Hi all! I need to know if this is cool or stupid.... Thinking of doing a level 20 battle royale with my players. We're in the middle of Strahd and tensions are... high. Lol. My hook was this - I don't tell them anything ahead of time. They have 30 minutes to create a character, rolling for stats, once we all arrive. Hopefully this will minimize the totally optimized PCs.

Rules:

1. No spells of any kind. Want to be a ranger? Great, but no hunter's mark, etc. Strictly hack and slash gladiator stuff
2. Magical features are OK. Action surge, crimson rites, ki points, etc work
3. Weapons/armor - you get anything in the player's handbook, that's it. We'll assume all weapons do magical damage, I'm not bothering with +1s.
4. No potions
5. If you're a druid you're limited to 3 wild shapes

I'm hoping this makes things a little more interesting than "the moon circle druid and illusion wizard are locked in endless battle at the end". Should I move it to level 16 to avoid the quivering palm as well? Or just ban that? Thoughts? Thanks!

I’d make them do array or point buy, to keep everyone on equal footing. Otherwise the (arguably) most significant part of the fight will occur while they are rolling ability scores.

Solid point, appreciate it.

If you want to make it more like Battle Royale the movie, let them pick their armor but give everyone a random equipment pack that's guaranteed to include a "magic weapon" as well as basic pack stuff like rope, caltrops etc. No guarantee it's a weapon they're proficient in, or one that does anything useful, though (i.e. pack #4 contains an enchanted mace that lets you speak Celestial)