How to Continue the Game When the PCs Reach Level 20

Greetings, gamers from all systems, places and timelines!

While there are definitely reasons why a campaign should end when the group reaches level 20, there are also plenty of reasons why it shouldn’t if the players wish to continue. This article will not focus on the philosophy of when a game should end, it will instead look at options making play past level 20 possible.

Let’s see if we can accomplish this without reinventing the wheel or rewriting every class – and keep experience points as a viable reward.

How Does It Work?

Advancing after level 20 can go a few different ways:

1. Allow further advancement for a character who’s already been multiclassing throughout their career.
2. Allow an opportunity for a character who has mastered one class to try something new.
3. Allow a player who isn’t interested in changing classes at all a way to ride their class’s train to the end of the station no matter where it goes.

What does that look like?

Past level 20, class advancement will be fast-tracked. Levels will have the same benefits as if they were a 2-to-1 ratio. By level 30, a character will have all of the class abilities if that were actually 20th level in two separate character classes.

Time for Some Confusing, Low-Budget Charts

Epic Levels XP    Prof     Class Abilities              

21 405,000      +6         1-2                                                                  

22 460,000      +6         3-4                              

23 515,000     +6        5-6

24 575,000     +7         7-8                              

25 635,000     +7        9-10

26 700,000      +7        11-12                          

27 765,000     +7        13-14

28 835,000     +8        15-16                          

29 915,000     +8        17-18

30 1,000,000  +8        19-20

What Does It All Mean?

Any levels gained past level 20 are considered Epic Levels.

Let’s take a character who was a fighter, reached level 20 and now wants to try the wizard class. At 21st level they, would have one epic level in the wizard class providing them with all of the class benefits from Wizard levels 1 and 2. When the same character reaches level 22, they gain a second Epic Level and all of a wizard’s class benefits from levels 3 and 4, and so on.

What’s With the XP requirements Chart?

That is a fair question. My short answer is that reaching level 30 should require an Earth-shattering amount of experience. You know, the kind that should probably be acquired over one or more human lifetimes. However, we still don’t want it to take an actual lifetime to level.

So, stay clear of trying to jam countless monsters into an encounter to keep everyone on track to level at the end of the session. Instead, if you haven’t already switched to the Milestone leveling system, handle advancement in a way that works best for your group.

What About Subclasses?

A subclass can be selected as soon as the character qualifies for them by obtaining enough Epic Levels.

Proficiency Increases

These increase at Epic Levels 24 and 28, respectively.

Do You Still Gain Hit Points?

Hit Points gained from epic levels are at 50% of the amount of the levels gained from levels 1-20. For example, if the same character took an epic level in the wizard class, they would gain ½ of 1d6 ( or 4) + their constitution bonus.

Improved ASI and Feat Benefits

Any characters who are able to gain Epic Levels no longer have their ASIs or Feats limited to an ability score of 20. These become available at levels 22, 24, 26, and 28 in addition to any provided by their class.

Why Stop at Level 30?

A few reasons really, the first being it would be one hell of an XP grind to get there. If you think the jump from level 29 to 30, is steep just imagine what advancing from 39 to 40 would look like.

Not to say that reaching level 20, let alone 30, isn’t a huge accomplishment, but this would also further stretch the limits of the bounded accuracy. And trust me when I say that some of the earlier editions had some serious issues with this. It was near impossible to challenge characters who either almost never missed an attack or their spells and effects were virtually impossible to defend against.

What If I Don’t Want to Change Character Classes as I Gain Epic Levels?

While this may not be the best option, you can stay in your current class and choose a new subclass to keep gaining hit points, ASIs/feats and so on. You would really get more bang for your buck if you took on a new class, but we get it. Dumbledore wouldn’t put down his wizard hat for a sword, so we made an advanced spell table.

It’s a good idea for the DM to offer some incentives to keep this character scaling up in power with the rest of the group.

Spell Slots Gained by Epic Levels for Arcane Casters      

21 Two 1st, 2nd, and 3rd

22  Two 4th and one 5th

23  One 5th and 6th

24  One 7th and 8th

25  One 9th 

26 Two 1st, 2nd, and 3rd                     

27  Two 4th and one 5th

28  One 5th and 6th

29  One 7th and 8th

30  One 9th

Spell Slots Gained by Epic Levels for Martial Classes Like Eldritch knight and Paladin

21 1st level

22 2nd level

23 3rd level

24 4th level

25 New 5th level

26 Two first level

27 Two second level

28 Two 3rd

29 Two 4tth

30 One Fifth

Final Thoughts

Having options is a good thing, and that also applies to game mechanics. Not to say that all campaigns should go on forever, but maybe you’re not ready for your favorite character of all time to be dragged off to the retirement home, either. Nor should a character entirely lose their ability to learn from their experiences when the benefits could just take a different direction.

In a later article, we’ll explore how to create an environment for gameplay past the traditional level caps and how to overcome the challenges that come with that.