Character levelled 1 through 20...have you?

[Thurbane]

Just curious, how many of you out there have nurtured a character from 1st level right through to 20th, and maybe even beyond into epic?

Also, for those who have, how long (real time and game time) did it take? Months? Years? Was it all under the same DM, or did this character hop between campaigns?

 

[Richards]

In all my years of playing (and DMing)...never. The highest we've ever gotten was 15th-16th.

Johnathan

 

[Carpe DM]

Funny you should ask --

I've played for, what, sheesh, 20 years now (garsh I'm old) and the highest I've seen is 17th.

cheers,

Carpe

 

[The Levitator]

I started a barbarian in 6th grade (1981ish) and ran him from 1st to 16th and retired him my junior year (1986ish). What's really strange in looking back, we gamed at least a couple a times a week, with some sessions going well past 10-12 hours, and it still took about 5 years to get to 16th level. It definitely seems like progression was slower in earlier editions of D&D compared to 3.5.

My players have a feel for slower progression, because our current campaign is 2x Core. Even at that, they've gone from 2nd to 5th in 11 sessions, and we don't play nearly as long as we did in high school.

 

[blargney the second]

Never. I wish...

 

[wildstarsreach]

in 3.5 in an Age of Wyrms Eberron campaign, we went from 1st to 21st after completing the defeat of Kyuss. It took 60 sessions over 15 months to complete.

In 1st/2nd ed I had 7 characters in over 20 years that went over 20th and 2 that reach 30+. I had 25 that reach between 9th and 15th and plenty more below that. Many more below that.

I've been playing since 77 and for many years everyweekend from friday through sunday.

 

[blargney the second]

Some people have all the luck. I've never gone all the way in D&D. *le sigh*

 

[Dice4Hire]

3rd to 27th was my best.

It took about 1 and a half years playing 5-6 hours virtually every week. It was a gestalt game with three players, including the DM. Man that character was a mash up of abilities. I think he ended up with 12-14 classes. And I cannot blame the DM because he was me. The other two players had 5-6 classes each.

 

[paradox42]

As a player, the highest I've ever been is 13th, in a 1E game that started at 1st.

As a DM, however, I'm currently running two Epic games- one around 23rd level and the other around 36th. The 36th-level game started at 1st level 6 1/2 years ago (well, almost- April of 2001 had the first sessions) and still has one character from the very first party of four in it; two PCs who joined the game at about 3rd level are also still with the party. Others have come and gone over the years, but only one member of the currently-seven-strong party started out in double digits. The rest have been going for years. The party took about 4 1/2 years to reach 20th, playing from 1st; checking the logs I see they hit 20th during the Bastion of Broken Souls run in December of 2005. The first members went to 21 at the end of that adventure.

I must admit to being very curious what 4th Edition is going to bring, particularly since my main campaign is already beyond its currently-stated limit of 30th level.

 

[delericho]

Sort of. When we played through Shackled City, the characters started at 1st level and were 19th when the last die fell. They would have received sufficient XP to reach 20th level after that, but we never levelled them up. I should note that I was DM for that campaign, and only three of the original PCs 'made it', only one of whom hadn't died in the course of the campaign.

The campaign took eleven months in real time, playing roughly weekly for roughly six hours at a time.