Character Levels above 20

[Ricochet]

There is something I don't understand.

According to the PHB and many other sources, a character can gain 20 character levels total, before he/she is to become epic.

Now, many of the NPCs listed in Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting have more than this!

Some examples:

Elminster: Ftr1/Rog2/Clr3/Wiz20/Acm5/Epic4

Dove Falconhand: Rgr14/Sor9/Rog4/Hrp1

Nevron: Cjr10/Wiz10/Acm2/Epic2


Now I can look past the epic levels here, but still these guys are above lvl20, so what are the rules exactly?

Can you make a character Wiz20/Ftr20/Rog20 for instance??

 

[Kae'Yoss]

There's a sidebar on page 289, FRCS: "Characters above 20th level". There you find the rules to advance characters further. It's a very basic version of the epic level rules, used mainly to be able to describe those characters in any way (they have always been very high level). The epic level handbook has the "true" stats for them, using the full epic level rules, by the way (along some other Realms personalities, and some from Grayhawk, amongst whom is Mordenkainen)

 

[Ricochet]

Didnt see that, thanks!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

NP.