D&D 5E Beyond 20th Level: Proficiency Bonuses

[zaratan]

I think scale prof bonus above +6 is better than let party reach 30 in stats. Because at lvl 30, everyone in the party will have the +9 prof bonus, but if you have one guy in the party with 20 in his main ability (because he choose pact boons, feats, or other stuffs) and the other with 30, will be harder to balance way harder to balance the encounter.
If everybody hit with +18 to +20, is easy to solve the problem with the 30 AC monster.

 

[Caliburn101]

Well, we are only discussing epic play here. So the "3.5 did it" argument is to me a bit misplaced.

Bounded accuracy does have its limits. I don't think the intention was for orcs to still matter at top level. Again, this is only about levels 20-30.

Apologies - I obviously wasn't as clear as I could have been. I meant also that in 3.5 'to hit' and saves etc. DID continue to go up above 20, and they don't in epic level play in 5th.

On your last point, I think it was the very intention, that orcs etc. should still be able to fight epic level characters without it being an utter waste of everyone's time. That's the thing I like... to take more of a lower CR monster and throw more of it at higher level players to provide a threat. It should be easier to deal with because of the use of character resources and the payers decisions on how to deal with it, not merely down to the maths.

Ideally, to my mind, you shouldn't ever look down at this from your castle wall in epic play and think "pffff... orcs! lol"

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

Bad, bad idea to have proff. bonuses increase.

Having given it some additional thought, I'm now of the mind to cap class-based proficiency bonuses at +6. It's fine for monsters of appropriate CR's to have greater than a +6, as the monsters need them to remain competitive. Also, in what I'm working on, classes with levels higher than 20th will still be rare. Furthermore, back in the 80's, I capped out THAC0 at whatever the maximum value was that the DMG tables gave for characters with class levels exceeding the tables, and it worked fine.

Better to not add it in and correct for it, later, if needed, than to add it in and have the players expect to get it and then tell them "The rules have changed."