There remains an art to DMing and running RPG sessions. One of my specialties that I take pride in is combining different modules/adventure paths and weaving the adventure concepts together. Sometimes this allows my players to finish the pre-made adventures much faster than expected and I sometimes feel conflicted about that.
Part of this situation is also that my players, after years of tabletop gaming and enjoying D&D 5E, have become master strategists. The modules are often made to start at low level and I have to modify them to adjust for the fact that I blend low-level stuff into our adventure paths at mid or higher level, but that isn't too tough. What happens though is that higher level character have access to spells (and money to buy scrolls or other magic items for spell effects), thus my players end up invisible and flying around after scrying on the locations they need to go to.
It's great. It's really fun. I applaud my players for being so clever and strategic. But it means that large portions of the pre-made adventures are useless. In the past we have had similar situations where a module like Storm King's Thunder expects players to sail around or travel across the continent. My players are just like "nah, we will just teleport there" which means they might miss out on XP (which they don't need if they are already higher level than the module assumed) or special items/knowledge that could help them. Instead of fighting the monsters in the forest on the way, in the hills, outside the enemy keep, inside the keep, etc. - they just teleport to the boss room (when it's not magically protected to prevent teleportation or scrying or whatever).
Despite me seeing this as somewhat of an issue, my players have pointed out that there have been several near TPK situations in recent sessions. They rightfully justify that when they basically "fast-forward" through some adventure paths they are just playing in character and using the logically consistent resources available in the fantasy multiverse that the characters live in. And I agree with them; they are right.
Additionally, my players are so good at befriending and/or threatening NPCs to get info that they are able to stay ahead of many situations. That's why I have to put mysterious political situations and mysteries in front of them. Of course, they tend to figure them (but that's good; players get joy from the satisfaction of deducing and being proven correct). For example, they knew Mercy's wife was actually evil, but they couldn't do anything about it for a while because he loved her. Only after he died did she reveal her true evil nature and long-term planning with the main enemies of our mega-campaign.
I guess the point I want to make with my reflections today is that I love my players and the more they challenge me, the more that I feel I improve as a DM. Also, I need to go prepare some more notes for next week's game...
Peace.
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