D&D 5E Level 20 How?

[cmad1977]

No.
in ages past, playing Dragonlance in 2e, we made 18.
Probably had some xp hand waved by the DM though.


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[hejtmane]

I will say yes back in the old 1E days but that was long long ago. I hate playing the same levels over and over again

 

[Sunseeker]

Nope, best I've ever done in any edition is 15th. A lot of DMs are just unwilling to run anything higher, and I certainly understand why. PCs just become nigh unstoppable. The game really isn't any "fun" anymore.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Just because few people play a level 1-20 campaign does not mean that people don't play at 20th level (and every other level). There is no reason every campaign needs to start at level one. I've run adventures with characters at a variety of levels. After our LMoP adventure addendum ended in a virtual TPK (the party drove off the dragon, then went after her in her lair a week later--giving her time to prepare), we did a brief 20th level adventure where one of the players played their from that adventure, having been resurrected and now 20th level. I've also run adventures at level 10, an "ECL 20" adventure with giant characters (my own rules for playing monsters), and some playtest adventures at levels 4, 7, and some high level one I can't remember which. I've also played in a 14th level playtest adventure.

So all levels do get used, and I think the concept that higher levels don't really get used is based on a flawed concept--that you have to start a campaign at 1st level and advance in a straight line to 20th.

 

[transtemporal]

A lot of DMs are just unwilling to run anything higher, and I certainly understand why. PCs just become nigh unstoppable. The game really isn't any "fun" anymore.

It's not that its not fun, necessarily. Its that as a DM (as Hemlock alluded to) designing challenging encounters at high level means a heck of a lot more encounter management. Plus, monsters at that level have a lot of attack options/spells/abilities, plus bonus actions, plus reactions, plus legendary actions etc. And when you've got multiple creatures like that you spend most of your time keeping track of lists of numbers and conditions and you start to feel a bit like an accountant.

 

[wedgeski]

Nope, never made it from 1st all the way through to max level.

Might make for a good poll?

 

[Charles Rampant]

I'm working on having my group of 15th level norse-theme lads reach 20th level. At their current level, it is proving a little tougher than before, but by no means impossible, to put down good fights; a trio of Bulettes, for example, might not do a lot of damage, but they still provide entertainment. Lyn Armaal, the Cloud Giant castle from SKT, has been a perfect challenge for them - tough, with really brutal combats, but achievable.

Bounded Accuracy means that you can use monsters of the CR 2-5 range happily as 'adds' or 'chaff', depending on terminology; the players enjoy having small threats to burn AoEs on. And a CR 9 Cloud Giant hitting the Monk or Paladin twice in a turn - happens easily with +12 - results in some very appreciable damage being dealt. (The Paladin is especially vulnerable to their new Fling ability, doing 6d8 damage and knocking him prone and separated 60' from the party.) However, some player abilities become really hard to counter; Cloud Giants have absolutely no answer to a Rogue with stealth +15, a cloak of Invisibility, and a Broom of Flying. He has taken no damage at all in the castle, except on the one turn when he rolled a 1 for his stealth (houserule in effect for auto-fails on 1).

So as far as adventures go, it is not impossible to put down fights that the players will enjoy. However, I think that you will definitely never TPK any party above level 12, in practice, and will probably struggle to really challenge them except with a LOT of bad guys. The difficulty is in finding bad guys that can reasonably exist in such numbers and at such power levels. As always, heading to the Planes is probably your best bet; a sudden infestation of 80 Frost Giants in your Material Plane setting rather begs the question of why they didn't conquer the whole kingdom back when the PCs were level 1!

 

[Ancalagon]

I have never ever player or GMed a game with level 20 characters. Not once in 25 ish years.

The closest I've been to that were near completed 3rd career characters in my warhammer frpg silk road campaign.

 

[TallIan]

5E doesn't have that assumption, and I find it a little disorienting, especially since my players have rejected all offers to settle down. At level 15, they've finished 2 campaigns now, and every time a powerful monarch has offered them "Anything within my power to grant," they've turned down land and a stronghold in favor of yet another magic item.

Funny, my players can't do enough to get a castle at level 3.

Back to the OP I've never played a character from 1 to 20 and only ever played a handful of lvl 20 characters as a boy of a fun one off. Never DMd though.



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[RCanine]

In 4E I made it up to maybe 15th level; I DM'd one level 9 5E game where 4/5 PCs had at-will flight and ACs in the low-to-mid 20s, so most monsters were useless. I found telling stories to be pretty frustrating.

As for high-level monsters, it's pretty clear you want to design some negation around save-or-suck that doesn't feel bad for the PCs; spell immunity feels bad, but so does banish. I think a lot of it is going to depend on the specific party comp and their preferred strategies.