So Im kinda new to d&d beyond I've made a few characters, and I've played a bit with them now. I soon realized that I could not go beyond lvl 20. And this is a problem because my dm allows us to go beyond that. Will there be support for any kind of epic campaign in the near future?
Feels bad. I really like how fleshed out this website is. But there seems to be weird limitations that I'm not a fan of.
Please note that these are limitations of the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition game - not something that D&D Beyond have arbitrarily put in place. They are part of the design of the game. :)
Just a comment on beyond level 20 gaming since you're new to D&D. The game basically breaks before you get to level 20. I'm not sure what kind of homebrewing your DM is going to weave, but once you're above 16ish things get kind of wonky. The meat of D&D is levels 3-12, and most of the creatures / challenges in the game reflect this.
You should obviously play the way you want, and you can just homebrew the post 20 content onto your character sheet when it comes time to that.
D and D doesn't officially limit you to level 20. That is a DNDB limitation. It does get a little wonky after 20 though since D and D didn't build anything beyond that with the exception of boons and blessings every 30k xp beyond 355k xp
What I don't understand is why Dndbeyond blocks you from multiclassing to a character level beyond 20. There is no rule that a character couldn't be a level 12 cleric and a level 12 fighter. I have no problem building encounters that can challenge those characters.
I also like to build character sheets for my boss npcs.
If I want to build a god level NPC to throw at my players, it's not going to be a level 20. It's going to have multiple classes maxed out. It would be nice if Dndbeyond didn't arbitrarily block you from doing that for absolutely no reason.
There is no rule that a character couldn't be a level 12 cleric and a level 12 fighter.
@JensDnD level is based on sum of all classes if multiclassing and as such you can't multiclass beyond combined level 20.
From the player's handbook (Chapter 6, Customisation Options; Multiclassing) "Your levels in all your classes are added together to determine your character level"
From the dungeon master's guide (Chapter 7, Other Rewards: Epic Boons) "An epic boon is a special power available only to 20th level characters...Epic boons can also be used as a form of advancement, a way to provide greater power to characters who have no more levels to gain"
Per rules, character level 20th is the max and character level is the sum of all class levels. So you couldn't be a level 12 cleric, level 12 fighter per the hard boundaries of 5th edition
Feels bad. I really like how fleshed out this website is. But there seems to be weird limitations that I'm not a fan of.
I mean for all intents and purposes that really isn't a 'weird' limitation, it might not be one satisfactory to what you're wanting but its certainly not weird when 5th edition has no rules or structure for post level 20 and consider it the max level. It was one of the issues with 3.5 realistically that it just kept escalating further and further and wasn't need when most groups don't even end up reaching level 20. Not to mention playing at that level literally requires a whole new scope of world building which would basically require a book for that alone, no group of regular creatures will challenge your party even remotely, no regular temple or dungeon will have puzzles you can't solve immediately or bypass.
Plus and this is just my personal view but I think most of the time people only want to play what gets called "epic" level play because they want their character to be able to do everything and can't deal with needing to pick, which to me runs contrary to half of the fun of D&D where you're solving problems and defeating enemies with creativity and what tools you have available.
this is a very arbitrary decision. because you already allow a great deal outside of the core rule limits. you already allow homebrew, if you didn't your site would be mostly dead. please don't give us false reasons for decisions.
this is a very arbitrary decision. because you already allow a great deal outside of the core rule limits. you already allow homebrew, if you didn't your site would be mostly dead. please don't give us false reasons for decisions.
They aren’t false reasons, it’s simply outside the design space of normal 5e homebrew. If you think that by allowing for creating homebrew magic items, monsters, spells, or subclasses is allowing a great deal outside of the core rule limits, then think again, because there is official rules and text on making such things. There are simply no rules for anything above level 20, and as such it cannot be implemented in D&D Beyond without them just making crap up.
this is a very arbitrary decision. because you already allow a great deal outside of the core rule limits. you already allow homebrew, if you didn't your site would be mostly dead. please don't give us false reasons for decisions.
Not arbitrary. The Rules encourage/facilitate the design of homebrew monsters, spells, items, and subclasses. They do not discuss leveling past 20, though do allow for boons, which is something D&D Beyond seems to be working at to more robustly support. The line of attack of this thread seems to presume outside observers of the 1-5 post count crowd believing they know what D&D Beyond can and can't do per the terms of their license with WotC.
In other words, the feature's you're citing to remove level cap, you're shown how to do that in the rules. The content you're adding through homebrew isn't "overriding" anything. Going past 20, from the Designers standpoint is not good for the game. If D&D ever supports past 20, D&D Beyond will work that support into its tool set, but as said WotC is unlikely to go that way based their understanding of what the broader player base wants to see in their game.
On a tangent, there's also a sort of Wittgenstein's Ladder thing at play here. If someone were to really play a character to level 20 from the ground up, at that point I don't think they'd really need D&D. Beyond to support their play since a large amount of their brain and lived experience has been dedicated to it ;)
this is a very arbitrary decision. because you already allow a great deal outside of the core rule limits. you already allow homebrew, if you didn't your site would be mostly dead. please don't give us false reasons for decisions.
You know what else is artibtrary? Levels. People that want to play to 30 are suffering form Spinal Tap syndrome thinking that well if 20 is epic then 30 will be even epic-er! My amp is louder because it goes to 11!
If you've actually played at 18+, you know the math breaks down. Parties can steamroll pretty much anything and you need to homebrew if you want a decent challenge. There's no point in taking things farther because you'd need to homebrew literally all of it.
If you've actually played at 18+, you know the math breaks down. Parties can steamroll pretty much anything and you need to homebrew if you want a decent challenge. There's no point in taking things farther because you'd need to homebrew literally all of it.
Well, no point aside from totally unchecked power fantasies, where the gods you vanquish are thinly veiled stand ins for shift supervisors and other authority figures who've crossed their path. Ahem, not that I'm projecting from experience or anything, ahem.
So Im kinda new to d&d beyond I've made a few characters, and I've played a bit with them now. I soon realized that I could not go beyond lvl 20. And this is a problem because my dm allows us to go beyond that. Will there be support for any kind of epic campaign in the near future?
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D&D Beyond FoundersIf Wizards of the Coast publish rules for play past level 20, then they will be available on D&D Beyond.
As things stand, it seems unlikely, based upon videos and interviews with the 5th edition D&D design team, but they may change their mind.
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Feels bad. I really like how fleshed out this website is. But there seems to be weird limitations that I'm not a fan of.
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D&D Beyond FoundersPlease note that these are limitations of the Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition game - not something that D&D Beyond have arbitrarily put in place. They are part of the design of the game. :)
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Just a comment on beyond level 20 gaming since you're new to D&D. The game basically breaks before you get to level 20. I'm not sure what kind of homebrewing your DM is going to weave, but once you're above 16ish things get kind of wonky. The meat of D&D is levels 3-12, and most of the creatures / challenges in the game reflect this.
You should obviously play the way you want, and you can just homebrew the post 20 content onto your character sheet when it comes time to that.
D and D doesn't officially limit you to level 20. That is a DNDB limitation. It does get a little wonky after 20 though since D and D didn't build anything beyond that with the exception of boons and blessings every 30k xp beyond 355k xp
https://www.dndbeyond.com/compendium/rules/dmg/other-rewards#EpicBoons
There doesn't appear to be a way to add a boon or blessing using the built in methods in DNDB but you could just make a homebrew item that adds it.
What I don't understand is why Dndbeyond blocks you from multiclassing to a character level beyond 20. There is no rule that a character couldn't be a level 12 cleric and a level 12 fighter. I have no problem building encounters that can challenge those characters.
I also like to build character sheets for my boss npcs.
If I want to build a god level NPC to throw at my players, it's not going to be a level 20. It's going to have multiple classes maxed out. It would be nice if Dndbeyond didn't arbitrarily block you from doing that for absolutely no reason.
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D&D Beyond FoundersAs per posts above, this isn't an arbitrary decision - this is a core part of the game design, as can be seen in the rulebook:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/step-by-step-characters#CharacterAdvancement
You're welcome to build god level NPC to throw at your players, using the homebrew monster system.
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
@JensDnD level is based on sum of all classes if multiclassing and as such you can't multiclass beyond combined level 20.
From the player's handbook (Chapter 6, Customisation Options; Multiclassing) "Your levels in all your classes are added together to determine your character level"
From the dungeon master's guide (Chapter 7, Other Rewards: Epic Boons) "An epic boon is a special power available only to 20th level characters...Epic boons can also be used as a form of advancement, a way to provide greater power to characters who have no more levels to gain"
Per rules, character level 20th is the max and character level is the sum of all class levels. So you couldn't be a level 12 cleric, level 12 fighter per the hard boundaries of 5th edition
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You can’t multi-class 2 level 20 either.
I mean for all intents and purposes that really isn't a 'weird' limitation, it might not be one satisfactory to what you're wanting but its certainly not weird when 5th edition has no rules or structure for post level 20 and consider it the max level. It was one of the issues with 3.5 realistically that it just kept escalating further and further and wasn't need when most groups don't even end up reaching level 20. Not to mention playing at that level literally requires a whole new scope of world building which would basically require a book for that alone, no group of regular creatures will challenge your party even remotely, no regular temple or dungeon will have puzzles you can't solve immediately or bypass.
Plus and this is just my personal view but I think most of the time people only want to play what gets called "epic" level play because they want their character to be able to do everything and can't deal with needing to pick, which to me runs contrary to half of the fun of D&D where you're solving problems and defeating enemies with creativity and what tools you have available.
this is a very arbitrary decision. because you already allow a great deal outside of the core rule limits. you already allow homebrew, if you didn't your site would be mostly dead. please don't give us false reasons for decisions.
They aren’t false reasons, it’s simply outside the design space of normal 5e homebrew. If you think that by allowing for creating homebrew magic items, monsters, spells, or subclasses is allowing a great deal outside of the core rule limits, then think again, because there is official rules and text on making such things. There are simply no rules for anything above level 20, and as such it cannot be implemented in D&D Beyond without them just making crap up.
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
there are rules for designing an explosive chicken that charms enemies and turns them into other explosive charming chickens? please.
Yes, if you want to go that far. (Thanks for the idea btw)
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
Not arbitrary. The Rules encourage/facilitate the design of homebrew monsters, spells, items, and subclasses. They do not discuss leveling past 20, though do allow for boons, which is something D&D Beyond seems to be working at to more robustly support. The line of attack of this thread seems to presume outside observers of the 1-5 post count crowd believing they know what D&D Beyond can and can't do per the terms of their license with WotC.
In other words, the feature's you're citing to remove level cap, you're shown how to do that in the rules. The content you're adding through homebrew isn't "overriding" anything. Going past 20, from the Designers standpoint is not good for the game. If D&D ever supports past 20, D&D Beyond will work that support into its tool set, but as said WotC is unlikely to go that way based their understanding of what the broader player base wants to see in their game.
On a tangent, there's also a sort of Wittgenstein's Ladder thing at play here. If someone were to really play a character to level 20 from the ground up, at that point I don't think they'd really need D&D. Beyond to support their play since a large amount of their brain and lived experience has been dedicated to it ;)
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
You know what else is artibtrary? Levels. People that want to play to 30 are suffering form Spinal Tap syndrome thinking that well if 20 is epic then 30 will be even epic-er! My amp is louder because it goes to 11!
If you've actually played at 18+, you know the math breaks down. Parties can steamroll pretty much anything and you need to homebrew if you want a decent challenge. There's no point in taking things farther because you'd need to homebrew literally all of it.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Well, no point aside from totally unchecked power fantasies, where the gods you vanquish are thinly veiled stand ins for shift supervisors and other authority figures who've crossed their path. Ahem, not that I'm projecting from experience or anything, ahem.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Made this based on
this
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature