Character levelled 1 through 20...have you?

[Greg K]

I went from 1 to well over over 20 in 1e over a period of many years. One of my friends and I each had six characters that had gone from levels 1 to 12 serving as henchmen to the character's of more experienced players in Judge's Guild's Inferno. Then, one day, I spotted the buried rules on how many levels a character could actually gain per adventure and realized that, my characters wouldn't have been higher than 19th or 20th.

After that, I have tried playing high level adventues, but found I don't like DND after about level 10-12 so I no longer play or run games past those levels.

 

[EricNoah]

1 to about 22 or so with a dwarf fighter/rogue. I can't recall but it might have been 3-4 years. It was this DM's first 3e campaign started right around release of the 3.0 rules. It was interesting but it did become less fun at the highest levels, mostly due to 3.0 haste (everyone had it -- PCs and NPCs -- so it was 2 actions per round for everyone) and time stop (hasted time stop, mind you). DM did say it got very challenging to prep for at the high levels. He did a very good job of finding ways to challenge us (and not with "unbeatable numbers" but by using good strategy, particularly NPC spellcasters who would screw us up with really simple things like 3.0 darkness which is complete darkness).

 

[rgard]

In 1E it took me 4 years (real time) of very regular play to get my human MU to 18th level. It took another 14 years (real time) of semi-regular play to get him to 30th level. He died once sometime around 7th level. This character was played in at least 12 different campaigns, even 1 where we didn't get xp for gold. All this was 1E, we ignored 2E.

In 3E it took 15 months (again real time) of play to get one character (Wizard/Ur-Priest/MT) to 24th level and one to 21st (Swashbuckler/Martial Rogue/Battle Sorcerer). Played both these characters in one campaign simultaneously for part of the time. Both human, neither died ever.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Goblyn]

highest level i ever reached was 12.

messy

That's true for me as well ... and it was quite messy, according to how many deaths my PCs went through. My character got eaten by a fiendish tyrranasaur ... twice. One battle.

 

[Thurbane]

The highest I ever got a character to was back in 2E with my namesake, Thurbane the Evoker. He went from 1st through 14th...that took about 18 months, but our games were a bit erratic at that stage.

I'm currently starting fresh with Thurbane as a 1st level Evoker in Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde...

 

[arwenarrowny]

Not quite. I had a PC in a game that was well on its way there, but due to people's work schedules changing, that game is currently "on hiatus." And I've participated in a game that went from 1-27, but I DMed from 1-8, played one character from 9-21, and had to switch characters for the end because an epic geomancer would just have been too much of a headache.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

*laughs out loud*

Once you killed the ones that weren't.

To be fair, once I killed the ONE that stopped being good (and useful).

Meta-game, that one life lesson worked wonders on the next character, too.

 

[blargney the second]

Meta-game, that one life lesson worked wonders on the next character, too.

It's an afterlife lesson!

 

[Treebore]

Just curious, how many of you out there have nurtured a character from 1st level right through to 20th, and maybe even beyond into epic?

Also, for those who have, how long (real time and game time) did it take? Months? Years? Was it all under the same DM, or did this character hop between campaigns?

Since you mentioned Epic I presume you mena in 3E only?

So my answer is two. Both under the same DM. Two diffferent DM's, one for each character, but the character progressed under hte same DM it was started with.

Time? About 6 months of playing every Friday, frequently on Saturday as well.


If I were to include 1E and 2E I would have to say at least a dozen.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

When I first started playing in AD&D we ran some characters up to 27 and it still holds the record as the highest level play we've ever reached.

In third edition, our highest level would have been about 15 or 16 I think. I was the sole DM for that campaign and I found I just burned out on the higher level play.