D&D 5E Level 20 How?

[Zardnaar]

As the title says has anyone made it to level 20 yet?

Failing that any thoughts on designing a level 20 adventure? I now have Tome of Beasts and Volos Guide to monsters I'm a lot more confidant about filling out the encounters.

 

[Prakriti]

In AD&D, the game pretty much turned into kingdom-management after level 9. You gained followers and a stronghold, and you ruled the land, expanding your kingdom, stocking your castle, eliminating threats, growing your treasury, etc.

5E doesn't have that assumption, and I find it a little disorienting, especially since my players have rejected all offers to settle down. At level 15, they've finished 2 campaigns now, and every time a powerful monarch has offered them "Anything within my power to grant," they've turned down land and a stronghold in favor of yet another magic item.

This is a problem because, even with Tome of Beasts and Volo's Guide to Monsters, there aren't enough high-level threats to fill out a typical adventure for high-level characters. That seems to be what my players want, though -- more of the same, just with stronger foes. Since the game doesn't really support that option, I've just been creating my own monsters.

So, the first thing I would do is offer your players a different style of gameplay. Dangle a castle in front of their faces and see if they bite. If they do, then give them opportunities to expand it (put some dungeons conveniently nearby with fabled treasure hoards) and stock it with cool new artifacts and magic items. Throw in some dwarven architects with big ideas to get the creative juices flowing (maybe they'll want a teleportation chamber or a shrine). Make them defend the castle against occasional assaults. Have emissaries visit with offers of peace or trade deals. Threaten them with war. Etc. etc.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The game I ran made it to level 20, and there's not much difference between levels 18 and 20 - the characters are unstoppable dreadnaughts who can stomp over anything you put in their path. If you want a balanced encounter that should make them take notice, I recommend three Solars or a dozen purple worms.

 

[Zardnaar]

The game I ran made it to level 20, and there's not much difference between levels 18 and 20 - the characters are unstoppable dreadnaughts who can stomp over anything you put in their path. If you want a balanced encounter that should make them take notice, I recommend three Solars or a dozen purple worms.

Worms huh. How about this. Something I have been working on.

Sandworm​

Colossal Monstrosity Unaligned
Armor Class 26
Hit Points 820 (40d20+ 400
Speed 40 ft Burrow (Sand) 40’

Str 30 (+10), Dex 20 (+0), Con 30 (+4), Int 3 (-4), Wis 10 (+0), Cha 11 (+0)
Saving Throws Dex +10 Str +16, Con +16 Int +2 Wis +6 Cha +6
Skills Athletics+22 (expertise)
Damage Immunities fire, lightning, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing weapons that are not magical
Damage Resistances All except poison and psychic damage.
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, petrified.
Senses Blindsight 120’, passive perception 16
Languages –
Challenge 30 (155 000)
Legendary Resistance (3/day).If the Sandworm fails a save it can chose to succeed instead.

Spell Immunity: Sandworms are immune to level 1-9 spells

Magic Weapons: The Sandworm weapon attacks are magical

Emergence When a Sandworm first emerges from the sand lightning bolts strike all beings within 50’. Each bolt deals 6d10 lightning damage to each target. A DC 20 dexterity save reduces the damage by half

Actions.
Attack. The Sandworm makes a bite attacks and a thrashing attack.

Bite: Melee : +19 to hit, reach 15’, all targets within 20’ area. Hit 62 (8d12+10) piercing damage. If the target is a creature it is grappled (escape DC 20). Until this grapple end the targets are restrained and the Sandworm cannot bite more targets.

Thrashing . The Sandworm thrashes its body around crushing everything within 50’. All creatures in that area 20d6 (70) bludgeoning damage. A DC 26 Dexterity save reduces the damage by half.

Swallow The Sandworm makes a bite attack against a gargantuan or smaller creature it is grappling. If the attack hits the targets take the bites damage, the targets are swallowed and the grapple ends. While swallowed, the creature is blinded and restrained and takes 10d6 acid and 10d6 fire damage at the start of the sandworms turn.

If the Sandworm takes 60 or more damage from a creature inside it, the sandworm must succeed on a DC 20 constitution save or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10’ of the Sandworm. If the Sandworm dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 30’ of movement, exiting while prone.

Legendary Actions
The Sandworm can take 3 legendary actions choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creatures turn. The Sandworm regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

Attack. The Sandworm makes a bite attack.

Move. The Sandworm moves up to half its speed.

Chomp (Costs 2 actions)The Sandworm makes one bite attack or swallows.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

In AD&D, the game pretty much turned into kingdom-management after level 9. You gained followers and a stronghold, and you ruled the land, expanding your kingdom, stocking your castle, eliminating threats, growing your treasury, etc.

5E doesn't have that assumption, and I find it a little disorienting, especially since my players have rejected all offers to settle down. At level 15, they've finished 2 campaigns now, and every time a powerful monarch has offered them "Anything within my power to grant," they've turned down land and a stronghold in favor of yet another magic item.

This is a problem because, even with Tome of Beasts and Volo's Guide to Monsters, there aren't enough high-level threats to fill out a typical adventure for high-level characters. That seems to be what my players want, though -- more of the same, just with stronger foes. Since the game doesn't really support that option, I've just been creating my own monsters.

This is hard to believe. My game tends toward combat-light, but when combat does happen I like it to be significant, and it's not all that uncommon for players to face 50,000 to 200,000 XP worth of enemies. Last time I checked, the daily adventuring XP budget for 4 20th level characters was only 160,000 XP.

As far as I'm concerned, the only thing that 5E needs to in order to run high-level campaigns is good tool support. (Which I'm working on.) Currently it's a little bit of a pain to have e.g. 20 Githyanki, 3 Onis, and a Beholder in play at the same time as four PCs. (That's 83,100 XP, well above the 50,800 XP Deadly Threshold.) It's doable, even on a whiteboard, but it's not easy, mostly because there is so much state to manage.

It's possible that tools like Roll20/Fantasy Grounds already address this issue.

But there's no dearth of monsters that can be used in 20th level adventures. Creating 20th+ level encounters​is so easy to do you can do it accidentally.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I haven't yet made it to 20th level in a 5th edition campaign (real life time constraints being the cause - not the game rules breaking down, which as far as I've seen they don't, or lack of interest).

What I can say about designing 20th-level adventures is this: Better to design the adventure for a specific set of characters, involving what they care about and what they've accomplished along the way to reaching 20th level, than to try and create an adventure that is assumed to work for any given 20th-level party because there are just too many variables to consider for that to actually be plausible.

As for practical steps, I'd say the first is to sit down with your players and discuss what it is that they desire and expect from playing at that level. Then the only step to take is to deliver on those desires and fulfill those expectations, which shouldn't be hard for any DM that has been playing the game long enough for a campaign to naturally reach that level.

 

[John R Davis]

Am combining 4 of the big 5E adventures to get the party to 20th. With tweaks to up the danger level

 

[hejtmane]

Just level 11 i figured multiple dragons could cause some issues with a group of 20

 

[Tormyr]

So what kind of story do you want to tell in the adventure? Maybe the type of mid to high level monsters flow from that. My impression is that high level play usually involves time-critical challenges (not enough time to do everything), epic stakes (time to save the world), and BBEG or evil organisations.

To more directly answer your question. The party at my table has been level 20 for a month or two. We have played the Age of Worms campaign for 2.66 years using milestone leveling. At level 20, encounters can be silly difficult (CR 28 Dracolich, CR 16 Warlock, CR 14 Monster), or strings of more normal encounters (medium to deadly for 20th level party).

 

[Sacrosanct]

Nope. Never made it to level 20 in any edition, over 35 years. Not organically anyway. The highest level PC I've ever played from level 1 was to level 16, and that took about 10 years in AD&D. I did have my cleric make it to level 15 in the Tiamat series, but level progression in that was WAY too fast for my tastes. And when it was done, I wanted to play a different PC, and not continue with my tempest cleric.