Highest level you've played

[Vyvyan Basterd]

DMing: 21st level in various campaigns 1E-3E; currently 8th level in 4E

Playing (one-shot): 100th level in module H4.

 

[Ghostwind]

1st thru 3rd editions - 46th level with the same character updating and converting as we went along.

4th edition - haven't played yet.

 

[Aeolius]

My highest was a L19 human cleric named Serrus Rylon. I created him with Basic D&D and carried him through Expert and Advanced (1e). It took a little over four years of casual gaming, to reach that level.

 

[Storminator]

1e - One PC got to 12th, the rest stalled out in the 8-10 range
3e - Starting at 1 and continuing on maxed at 10. Starting at 10 maxed at 24, and replaced that PC with a 25th level PC
4e - 2nd level! I can see 3rd level from here, and can't wait!

PS

 

[Remathilis]

Rules Cyclopedia: 9th level dwarf.
2nd Edition: 16th level thief
3rd Edition: 20th level rogue (same PC as the 16th level thief)
4th Edition: 4th level wizard
Star Wars d20: 13th level jedi guardian
Star Wars SAGA: 6th level solider.

My highest 2e game capped at 13th, and I'm currently running my highest 3.5 (10th) and 4e (4th).

However, I'd like to point out many of our games dissolved for non-D&D reasons; college/semester end, people moving, etc.

 

[Lancelot]

All characters below were played since 1st level (by other players in my group):

AD&D: 12th level

BECMI: 36th level / Temporal 5 (using Immortals rules) - only possible because we never really played much AD&D or 2e; we were using BECMI virtually until 3e came out, so this character (and a few others like him) represents 15+ years of play

2e: 9th level

3e/3.5: 26th level

4e: 13th level, so far

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Rediscovering the level range for the H4 - Throne of Bloodstone module (AD&D1) -- for levels 18-100 -- prompts me to ask this question:

What's the highest level character you've ever played in any edition of D&D? A character you played for at least one game session.

What's the highest level you've ever heard of someone playing in any edition of D&D?

Bullgrit
Total Bullgrit

Edena, 161st level (in Storybook Terms, 35th level, or on a par with Ioulaum of Netheril, except as a cleric, not a wizard.) (My SN is based on this character.)

You could say that Waldorf was the highest level I've ever heard of being fully played out as a character, but it is unclear what his level really was. Since he enslaved all the Gods of Oerth (the Greyhawk Campaign Setting) and put them to work in the mines under his castle, he must have been pretty high level.
Waldorf was finally killed when someone rammed a Spelljamming at near light speed into that castle, and the Spelljammer was filled with nilbogs. The controls that slow a Spelljammer down prior to planetfall had somehow been overridden.
This was from Dragon Magazine, and others can expound on this.

The highest level Player Character I ever saw played with my own eyes was a wizard of 75th level named Soloron.
This character was quite memorial, in that he created the first Wizard Army I had yet seen in fantasy roleplaying, and attempted to conquer the Greyhawk Setting with them. And he did conquer about half of it. He might have conquered all of it, but his opponent, Alderan (the Grandmaster of Assassins, 15th level) stopped him.
Soloron operated out of the mountains north of the Black Ice, where the City of the Gods might have been (except they put it on Mystara instead.) His great castle was there, complete with deathtraps that would have humbled Acererak (or made him royally angry, since Acererak considered himself the One and Only at that time.)
So, what beat Soloron? Ear wigs (yes, ear wigs. Those things were much nastier than anyone ever gave them credit for being.)

The most powerful NPC I ever saw played, personally, was a 750th level wizard.
I do not know her exact stats, her range of spells, or her special abilities.
I never saw her in actual combat. Believe it or not, the time I saw her, she was in the midst of a diplomatic session.
I never learned what happened to her, if anything.

 

[Jack7]

In AD&D I ran both a Wizard and a Thief up to about 12 th level each, after playing both about 7 years. Both almost died in the Tomb of Horrors.

After that I retired em both. After a certain level I've really got no more interest in a character, I'd rather retire them and later use them as NPCs. Plus higher levels bore the crap outta me as a player.

Sometimes as DM I would play higher levels. I NPCed two brothers once who were agents for a Lich. They were both 20th level and gave my guys a lot of trouble. They were a lot of fun to play and really ticked off the party. They were excellent infiltrators and spies.

In 3rd Edition, which I rarely played and didn't much care for, I ran a Paladin up to 3rd or 4th level before he died in combat in a rearguard action, and a Ranger (my favorite type of combatant) to about 5th. I still play that guy. He's a good detective, an excellent manhunter, and a lot of fun to play.

I'd like to play more but mostly I just have to DM.

 

[Plane Sailing]

1e - 32nd level wizard, 17th level ranger was the next highest. These were both characters who started at 1st level in OD&D

2e - didn't really play at all

3e - 12th level sorcerer; 12th level druid. Nope, not gone above 12th level yet!

4e - only DM'ed it to date

 

[Corathon]

The highest that I played in a 1-shot was a 30th level cavalier paladin (AD&D 1E) . The DM had purchased a Master Level D&D module (from the Mentzer BECMI rules) and told us that we could have any magic items that we wished, as long as they were from the DMG or the Forgotten Realms books. That was a mistake. We were seriously kicking tail. Then the DM began to cheat - and was rather obvious about it - and we still seriously kicked tail.

In a real campaign, my highest level PC was a 19th level cleric at the time of his death. He started at 3rd level, but he was energy drained twice and had to get the levels back the hard way, so I played him for 19 levels. This was also AD&D 1E.

As a DM (also AD&D 1E), I've had three players' characters attain 15th level.