Reaching level 20 is somewhat rare in Dungeons and Dragons since it can take a really long time if you strictly follow the rules. When you get there, you might be asking yourself: what now?
Maybe you just got there and are now wondering what to do, or maybe you’re just curious. Either way, it’s an interesting question. So, what happens after level 20 in DnD?
After level 20, you can’t acquire any more levels. However, Epic Boons can be granted to level 20 players. The rules themselves aren’t detailed when it comes to playing after level 20, although there are lots and lots of homebrew materials that you can use. For example, players can be granted bonus attunement slots, ability score upgrades, and more based on acquired XP after level 20.
There’s more to be said about DnD post-20. For example, what’s the game like? For all intents and purposes, you’re practically a demi-god. What kind of scenarios are good? Read more to find out all about it.
What Happens After Level 20 In DnD?
DnD games normally end before level 20, and at most for a lot of people, the final mission is completed by around levels 17 through 20.
However, there are still rewards that you can either come up with or use from other players after you’ve hit level 20. However, what’s the game like after level 20? All of your players are far more powerful than most monsters at level 20, especially if you have Epic Boons.
Let’s go through Epic Boons in short. They’re similar to Feats but more powerful. They were released with the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG). For every 30K XP that your character gets, you get to select an Epic Boon.
For example, Boon of Combat Prowess lets you hit an attack you would have missed: “When you miss with a melee weapon attack, you can choose to hit instead. Once you use this boon, you can’t use it again until you finish a short rest.“
A character with a couple of Epic Boons plus a level 20 class feature is, by any measure, broken beyond belief. That’s why it can be tricky to balance campaigns post-20, both mechanically and narratively.
Narrative and Progression Post 20
A good idea can be to change up the narrative after you’ve hit level 20. Your character is now so powerful that he/she can start aiming for greater things — this can mean acquiring a Guild, starting a religion, or overthrowing the governing body.
There’s a great book by Matt Colville that expands on these ideas. The book is for DMs and players who want characters that influence the world to a greater extent, and I think that a post-level 20 environment is perfect combined with the book (If you’re interested, here’s the link to the publisher’s website. It’s available in PDF).
The sky is still the limit, in my opinion, and there’s no real need to start over with a new game if you don’t feel completely satisfied. Some people save their level 20 characters for later, start a new game, and when they don’t have time for a full DnD session, they run an epic one-shot with their level 20 characters.
You can also let players keep leveling after 20. Just scale the XP in an appropriate way, then let them specialize in another subclass, give them more stats, and so forth. Or, let them specialize in another class entirely, but speed it up somewhat.
You can cap the level at 30, and give them two levels in another class per level-up after 20. Then, at level 30, they would have two fully leveled classes.
How Long Does it Take to Reach Level 20?
In my experience, and from what I’ve heard from others, games don’t go on to level 20 that often. Sometimes, your group gets split up because of disinterested parties, and sometimes because you start over.
I think the main reason that this happens is because of the amount of time that it normally takes to reach level 20. Of course, with alternative rules, you can reach level 20 in no time, but I’ll keep to the official rules.
Let’s go through the amount of XP required to reach level 20. Below, you can find a table with the required XP for each level from 1-20.
| Level | Required XP to Reach |
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 300 |
| 3 | 900 |
| 4 | 2,700 |
| 5 | 6,500 |
| 6 | 14,000 |
| 7 | 23,000 |
| 8 | 34,000 |
| 9 | 48,000 |
| 10 | 64,000 |
| 11 | 85,000 |
| 12 | 100,000 |
| 13 | 120,000 |
| 14 | 140,000 |
| 15 | 165,000 |
| 16 | 195,000 |
| 17 | 225,000 |
| 18 | 265,000 |
| 19 | 305,000 |
| 20 | 355,000 |
As you can see, there’s a lot of ground to cover before you reach level 20. If we pool all the XP together, we get 2,148,400 XP. That’s the official required XP to reach level 20 in DnD 5e.
Of course, if you’re bold, skillful, and successful in your endeavors, you can collect XP faster by defeating harder foes. I’ll refer to our article on Challenge Rating (CR) for this, but in short, you can say that higher CR monsters yield more XP than low CR monsters.
Read more: What Is Challenge Rating in DnD?
So, it takes 2,148,400 XP to get to level 20 in Dungeons and Dragons. If we were to convert that to time, we would get varying results depending on how often you play and how long your sessions are.
For most people, this takes months and months to do. It’s completely understandable that most people don’t reach level 20. People oftentimes want to try out other characters, not only to play a different class but for different roleplaying opportunities.
Read more: How Long Should it Take to Level Up in DnD?
Milestone Leveling as an Alternative Method
Of course, there are other ways to approach levels in Dungeons and Dragons. You don’t have to resort to dedicating obscene amounts of time if you really want to get to level 20.
A lot of DMs let their players start the game at higher levels than level 1, for example. Other DMs use what is called milestone leveling.
Milestone leveling is when you let players level up after events such as the completion of quests. This can tie a more objective reward system to the act of completing a quest, plus a bunch of other benefits.
That’s why milestone leveling is widely used. For example, every character levels up at the same time, you can level at the end of sessions, or when you’re taking breaks, and the Dungeon Master can very easily control the flow of levels.