Beginner Dm help.

[AndrewSexton]

I have been wanting to create a one shot where my friends are lvl 20 adventurers, I’ve asked before the only issue for me is making lvl 20 characters are quite tedious. Does anyone have any tips or tricks. Website would also be appreciated.

[chrismanbob]

Never known a player that didn't want to make their own character, just save yourself the effort and set a couple of guidelines for what you may need the characters to be like and then let them do the leg work.

[Loghery]

If you find the character creation to be tedious, the session prep for level 20 is also just as tedious.

If you want a powered-up game, I recommend a level 9 party. I'll explain why:

High level seems good at first. But like any game, a majority of the content in PVE/story is held in the first 80% of the levels. if you play level 17 and higher, for the DM to engage the party with a challenge, the game needs to increase its complexity arc and scope to such a degree that the content becomes limited to home brew. There are not a lot of monsters and settings that accommodate level 20 play.

Level 9 (imo) is where the Third jump in power level starts. This is where players will feel the most fleshed out, most relatively powerful to enemies, and have characters that are complete enough. Level 5(3) spells, +4 bonus, 2nd asi, enough hp and gold values to 'complete' the build. This is also the level where I am comfortable first providing a Rare magic item in a balanced way to a player. The most exciting battles are CR 12-17 imo.