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

[Alkavian]

I've had two characters reach 20 level. A barbarian from 3e that made it to 24 with the epic level handbook and a psion who made it to 20. It takes a long time, and we always start at level 1. The average level reached typically is between 11-13. High level play is fun when you've been with your character that long. Usually around 18th level you start looking at how to round out your legacy and retire when you get up to 20th.

 

[aramis erak]

I've never run a game that exceeded 19th. And that was in Cyclopedia rules. Typically, my groups want a change around 10th level...

 

[KidSnide]

I've had games that lasted 10 years and 15 years, and neither got close to level 20. The one exception I'll note is that both games had moments in which the players had a chance to play their high level NPC allies (often in the face of near total disaster) which did provide a brief opportunity to play very high level characters. I find it's a lot of fun, partially because of the change of pace, and also because it provides some player agency when a DM wants to "thin out" the high-level patrons* to give the mid-level PCs more agency.

-KS

(*) The 10 year game was grey box forgotten realms and there were quite a few high level NPCs that needed to valiantly give their lives before the PCs could save/destroy the world.

 

[Sunseeker]

I'm considering starting a game at level 20, simply so that I never have to deal with people leveling up, and instead awarding boons and wishes and cool magical gear for completing dangerous quests/defeating terrible foes.

I'm not sure how well that would work, but I'm rather interested in trying it.

 

[Henry]

Only one 3e game (not 3.5) I played to 16th level, and the only game I played a 20+ character was an Epic 3.5 game where we started at 17th level.

I'm assuming that 99% of all the 18th to 20th level talk is theorycrafting, as hobbyists are wont to do.

 

[aramis erak]

I've had games that lasted 10 years and 15 years, and neither got close to level 20. The one exception I'll note is that both games had moments in which the players had a chance to play their high level NPC allies (often in the face of near total disaster) which did provide a brief opportunity to play very high level characters. I find it's a lot of fun, partially because of the change of pace, and also because it provides some player agency when a DM wants to "thin out" the high-level patrons* to give the mid-level PCs more agency.

-KS

(*) The 10 year game was grey box forgotten realms and there were quite a few high level NPCs that needed to valiantly give their lives before the PCs could save/destroy the world.

I've had campaigns hit high teens in well under a year.

 

[Alkavian]

My 24th level Barbarian/Ranger took 4 years to reach that level. I was still in the Army at the time and we had a lot of time in the barracks to play many sessions a week. Often we'd play a couple hours every other day after work. This went on the first two years....with the last two years being far more spaced out in game sessions. It is pretty easy to reach higher levels with that sheer volume of game sessions. I enjoy high level play, but it does become a bit tedious when even demi-gods and the like are fair game. I think that once 20th level is reached it is a good point to wrap up any loose ends and retire - make a new character.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

A lot of these discussions are about theoretical character optimization. Cribbing from the Theoretical Optimization Manifesto, it's a fun discussion to have for some people, it's a useful resource for learning how to build effective characters, it highlights rules issues, and encourages good rules comprehension.

I would encourage anyone who is critical or frustrated by having to look at or hear about high-level character build theorycrafting to click on that link. While point #1 doesn't do anything for me, the remaining points are very, very useful.

And this is coming from a DM who doesn't even want to see highly optimized builds in my games, and who isn't really interested in them as players.

As far as experience...I ran a one-shot (2 session) 5e 20th level adventure a few weeks ago. It was fun. The rules seemed to work fine. Everyone was single classed except for the monk/rogue who was going for a theif-acrobat feel.

I've been a player in a 3.5e game that started somewhere in epic levels, and it was a mechanical mess. It literally took me about 20 hours to create my character. We had sessions that amounted to about a round and half of combat. The DM's storyline was fun though.

I'm a fan of old-school high-level play. I fully intend to have a campaign that goes from 1st-20th and last 10-15 years of real time. And I'll replace any moved-away players I need to keep it going, dang it!

 

[Sunseeker]

I would encourage anyone who is critical or frustrated by having to look at or hear about high-level character build theorycrafting to click on that link. While point #1 doesn't do anything for me, the remaining points are very, very useful.

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.

 

[Sacrosanct]

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.

That's half of it. The other half is people telling you which build you should have because they'll be super uber at level 20, when you a) never actually ever reach level 20, and b) aren't having fun from levels 1-1x because you're behind and don't start getting those uber combinations for teens of levels first.

Which sort of let do my original assumption that those people who suggest those builds either start at level 20, or haven't actually played the PC and are just theorizing about concepts, because I can't even grasp why someone would hamstring themselves for years of actual game play slogging through 20 levels before they finally to the PC they wanted.