D&D 5E How many of your campaigns ACTUALLY ever get to 20th level?

[Pentegarn]

How many of your campaigns ACTUALLY ever get to 20th level?

We find all kinds of cool combinations and broken goodness at upper levels, but honestly, I usually get bored or burned out around 12th. How frequently do you guys ever get your D&D/Pathfinder campaigns up to 20th level?

jh

I both played in and DM'd many campaigns that started between 1st-3rd level and made it to 20th+. Of course this was in 1st/2nd edition AD&D. I started 3rd edition around 2001 or so. Played through it, 3.5, Pathfinder, 4e, then back to Pathfinder. Through all that time I never had a campaign finish, let alone reach 20th. Between rule bloat and dependency on the battle grid coded into those rule systems, battles took forever. Any time we got into a dungeon, we'd have many nights where campaign progress amounted to exploring a couple of rooms or making it from one end of the hall to the other. Eventually, everyone would reach that point where they just didn't feel like putting up with it any longer. We'd quit for awhile, then we'd return and it'd end up the same.

Went back to 2nd edition, then tried a couple of other systems like LL, OSRIC, and the like. We settled on DCC, but did some house ruling and combined it with LL. Kept DCC's flatter math, but raised level from 10 to 20. Anyway, back on topic, one of my group is 17th level now. And one of my online groups just hit 14th.

The only reason I stuck with 3e/Pathfinder so long was because my AD&D material was destroyed by water damage in 2003. I tried some heavy house ruling to remove the battle grid from 3e/Pathfinder. It helped, but the game was still too bloated. Turned to 4e out of desperation. Just couldn't bear the thought of having to rebuild my AD&D collection again from scratch. But 4e was a nightmare. Since we went back to AD&D and on to what we are playing now, I and several of my players have remarked many times, when the topic came up, about how much we regret all the time wasted on the other editions. Our campaigns, and the combat and role play in them, just flow now.

 

[Ricochet]

My last one did, and my current is heading there too. We are level 17 now. Took a good six-seven years per campaign too.

 

[Zardnaar]

From level 1? Never. We made it to level 19 once in a monty haul game summer 1995/96.

 

[pemerton]

Frequency of play is also a huge factor. You pretty much have to be playing weekly to advance from 1-20. If you play monthly (which I know is the case for a lot of older games with families), it's almost impossible.

Since around 1999 my group has been playing fortnightly. For the duration of my 4e campaign it has been probably 20 sessions a year, of a duration of 3 to 4 hours per session. I think the levelling rate has actually been pretty close to the default suggested in the 4e DMG (around 15 hours of play per level), just stretched out over a longer overall timeframe.

Don't forget the need for fully-fleshed NPCs of levels 20+

In my campaigns, at least, when the PCs reach those levels many of the NPCs in question are gods, demon princes etc.

 

[Maggan]

How many of your campaigns ACTUALLY ever get to 20th level?

We find all kinds of cool combinations and broken goodness at upper levels, but honestly, I usually get bored or burned out around 12th. How frequently do you guys ever get your D&D/Pathfinder campaigns up to 20th level?

jh

Once. So once in every 32 years so far. Trending towards once in every 33 years.

But maybe my Kingmaker campaign players will at least see level 20 on the horizon.

Cheers!

/Maggan

 

[WayneLigon]

How many of your campaigns ACTUALLY ever get to 20th level?

Never gotten there. I've played since 3-book D&D. Previous to 3E, I never saw a game go past 13th. Our first 3E game lasted until we were 17th. After that, things tended to drop off sharply and end about 12th to 13th, when the system started to break down.

 

[Dausuul]

I have never played in a campaign that made it from a low level (1-5) all the way to 20th. (I have played in a 3E game that hit 20th, but it started at 18th.)

In college, I joined a 2E game that had started at 1st (though when I came in, the level was 6th). That one ran up to 14th level. My first 4E campaign ran from 1st to 14th as well. That's the widest level range I've seen.

 

[Starfox]

...maybe my Kingmaker campaign players will at least see level 20 on the horizon.

Cheers!

/Maggan

I think most Pathfinder adventure paths peak at level 12-15. Wrath of the Righteous being the notable exception.

 

[Starfox]

... This is the campaign that we, the players, asked for halved XP rewards so that our characters would last longer... We played 8-10 h/week during those three years.

And since we liked it so much, nobody tried to break the system or break the campaign - and thus they both stayed unbroken.

Well, those characters were pretty advanced. When the COD-zilla druid had trouble keeping up, you know it was high-powered. (This was a variant that had traded wildshape for monk-like defenses)

Swashbuckler growing into Bladesinger - this was the king of damage
Pure ranger - the skills guy
Druid, started out as CoDzilla but had to diverify into summoning
Variant pixie sorcerer with some levels of a dance magic PrC from magic of the forgotten realms
Wizard - the player quit at level 8 or so, at which point the wizard was still feeling pretty weak
An NPC mystic theurge (sorcerer/favored soul) buff specialist

So, nobody was "breaking the system" but neither were you bread-and-butter fighters.

And yes, we used a variant of recharge magic that made casters less explosive but made buffs a bit too accessible. The NPC buffer was the follower of the ranger and did a lot to even things out.

 

[Gargoyle]

Never. My highest was a 12th level fighter in a 2e game; I remember captaining a Spelljammer and having crazy luck with the dice. As a DM, I don't think I've had a D&D campaign go past 9th level. Combat slowing down in 3e and 4e probably had something to do with it, but really the problem was always people moving or work schedules changing.