D&D 5E How long does it take to reach level 20?

[Tyler Dunn]

For those of you who have reached level 20, how long did it take you to get there (in real life time and in game time)?

 

[Enrico Poli1]

I've completed Age of Worms (D&D3.5). We played 4h/week. We reached Lvl23, I think, in 2 years of play. Actually, in game time, we spent also 2 years! The advancement was faster then usual play.

 

[DnD Warlord]

I have never had a lv1-lv20 campaign in any edition Except 4e where we did 1-29 once on the adventure path ... we normally start at 3rd Level or 5th and cap out between 12 and 16...

about a year ago I played in a game where at level 9 the DM doubled xo rewards then at level 16 tripled them... we went from 5th levelto 18th in about 50 game sessions

 

[DND_Reborn]

For those of you who have reached level 20, how long did it take you to get there (in real life time and in game time)?

We just reached level 20 in our main campaign. Since I am a meticulous note-taker, I can tell you:

Real time: 1 year, 9 months
Sessions: 45 "doubles" (our sessions are 6-12+ hours, so I would think of this as about 90 "normal" sessions), figure about 450 hours of game play.
In Game Time: about 5 years
Encounters: just over 300 combats, about 75 social, and nearly 100 exploration events
Total XP: over 2 million

 

[TheSword]

How long is a piece of string?

We reached level twenty in Way of the Wicked, it took about 20 months. I do milestone levelling though.

Ultimately though, how fast do you want it to take. I’m levelling the players up in Descent into Avernus super fast. On my Rise of the Runelords campaign it’s maybe a 50% to 33% the normal speed.

 

[Flamestrike]

For those of you who have reached level 20, how long did it take you to get there (in real life time and in game time)?

I ran an Age of Worms campaign (converted to 5E) with plently of side adventures thrown in (all the C series of tournament AD&D Modules, a few Pathfinder modules as well).

Used XP levelling. Played roughly 3-4 times a month, Friday nights, long sessions (into the early hours).

Campaign lasted around 2 years and players got to 20th level with several epic boons by the end.

Levels 1-3 go fast then levels 4-11 go slow (3-4 sessions per level on average). Things really pick up from 12th level onwards, with players gaining a level every other session (sometimes 1 level per session).

It was awesome. Far too many DMs rage quit at around 9th level or so when they start encountering abilities and class features they cant 'handle'. The reason they cant handle them is because of the rage quitting of course.

Nothing better than a long term campaign. Well... only 1 thing better, and that's an open ended campaign that never really ends.

 

[Flamestrike]

about a year ago I played in a game where at level 9 the DM doubled xo rewards then at level 16 tripled them... we went from 5th levelto 18th in about 50 game sessions

No need in 5E.

The XP charts speed up progression at 1-3 then slow down from 4-11 and then from 11th level onwards you start levelling at a really rapid pace again.

You really crawl from 5-11 but then it's shocking how fast they level to 20th after that T2 slog.

 

[DnD Warlord]

No need in 5E.

The XP charts speed up progression at 1-3 then slow down from 4-11 and then from 11th level onwards you start levelling at a really rapid pace again.

You really crawl from 5-11 but then it's shocking how fast they level to 20th after that T2 slog.

The game in questions WAS 5e. That DM also runs at a store (or did pre covid). And he has done double xo

 

[Flamestrike]

The game in questions WAS 5e. That DM also runs at a store (or did pre covid). And he has done double xo

I cant speak for your DMs math, but I assure you the math behind the XP per level chart is designed to go super fast 1-3, slow for 4-11 and then 1 level per session from 12th onwards.


You actually need less XP to go from 11th to 12 (and 12th to 13th, and 13th to 14th) than you do to go from 10th to 11th.

Bearing in mid over those levels you're dealing with higher CR threats (that give a lot more XP) and the progression speed up past 11th level is really (really) noticable.

Took my group like 5-6 sessions to move from 10th to 11th. Then it was like 2 sessions per level thereafter, and rapidly sped up from there (while you need more XP after 14th level, the XP awards are substantially higher at those levels).

If I was doing double XP from 11th level, PCs would be levelling at least once per session!

 

[OB1]

First 5e campaign I ran (started in the Next playtest at level 1, finished at level 20 last year)
Real Time: 5 years (with a couple of several month pauses in play)
Sessions: Around 100 (4-5 hours on average)
In Game Time: About 2 years

Expect the Wildemount campaign I'm running now to take about 2-3 years to get to level 20, as now that we've moved onto Roll20, we are playing more regularly than we did when we met in person (3 sessions a month instead of 1-2 a month). I don't use XP for progression, instead requiring 2-3 'Missions' to be completed per level to advance, where a mission is a quest that the PCs take on that has a significant chance for failure (not just TPK). PCs are currently at level 5 with two successful missions at that level, 1 failed mission, and in the middle of another that I give them 50/50 to complete (will see this weekend).