I assume there is no limit but I find it strange that the spells only show up to level 20. 

I guess my first major campaign when I was young started on AD&D first edition.  It had spells up to level 29 (https://ibb.co/T0p4kZq)

We actually did run all the way until the characters were level 25-30 or so.  Of course it was challenging for monsters, but mostly they fought NPCs or were on other planes.

There are no official releases for anything beyond 20th level. I can only imagine there are plenty of homebrew options for beyond 20, but I've honestly never looked. Also, because wizards has never released anything for beyond 20th level for 5e dndbeyond does not support going beyond 20th level with their character creation tools.

There's no official support for levels beyond 20th in the fifth edition of dungeons and dragons, but there are epic boons. Instead of gaining levels, you gain various boons and benefits. It can found in the dungeon master's guide I believe

I guess the easiest and probably most balanced way would be to allow multiclassing to exceed the 20 level limit. On dndbeyond you could simply create multiple "characters": one for each class.

You still can't multiclass past 20 per RAW. The game has a cap on character level at 20, not class level.

I am not sure if you were replying to me, since the mobile version of the forums is quite limited.

But I am well aware that there are no rules to go past character level 20. If you want to do that you have to homebrew it, and allowing multiclasses to go e.g. Fighter 20 / Bard 10 for a level 30 character is probably the easiest way to homebrew it without worrying too much about balance issues and creating new class feats.

Quote from Naresea >>

I am not sure if you were replying to me, since the mobile version of the forums is quite limited.

But I am well aware that there are no rules to go past character level 20. If you want to do that you have to homebrew it, and allowing multiclasses to go e.g. Fighter 20 / Bard 10 for a level 30 character is probably the easiest way to homebrew it without worrying too much about balance issues and creating new class feats.

 Arguably after lvl 20 multiclassing is the thing that causes more damage than straight up single class advancement ;-)

But yeah, unfortunately 5ed really wants you to retire your 19th-20th level character.

Quote from Lathlaer >>

Quote from Naresea >>

I am not sure if you were replying to me, since the mobile version of the forums is quite limited.

But I am well aware that there are no rules to go past character level 20. If you want to do that you have to homebrew it, and allowing multiclasses to go e.g. Fighter 20 / Bard 10 for a level 30 character is probably the easiest way to homebrew it without worrying too much about balance issues and creating new class feats.

 Arguably after lvl 20 multiclassing is the thing that causes more damage than straight up single class advancement ;-)

But yeah, unfortunately 5ed really wants you to retire your 19th-20th level character.

This is interesting. :-) Why would multiclassing cause more damage? After level 20 that route would be open to the entire party, since you can't progress a single class past level 20 without homebrewing feats or advancement rules.

Multiclassing is supposed to be balanced below level 20, so chances are that it would remain balanced above it. At most you could become a little bit weaker than two level 20 characters.Even if you go up to level 40 you will still be limited by Action Economy and the "only one leveled spell" rule.

On the other hand if you want to come up with rules to advance a single class past 20 you would have to introduce level 10+ spells for the spellcasters... and those are most certainly extremely difficult to balance.

Quote from Naresea >>

Quote from Lathlaer >>

Quote from Naresea >>

I am not sure if you were replying to me, since the mobile version of the forums is quite limited.

But I am well aware that there are no rules to go past character level 20. If you want to do that you have to homebrew it, and allowing multiclasses to go e.g. Fighter 20 / Bard 10 for a level 30 character is probably the easiest way to homebrew it without worrying too much about balance issues and creating new class feats.

 Arguably after lvl 20 multiclassing is the thing that causes more damage than straight up single class advancement ;-)

But yeah, unfortunately 5ed really wants you to retire your 19th-20th level character.

 

This is interesting. :-) Why would multiclassing cause more damage? After level 20 that route would be open to the entire party, since you can't progress a single class past level 20 without homebrewing feats or advancement rules.

Multiclassing is supposed to be balanced below level 20, so chances are that it would remain balanced above it. At most you could become a little bit weaker than two level 20 characters.Even if you go up to level 40 you will still be limited by Action Economy and the "only one leveled spell" rule.

On the other hand if you want to come up with rules to advance a single class past 20 you would have to introduce level 10+ spells for the spellcasters... and those are most certainly extremely difficult to balance.

 Because some of the most broken combos pre-20 are the effects of multiclassing ;-)

And the only thing deterring people from excessive multiclassing is the loss of capstone ability of their main class which ceases to be the case in a system that allows a full 20 AND multiclassing. 

Quote from GregCa >>

I assume there is no limit but I find it strange that the spells only show up to level 20. 

I guess my first major campaign when I was young started on AD&D first edition.  It had spells up to level 29 (https://ibb.co/T0p4kZq)

We actually did run all the way until the characters were level 25-30 or so.  Of course it was challenging for monsters, but mostly they fought NPCs or were on other planes. 

AD&D had a level 36 limit, if I recall. In general, only humans could reach that limit, or thieves of many other races.

Currently, D&D has a max of level 20. You won't find anything in the official docs for going above that level.

There might be something on DriveThruRPG though, for 5th edition and epic level stuff... though if so it's not easy to find. I just did a quick search for epic level D&D and didn't find any 5e things.

I remember an epic level book being kick started, but don't remember details or if it was successful. So few people get to level 20 I can't ever imagine WotC thinking it's worth the investment of time.

Without epic levels it's mighty crowded at lvl 20 in Forgotten Realms :D

Quote from Barbarulo >>

I remember an epic level book being kick started, but don't remember details or if it was successful. So few people get to level 20 I can't ever imagine WotC thinking it's worth the investment of time.

 Maybe this one?

https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/173822

Now that is cool-looking. And it looks like the same folks are doing planar supplements as well.

I can easily see combining a level 21+ party with planar adventures for something truly epic.

I actually did a bit of research into this. D&D editions typically started with a level cap of 20 and added higher levels in later supplements (3.5e and 4e were the only editions that launched with epic levels). No edition that got it (ad&d 1e didn't) took longer than 7 years to release epic levels, so I wouldn't be surprised if we got a 5e epic level guide in 2021.

It's currently April 29th, 2021. Tasha's has been released, CandleKeep Mysteries has been released, and Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft will be released in less than a month. We're almost half way through 2021, no Epic Levels yet.

5e may not get it because of the way they balanced the game. I feel like the bounded accuracy system of 5e could balance characters up to level 30 as is with very few new monsters/variants to challenge them. To go above that they would need new rules for abilities, proficiency, and checks, new monsters up to CR 50, and a lot of existing content becomes obsolete.

Honestly the number of games that play past 15 or so is vanishingly small. It's just not worth their time to publish content that 95% of the playerbase won't use.

And yeah, the bounded accuracy model already strains pretty badly in later levels as is. The game is optimized for the 3-10 range and starts slipping the farther you move from that.

But the real answer is that this is a Spinal Tap situation. Max volume is max volume, no matter if it is marked as a 10 or an 11 on your amp. Max level is max level, no matter if it's 20 or 30 in a given edition. As 5e is written, you can take on the most powerful beings in the universe at level 20. There aren't higher challenges lurking elsewhere in the multiverse because you are already at the peak. If you want to homebrew 10 levels beyond what exists, you're free to do so. But what do you really gain? If you just want a longer story, level more slowly. If you want to fight things that could crush gods without breaking a sweat, you have to realize that by conceiving them you just nerfed gods in your world and you could have achieved the same goal by bringing them down to level 15 or so.

That, in my opinion, sucks.

You can’t take on most powerful beings in the universe with 2 level 10 classes at once.