I’ve been wondering this for a while. The later class features and spells look cool. I love dnd, and I don’t mind a campaign that doesn’t reach level 20. I just want to know. Please include thresholds and normal xp advancement.

EDIT: Sorry for not being clear in the description. I meant how long in your campaign does it take. Seems like you guys are already doing that though😊

There isn't really a set period of time, it depends on how long your sessions go, how often you meet, and how much exp your DM awards. There are a whole host of other factors that could influence it. My suggestion would be to try and find fun in the moments you have now. Some of the best D&D is in the low levels when you don't have answers for everything and it's an adventure just to survive.

My group has been playing for 4-5 hours once every two weeks for something on the order of 2 years and they're still level 6. It's a rather RP-heavy game rather than combat-heavy, and sessions move rather slowly, and they decided to take a several-month layover doing stuff I told them would earn them no XP (working out several years of downtime in detail while their characters built up a town they stole). On the other hand, the official modules suggest it should take about 9 months to get to level 15 when playing at the same rate.

There is no reason you can't give exp for tasks that don't involve combat. 

Quote from Wysperra >>

There is no reason you can't give exp for tasks that don't involve combat. 

True, and I do do that - but I don't give XP for 'talking amongst one another without doing anything'. Which happens a lot. I also didn't want to try and figure out how to shoehorn XP into the downtime system I made for them when I put it together, though if I were to go back and re-do it now I would - at the time I didn't realize it'd take a full 5-hour session to game out one or two seasons (3-6 months) of downtime.

I will admit my DM likes to give out lots of XP, mind you we're also doing some fantastically dangerous things.

My Barbarian started off back in November, and hit Level 20 sometime in the past two months.  So 6-7 months on my end.  I'd wager a normal game might take about a year, if you're consistent.

But even my DM flat out said a big reason I leveled as quick as I did is because I stuck with the character week after week.

I played in a OoTA game where we started at level 1 and reached level 15, and it took us around around 8 months. However my DM was also very new at that point and games after that have been leveling up faster as well as we've gained XP for non-combat things. 

I think if someone really thinks outside the box or becomes super creative on their interactions with NPCs they may receive XP. 

Example: Paladin rolls for diplomacy action, even tho he rolled a 19, not a crit of the standard, I would let them say what they do. If they say, 'Oh I convince him to give us aid in the next battle' well good for you, you have aid... if they say ' I tell the king of our victory over the last battle, the fights we endured and how even when all seemed lost, we came above. I ask for his aid as even tho we are victorious at times, the world can not depend on just 4 people' I may offer some XP... and yet if he can give a grander display and speech, I motion to the rogue to sneak off for a spell as I beseech the king in how we can aid him if he offers help in return, offering up my shield and sword for his to command if he allows me a chance to show him that we can save more than this kingdom, and as I kneel before him, sword raised in hands the rogue appears from the second story, an arrow flying from his crossbow as I stand and cut the arrow in two with my blade, the arrow soon falls to the feet of the king... I will grant him more xp and possibly a rank among the kinds legion.

Now this is all just a possibility, and I know there are far better things that could happen, but this was on the fly, so I do apologize. But yes, leveling may be slow, depending on how the sessions go and how the PCs play. Offer some xp in ways without telling them right off that they can earn it that way. The only issue I face with this kind of xp awarding is that some players may end up leveling a bit faster than others and I dont want anyone feeling left behind.

This varies widely on so many different factors.

Even if you say every session is combat-heavy, the amount of time to reach level 20 can still vary a ton. How well the party can deal with different combat encounters, how big the party is, how much XP the encounters are giving and how close that is to what the characters could possibly handle, the players having any NPC help, and the number of magic items or other loot the party gets can all significantly effect how quickly the party can gain XP and hit level 20. 

Then add in other complications of players not being able to make sessions, player deaths, non-combat or non-xp interactions, among many, many other things and you can see why its difficult to give a proper estimate of this. 

I'd think it can go quite fast. It depends on the amount of challenges you face down.

I view levels as the inherent potential of characters, so they already have the potential for, in a short amount of time, to go from level 0 to level 20.