D&D 5E How many people start at 20th level?

[Erik42]

Nope. I like to start campaigns with everyone at level one. The longest running campaign I've had went from about 1989 - 93 ish - albeit with a few fairly lengthy hiatuses tossed in here and there. By the end of that campaign the characters ranged from 13th to 15th level - this being the days of variable level progression by class (plus XP bonuses when it was a lot damned harder to raise ones ability scores - don't get me started about kids today and ability scores...in my day we couldn't raise any ability two points willy nilly every four levels or so, no sir! I mean a Wish would only raise a score beyond 16 a tenth of a point - a Wish for crying out loud...and 20s? Oh how we dreamed of 20s. Maybe you could get an elf with a 19 intelligence or something - or a fighter with an 18/00 strength...yes, 18/00 - it was a thing, look it up.............*)

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Oh and back when we did reach those levels...nobody planned out their character ahead of time.

That's largely because AD&D multiclassing doesn't require planned "builds", aside from dual-classing. And dual-classing planning was as simple as "go up to fighter 9, where XP goes into diminishing returns, and then dual-class into mage and you'll be only one level behind but with twice as many HP."

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Nope. I like to start campaigns with everyone at level one. The longest running campaign I've had went from about 1989 - 93 ish - albeit with a few fairly lengthy hiatuses tossed in here and there. By the end of that campaign the characters ranged from 13th to 15th level - this being the days of variable level progression by class (plus XP bonuses when it was a lot damned harder to raise ones ability scores - don't get me started about kids today and ability scores...in my day we couldn't raise any ability two points willy nilly every four levels or so, no sir! I mean a Wish would only raise a score beyond 16 a tenth of a point - a Wish for crying out loud...and 20s? Oh how we dreamed of 20s. Maybe you could get an elf with a 19 intelligence or something - or a fighter with an 18/00 strength...yes, 18/00 - it was a thing, look it up.............*)

You didn't need to be an elf, you just need to be really old. IIRC, by Venerable age you had +2 to Int and +3 to Wis, plus something like -3 to Str and -2 to Con. That's why archmages are always old I guess--age is the easiest way to get 9th level spell access. Or rather, the least dangerous way, albeit the most time-consuming.

 

[DaveDash]

My players are about to hit level 16, and will probably make 20 in the next few months. Roughly a year of playing. In this edition level 12-17 is actually quite fast.

But yeah, I believe the OP was taking a subtle jab at builds. A lot of builds don't take into consideration the whole leveling thing. In reality a lot of them are underpowered and behind until about level 17.

 

[steeldragons]

...Any DM worth his salt would be able to present challenging situations of all kinda (each column of gaming in 5e...Combat, Role-Play, and Exploration)... effectively reducing said "build" to the zero-sum game that D&D (and most RPGs) tend to be.

Just picking a nit, here, as I [unsurprisingly/yet again] agree with everything you say. But the columns of the game are accurately described as "Combat, Interaction & Exploration."

In theory and (hopefully) practice, "Role-Play" should be possible and encouraged across all three pillars.

For my own experience, to the question/thread at hand: Never. Never made it to 20th level. Never started at 20th level. And concur with the OP that I see no point to "building for/looking to 20th" when there is no guarantee whatsoever my character will ever see close to that level of/in play. I get for some folks that is a "fun" mental exercise. But as a raison d'etre for a PC? Not for/to me.

Carry on.

 

[Ghost Matter]

Played level 18th-20th in 5e. Didn't last long because we had too many abilities at onc and that made it hard to juggle between them.

 

[Cannyjiggit]

Never got that high in a long term campaign but have played a few one off scenarios with suitably high level characters. The most fun of these was actually a PvP scenario - We were all separated into pairs in different rooms/areas and built our mostly evil characters based on a set of formulae created by the DMs (there were 2 of them that kept things flowing better than you might think). It was set in a city and we were all after the same goal. One team seemed to quickly gain the advantage but as a pair of wizards at that level we were largely unkillable if we chose to be (too many methods of escape) so we instead looted everything we could and left rather than die trying to "win".
This was 20+ years ago now though, I think in 2nd edition

 

[Talmek]

Unfortunately playing a high-level (16-20) campaign remains but a goal of mine. I've yet to see a campaign make it past level 12 in the fifteen years that I've played D&D (started with 3rd edition and been addicted ever since). It is my hope one day to see the implications of decisions of those player characters and how they can literally modify the world, but alas more likely will be me DM'ing a campaign at that level rather than playing in one.

 

[Celtavian]

We played one campaign to 21. We level fast. We usually average about 13th to 15th when we end.

 

[Evenglare]

It seems like it would be almost impossible to start at 20. You wouldn't know the ins and outs of your character, and the DM wouldn't know the possibilities of what everyone could do. I guess you COULD but I imagine 99% of the time it would be a terrible mess of a game for either the DM, players, or both.