D&D 5E How many people start at 20th level?

[Evenglare]

It's annoying when my players strictly follow builds they find in theory crafting. What that says to me is that any story I put time an effort into will not affect their character at all because it is all planned out. I tend to like to craft my story to draw out emotions in other characters and make them think about what they are doing. If someone has every step of every level planned out it really takes the fun out of DMing for me. I might as well just run a purely mechanical game.

Thankfully I haven't had this happen but a very few times, and we don't play with those people anymore. But that's just me. If you find a DM that doesn't care about character progression in relation to the story then I can see how a person might like level 20 theory crafting. I absolutely abhor it though.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It's annoying when my players strictly follow builds they find in theory crafting. What that says to me is that any story I put time an effort into will not affect their character at all because it is all planned out. I tend to like to craft my story to draw out emotions in other characters and make them think about what they are doing. If someone has every step of every level planned out it really takes the fun out of DMing for me. I might as well just run a purely mechanical game.

Thankfully I haven't had this happen but a very few times, and we don't play with those people anymore. But that's just me. If you find a DM that doesn't care about character progression in relation to the story then I can see how a person might like level 20 theory crafting. I absolutely abhor it though.

That actually brings out an important point, and probably explains why I never worried about plans way out in advance about what my PC would look like. For one, they might not live that long . Secondly, I have found that in pretty much 100% of cases, how my PC progresses in levels is related to things that have happened to him or her in the game, as you say.

 

[Grainger]

If my players ever reach level 20, and they want to continue with the characters, I might give them a BECMI-style chance of ascension to Immortality, whereupon they can have further adventures.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

That actually brings out an important point, and probably explains why I never worried about plans way out in advance about what my PC would look like. For one, they might not live that long . Secondly, I have found that in pretty much 100% of cases, how my PC progresses in levels is related to things that have happened to him or her in the game, as you say.

Suboptimal builds can also turn out just fine due to randomly-found magic items or other things making up the difference. My players have been playing around recently with an ancient xixchil biomodification chamber that dies things to them that could not possibly have been anticipated at character creation time. Just like a Deck of Many Things, optimized characters avoid gambling with themselves, but organic characters have nothing to lose... (or so they think)

 

[Bacon Bits]

I think most people understand that, but I think what most people have a problem with is folks shooting down various builds or playstyles that people are actually using at the table because theoretically at level 20 that build/playstyle sucks.

I think this is why I never post my character until after I've finished a campaign. I don't want to post my battle mage only to have people respond, "Pfft. This should really be a Battle Sorcerer 4 / Paladin of Slaughter 2 / Abjurant Champion 5 / Spellsword 1 / Eldritch Knight 8. I mean if you want to keep up past level 1."

 

[Warmaster Horus]

I'll do a level-by-level build of a prospective character to get a feel for what they have access to and when. This goes to 20th level but it's an intellectual exercise more than a practical one.

 

[Celtavian]

I like to play a build for 20th, just in case I do get there. At the same time I do the plan with being effective at earlier levels in mind. If my build is only good at 20th level, then it isn't a great build. You want a build that has a good ability at 20th, while being effective and fun as you level.