Poll: What is the highest level you've ever gamed to?

[kitsune9]

The highest level I think I went when I played was either 11 or 13. I cannot remember which. I do know I never made it 14. That campaign was a 3.0 and the DM moved to Seattle.

For DMing, I have frequently ended the campaign in the upper teens, but I did DM an adventure for 39th level characters to give Epic Level Handbook a try. The highest level campaign that started from 1st level ended at 24th level. All of these games were 3.0 or 3.5.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Putting level numbers here kinda makes it hard to judge as what the level is varies so much.

But I have DMed and played till the high 20s in both 3.5 and 4E. No idea of my highest level before then.

My highest level in other game systems is not high, as most o the games did not last long at all.

 

[delericho]

Almost all of my gaming has been as DM.

My Shackled City campaign reached 18th by the end. Had we bothered adding XP after that last session, the PCs would have reached 19th level. I also ran one 2nd Edition game that reached 15th level, just barely, by the end.

Otherwise, D&D has been mostly low-level stuff, with most campaigns topping out around 8th level or so. Though I'm hoping my current 3.5e game will reach the upper teens (currently at 4th level).

The other system I ran an epic campaign in was Vampire (the Dark Ages/Masquerade crossover). That started with the PCs as neonates, and after 6 years real-time/2,300 years game-time they had reached methuselah-level abilities. That was... interesting.

As a player, I don't think I've ever played a campaign above 5th level. There have been occasional one-shot games higher than that, including several campaigns that failed after the first session, but nothing with any legs.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Well, at least no one's claiming to have played OD&D to 250th level and killed Thor with a Push spell! (These things were reported in Dragon mag back in the day.) But some pretty high level games, nonetheless.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Highest I ever went as a player was, I think, 15th, after many years of playing. Character started as a Wizard in 2e, made it to 11th, then converted over to 3.x at some point, gained a few more levels, and is now an NPC under 4e. I noticed him becoming unbalanced (read: overly powerful) even under 2nd, and in 3.x it just got worse. I have little desire to play him as a PC again, even though those issues are mostly resolved in 4th.

Highest I ever DMed was an arc from 1-18, again, starting with 2e (up to about 6th level), then converting through 3.0 and then 3.5 by campaign's end. This took about 3 years of weekly games, and started becoming very, very time-intensive and hard to balance by the low teens. The players very much enjoyed playing, and really got into their characters. They still ask me time to time to revisit that campaign, but in truth, I couldn't do it. As a system, 3.x was just too punishing to DM, and some of the players don't think their characters are even possible under 4th (not true). I may get back to it someday, but I'd either have to go back to (heavily back-ported/houseruled) 2nd ed, or convince them that their characters still work under 4th and use that.

 

[Celtavian]

re

16 or 17 through third edition.

Lvl 20 Pathfinder.

Adventure paths make getting to 20 so much easier in Pathfinder. I've never had as much pleasure DMing as I have had DMing Pathfinder Adventure Paths. They give you such a great framework to work with in almost every AP that I feel inspired to DM every time I read one. I usually extend them out so the characters hit 20.

 

[Argyle King]

D&D 3rd Edition - I've both played and DMed games which were level 20 and beyond. I've played in several campaigns which started at level 1 and went into epic levels. I think the last game I was involved in ended somewhere around level 60.

D&D 4th Edition - I've both played and DMed games which went to level 30. I have plans to try out a houseruled way of going beyond 30. I've played in several campaigns which started at level 1 and went to level 30.

GURPS - No levels, but I've played in games where characters had progressed into point totals which were well over a 1000 points.

 

[Pentius]

The highest I've gotten to starting at level 1 is 9. But I've played a few games where started at higher level.

If we expand it to video games, I hit about 9200 in Disgaea.

 

[Impeesa]

Answered 21-25 for both - exactly once each. I played a character 1-22 in 3.5, and DM'd a game of about the same range over a longer time period (starting with old 1E/2E books and converting to 3.X as it came out). Everything else seems to peter out in the single digits, as others have also observed. Also, 1-14 (and intermittently counting) in a Robotech game, at a mostly legitimate rate.

Well, at least no one's claiming to have played OD&D to 250th level and killed Thor with a Push spell! (These things were reported in Dragon mag back in the day.) But some pretty high level games, nonetheless.

Well, Upper_Krust and S'mon haven't responded yet...

 

[Voadam]

I've played in a 1e game where I made it up to level 3 as a human fighter then switch classed to magic-user and got up to level 20 MU.

I can't remember if the highest level in 3.5 I DM'd a campaign to was 16 or 17.