D&D 5E How would you handle EPIC levels?

[machineelf]

I would like to see a wholly separate (or mostly separate) system with an option to become an immortal (just under minor god) after level 20, where maybe you transcend class abilities, yet there is a separate immoral class based on whatever class you were pre-immortal status. They would spend most of their time in other planes of existence, and there would need to be a whole other collection of epic god-like monsters to do battle with.

How to pull this off exactly, I have no idea. But I think it would be fun. However, since I don't predict I'll take a character from level 1 to level 20 and want to advance it beyond that, I don't know if it really matters or is really needed.

 

[aramis erak]

I would like to see a wholly separate (or mostly separate) system with an option to become an immortal (just under minor god) after level 20, where maybe you transcend class abilities, yet there is a separate immoral class based on whatever class you were pre-immortal status. They would spend most of their time in other planes of existence, and there would need to be a whole other collection of epic god-like monsters to do battle with.

How to pull this off exactly, I have no idea. But I think it would be fun. However, since I don't predict I'll take a character from level 1 to level 20 and want to advance it beyond that, I don't know if it really matters or is really needed.

In the old Mentzer and Alston/Denning editions, the level cap was 36th... power-wise, a little shy of 5E's 20th... and after about 25th, one could quest for immortality. Upon attaining immortality, one was now a 1st level immortal, told the restrictions, and allowed to play with the universe. A first level immortal was about equivalent in terms of raw brutality to about a 20th level character... but was practically unkillable, and low being on the totem pole of immortal society.

In a 5E adaptation, I could see it starting at any Tier IV levels (17-20), breaking the bounded accuracy to being, say, Immortal 1 being a "level 15" for purposes of the bounded accuracy, and running up to level 25 or so... And raw XP don't matter; it's plots, strokes, and epic monsters that matter for gaining immortal levels.