watching since they can get things wrong.

Paragon path stuff tends to be pretty useful, though. Around 12th the players should be the undisputed masters at understanding their PC, much as they were at H3. If an argument comes up, in general it is best to trust the player (unless you specifically have deep experience with that power/etc.). Second-guessing slows down the paragon game and the players really should know their stuff. Trust the players - 99% of the time it won't hurt play nor the challenge level if they were wrong.

Pacing
Paragon can take longer. Take a look at the adventure and think about how much time you need. An easy thing to do is guess at what might be the halfway point, then further divide it into quarters. At the top of each encounter that corresponds to half or quarter, make a note of the time. If you slot 0d, you can track this as you play. The basic idea is to have some guideline so you can watch the pacing and correct to prevent taking long. Correcting can mean calling fights, mysteriously forgetting that the attack should have missed, losing some HPs, cutting the needed successes for an uninspiring skill challenge, and so on. When an encounter is labeled as "optional", feel free to skip it based on the group and where you are time-wise.

Please watch spoilers, particularly for adventures not even released yet.

Spoiler: Show

Keith