D&D 5E What level did your MOST RECENT campaign get to?

Hexmage-EN · Jul 19, 2021

Paul Farquhar said:
Currently at level 11 and finding it increasingly difficult to come up with balanced fun encounters.

As characters get higher in level and more specialized it becomes more important to design them with what your party is capable or not capable of in mind. Some parties will be more powerful than others in general, and some may be much more effective than the average in certain situations.

I also stopped caring as much about CR and encounter balance the farther I went. Most encounters were either Hard or Deadly, and I always encouraged the party to stock up on healing items and scrolls to supplement their resources while also emphasizing that if things go south they can always try to flee (which happened multiple times, such as when a small group of pit fiends appeared or when the party was facing down an oncoming Tsunami after getting Meteor Swarmed by Mephistopheles).

THEMNGMNT · Jul 19, 2021

20th level with six epic boons per character. 122 sessions spanning about 4 years. It was my first 20th level campaign and I learned a lot! Specific to campaign planning and pacing, my group needs about 100 sessions to reach 20th level. Advancement through Tier 4 is really fast, almost as fast as Tier 1. And it's utterly ridiculous. So, for my purposes, I want most of the story to be resolved by the end of Tier 3. Then, in the last few levels, the PCs wreck face and take out the trash. Good times.

delericho · Jul 19, 2021

My "Storm King's Thunder" campaign ended in a TPK at level 9, which was rather unfortunate as we'd just ended the "interminable wandering" phase and moved onto the "massive redundancy" phase of the adventure. It took about 2 years, having started at level 1 in "Lost Mine of Phandelver". However, we only played for an hour a week, and not quite every week.

I actually have two campaigns ongoing at the moment, both homebrew and both at level 7. One has been running for about 18 months (same format as above), while the other started just before Christmas, and is one 3-hour session every 2 weeks.

IMO, the faster rate of progression is much better. As indeed are the longer sessions, even if they are less frequent.

Not that it matters: there's a very real chance these are my final campaigns.

billd91 · Jul 19, 2021

Current 5e campaigns are 9 (DM) and a (player).
Last completed campaign was Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous and 20th level and mythic (DM). Not gonna DM Pathfinder mythic again.

MatthewJHanson · Jul 19, 2021

Highest is my current campaign which is at 16th level and will likely go to 20. Homebrew.

Panfilo · Jul 19, 2021

In 5E, I played a Divine Soul Sorcerer from 1 to 7, then had them die off dramatically and took a break. Then, I rejoined with an Eldritch Knight Fighter at level 10 and it looks like the campaign will wrap up by level 15. Yes, I ended up playing two characters for their power spikes and I'm not ashamed.

el-remmen · Jul 19, 2021

That I ran? A heavily house-ruled 3.xE game that went two years and seven months (January 2007 to August 2009), which ended because I left for grad school.. It was 52 sessions and the PCs were about 7th level.

That I played in? Again, a heavily house-ruled 3.xE game that started in June of 2010, I joined in October of 2012 and ended in May 2016 with a TPK after 99 sessions. My character was 9th level - and everyone else was in that neighborhood.

Laurefindel · Jul 19, 2021

13th or 14th, I can't remember. The last three or four levels were a bit rushed.

TarionzCousin · Jul 19, 2021

Level 5, interrupted by pandemic lockdown. That campaign appears to be over. The DM is currently running something completely different for most of the same players.

But I ran 40+ sessions of Amber Diceless during the lockdown. That campaign finished a couple weeks ago.