D&D 5E Level 20 Class Competition Ideas

As far as conditions and rules are concerned, I'd make the following adjustments:

ALLOWED SOURCES

Personally, I'd do multiple categories here, including but not limited to the following four:

  • Basic - Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, & Dungeon Master's Guide only.
  • Advanced - Everything in Basic plus Eberron: Rising from the Last War, Elemental Evil Player's Companion, Essentials Kit, Locathah Rising, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, Starter Set, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, The Tortle Package, Volo's Guide to Monsters, & Xanathar's Guide to Everything
  • Extreme - Everything in Advanced plus all other official hardcovers (Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, Mythic Odysseys of Theros, all adventure books and supplements, etc.)
  • (Virtually) Unrestricted - Everything in Extreme plus AL adventure content, playtest content such as Plane Shift and Unearthed Arcana, and community approved third party content


ABILITY SCORES

I'd personally allow Point Buy for a bit of variety (65 times the variety of the Standard Array!). Also, because I'm not a fan of just one array.

I'm curious to see what people would do differently for character builds if they had max stats (i.e. if all ability scores were 20 or even 30), so I propose AS 20 and AS 30 leagues as well.

STARTING EQUIPMENT

I'd do different categories here as well, though I'd keep your note about spell components the same in all categories:

  • Barebones - Equipment provided by / through one's class and background
  • Standard - Equipment provided by / through one's class and background plus what's given in a Standard Campaign
  • Deluxe - Equipment provided by / through one's class and background plus 35360 gold and up to 10 permanent magic items (1 legendary item, 2 very rare items, 3 rare items, and 4 uncommon items). Common permanent items and consumable items of any rarity can be bought with gold.

Preparation Categories

Essentially I'd have categories for how much prep is allowed, noting that all prep can only affect you or entities under your control (which can only be gained through the use of one's features):

  • No prep
  • "Surprise Round" prep - 1 round of prep time (Mainly allows for basic pre-casting, transformations, stances, rage, poison coating, etc.) Does not count as the actual 1st round of combat for abilities and features that check for such things
  • Imminent prep - 1 minute of prep time (Mainly allows for more involved, yet still basic fight preparations)
  • Short rest prep - 1 hour of prep time (Mainly allows for short term duration abilities or more advanced / longer setup pre-casting)
  • Long rest prep - 1 day of prep time (Mainly allows for the type of prep done at the start of an adventuring day)
  • Extended rest prep - 1 year of prep time (Allows for all but the most ridiculous setups)
  • Eternal rest prep - Infinite prep time (This is where you break out the infinites - simulacra, true polymorphed minions, demiplanes laden with all sorts of pre-cast glyphs of warding - or your crazy schemes to deal with such)
 
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The Winner is obvious:




The Shadow Lord
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Level 20 level:
Shadow Sorcerer level 20

Race: Scourge Aasimar


AC: 20 (25 if It casts Shield), the enemy always has disadvantage


Stats: Str 8 Dex 15 Con 13 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 14


Feats: Warcaster, Light Armored, Moderadely Armored, Weapon Master +2 DEX


After Racials and feats: Str 8 Dex 20 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 16

Well you've definitely got confidence if you think a melee Sorcerer with 16 Charisma winning any competition is "obvious".
 




Just to clarify re: allowed sources --
Is the intention to allow builds using race/class/bkgd/items/spells/feats pulled from any & all of those sources, or a more restricted set like "PHB+1"?
 

Honestly, I can't see nothing that can counter it.
Well, it is really pretty easy because all the things you want (such as the Eversmoking Bottle) won't take effect until your first turn. So, it won't thwart Portent, for example. And your Umbral form--also not until your first action. And so on... And every turn you want to hide inside the ground or wall, you take 5 damage and you are killing yourself (at least if you are still planning to upcast Spirit Guardians as your "battle plan" outlines...)

I'd head back to the drawing board and think about the fact that you don't have everything "up and running" just the way you want when battle starts.
 

Just to clarify re: allowed sources --
Is the intention to allow builds using race/class/bkgd/items/spells/feats pulled from any & all of those sources, or a more restricted set like "PHB+1"?

The ALLOWED SOURCES are outlined in the OP. These are the sources that at least 50% of people are likely to have access to.
 

The ALLOWED SOURCES are outlined in the OP. These are the sources that at least 50% of people are likely to have access to.
Yes, I understand that.
The question is, are ANY & ALL of them allowed for the build, or is there a restriction on number, since restrictions are a thing in some contexts?
No restriction is mentioned, so I assume not, but...
I'm asking, to be certain of the intent. ;)
 

Yes, I understand that.
The question is, are ANY & ALL of them allowed for the build, or is there a restriction on number, since restrictions are a thing in some contexts?
No restriction is mentioned, so I assume not, but...
I'm asking, to be certain of the intent. ;)
Oh, sorry!

In that case my intent is ANY & ALL of the Allowed Sources listed can be used.

I think the only thing that people might question is races. Obviously, playable monster races are permitted as long as it is understood they are playable.
 

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