It's over, you'we won and are one of the most skilled warriors in the world ...

[Pinjata]

BBEG is vanquished. You are now lvl 20.

What would you do from this point on?

Also: what class would you play?

Addendum: it seems most people would just ascend to godhood or live a completelly low-tier life in some village.

[Cluedrew]

Now comes the hard part, building something new where something bad was. I would probably start training up my social skills and that sort of thing to organize people. It would keep things interesting because then the fact that the party can kill anything that exists is A) still true and B) not actually that useful. So we care still challenged and the game is not a cake walk. Also if by end of game we don't know enough about the setting to have a good social campaign going on I would be surprised.

[jjordan]

Identifying and nurturing the next generation. Building the structures that will do this.

[SirGraystone]

Build yourself a manor or small castle on the borderlands and carve yourself a small barony as an hobby to keep busy, while spenting time at the Inn telling story.

[Man_Over_Game]

Identifying and nurturing the next generation. Building the structures that will do this.

This was my response, too. Now that the world is temporarily cleansed of evil, time to start doing what you can to keep it that way. Build a Paladin order designed around keeping themselves, and others, accountable and that becomes a major order of peace and justice. Create a network of spies that are designed to gather and manipulate forces into furthering the cause for good.

Basically, I suggest creating the Harpers, with an associated order of Knights to be the face and take action when needed.

[Papa_Hewi]

Last time I hit endgame I was a rogue. To celebrate, I burgled Valhalla with the help of my party and sold apple pie to the masses for chump change. I'm honestly still surprised I survived that long as a chaotic neutral character.

[KineticDiplomat]

1) Give them non-punchable problems. Great, they can power-attack +20 while triple wielding great-axes. Can he solve these?

-The kingdom has a meth crisis. It's not some vast and evil machination of a BBEG for world dominion, it's the product of humanity (or meta-humanity) being human. -The tax-collectors are under-collecting. And it's not because they are being waylaid by goblin parties at the vanguard of a great evil. How do you solve it?

-The people are treating you a new god, building a religion/cult around your prowess. This is angering the actual gods, who are more akin to level 1000 than 20. When you tell them to stop, it creates an ever more diverse set of splinter theologies.

-Following your successful example of killing things in great numbers and with no readily apparent risk making you as-unto-a-demigod, every hardluck case, student-wizard, sorcerer who can flick his fingers for a match-bright flame, peasant, and wannabe has gone on the equivalent of a California gold rush to find and exterminate monsters and have great quests. Fields lie fallow, the ecosystem is devastated, your guards and magisters realize that stabbing one goblin is more fiscally and power rewarding than years of practice at the barracks and are abandoning your forces, industry is grinding to a halt, and your subjects are sometimes dying horribly, sometimes killing each other over scarce monster resources to be farmed, and every now and again in the space of about six months becoming level 20 heroes themselves who have a different opinion of what you should be doing as king. Yes, your example has really helped everyone, huh?

-Financial crisis! Naturally the player will attempt to either funnel his own massive wealth in - at which point you hammer him with inflation. Or he'll try to magically address means of productivity. At which point , the field and workshop owners absolutely learn the lesson taught: I can make a lot more stuff with a lot less workers!

-Honeymoon is over...yes, the day after you slew the BBEG and everyone agreed you were wise and just and strong was a great day. Alas, people are people, the world is the world and once again the failings and foibles of daily life are a hand. You are clearly responsible for the state of things, and now you are to blame for it all. A series of subversive ideologies are cropping up, using you as a strawman for everything that is wrong.

-And so forth. Of course, you could always just end it. Books, movies, and computer games have ends for this reason.

2) Having explored the bounds of D&D for a bit, perhaps you could try a different system that interests you group? No one really wants to grind to 20 again, and you as a DM probably don't want to build another boy-of-destiny 1-20 plotline. at least not without a recharge. Maybe it's time for a foray into something else, or a new DM?

[No brains]

I saw an idea once that 5e can do 'epic levels' by using True Polymorph to permanently become dragons and then gain levels from there.

[Kyutaru]

Challenge the planes. Like how DBZ has their other universes or how D&D has epic level campaigns, there are beings older than the gods themselves. Reaching the pinnacle of mankind is only the BEGINNING of DragonBall Z. There's still so much more than can happen after that and you're still a newbie on a cosmological scale with beings that have existed millions of times longer than you. Ascending to godhood is a boring trope that itself only brings more problems and enemies.

So yeah, you won the Material plane. Have fun chasing after adventures in the rest.

[jintoya]

Retrain into an epic battle Baker, make cupcakes that bend the will of dragons (just so good, not magic)
A souffle that is so good it will crush your soul
A cake that is so good it serves as a cure for vampirism

I'll open a bakery and become the god of baked goods, tremble before my cookies mortals!

[King of Nowhere]

I don't understand if you mean 1) "what would your character do", or 2) "how would you continue the campaign as DM", or 3)"how would you give a good epilogue as DM".

Possible options for 1) are

- be a superhero. Do some good here and there, stay ready in case a new big evil comes around.
- start up a school or something to train the next generation
- commit suicide, after leaving to some organization I trust a scroll of true resurrection, 25k gp in diamond and instructions to use it in case there is something really bad coming
- be a leader and usher humankind to a golden age of peace and prosperity
- retire to the tropics


For 2) it was already nicely covered by others.

For 3) it mostly overlaps with 1); you do all those things and usher in a golden age.

[The Glyphstone]

Become the BBEG, ensuring that a new generation of heroes arises to unseat me when the time is right.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Some careful exploration of the Far Realm has always appealed to me as an end-game (or post-end-game) activity.

[Mastikator]

Become king/emperor seems the most obvious choice because you get to be involved in entirely new types of challenges that can't just be brute forced.

[D+1]

BBEG is vanquished. You are now lvl 20.

What would you do from this point on?

Also: what class would you play?

Addendum: it seems most people would just ascend to godhood or live a completelly low-tier life in some village.

Playing a D&D character isn't about the destination - it's about the journey.

[The Library DM]

Put my sword in its sheath, tell everyone, “Don’t make me do this again,” and then retire to a nice villa on the coast.

Then roll a new character.

[No brains]

Put my sword in its sheath, tell everyone, “Don’t make me do this again,” and then retire to a nice villa on the coast.

Then roll a new character.

New goal: Sheathe my sword only once in an entire character career.

[Brother Oni]

Retrain into an epic battle Baker, make cupcakes that bend the will of dragons (just so good, not magic)
A souffle that is so good it will crush your soul
A cake that is so good it serves as a cure for vampirism

I'll open a bakery and become the god of baked goods, tremble before my cookies mortals!

Bonus marks if you can make the most excruciatingly painful epically awesome puns while you're at it.

[Red Fel]

Put my sword in its sheath, tell everyone, “Don’t make me do this again,” and then retire to a nice villa on the coast.

Then roll a new character.

Sheathe my sword, throw on a long, tattered brown cloak, and sneak away during the festivities, seen by only one, trusted friend, who offers a sad, understanding smile before going back to the celebration.

Wander the land for years, seeing the peace and prosperity my bloodletting has wrought, enjoying it but never truly taking part.

Come upon a kid, trying futilely to chop down a massive tree. Shake my head, "No, you've got to do it like so." Draw my weapon and cleave through it like butter, sending it to the ground with a crash. Smirk as the kid says, "Wow, mister, you're amazing!" Laugh, "Of course, don't you know who I-"

Stop, and smile wistfully. "No. I'm nobody." Move on with my wandering, leaving the awestruck kid behind.

New goal: Sheathe my sword only once in an entire character career.

This is an awesome and complete character concept, right here, and I love it.

[Man_Over_Game]

Become the BBEG, ensuring that a new generation of heroes arises to unseat me when the time is right.

I like this, but I'm unsure of how to implement this in a way that both doesn't cause great damage to civilization while also being a big enough threat for people to work to stop.

Maybe you make a horde of undead and send them to attack cities, with the programmed instructions to scare people off of the land, destroy the buildings, and only ever attack someone if they move closer to you? I could see that. Everyone would see this horde of undead and think it's a great threat, when really it's just a nuisance with a stupid amount of HP.

[Brother Oni]

Everyone would see this horde of undead and think it's a great threat, when really it's just a nuisance with a stupid amount of HP.

Depends on the time and scope of the undead invasion.

A couple of isolated places in numbers just enough to be challenging = a great training tool.
At harvest time in numbers enough to cover the land = potentially apocalyptic due to famine then further strain and suffering by the nations either being besieged inside the towns or castles or being forced to campaign through the winter.

[Ken Murikumo]

Become the BBEG, ensuring that a new generation of heroes arises to unseat me when the time is right.

I like this, but I'm unsure of how to implement this in a way that both doesn't cause great damage to civilization while also being a big enough threat for people to work to stop.

Maybe you make a horde of undead and send them to attack cities, with the programmed instructions to scare people off of the land, destroy the buildings, and only ever attack someone if they move closer to you? I could see that. Everyone would see this horde of undead and think it's a great threat, when really it's just a nuisance with a stupid amount of HP.

Your experiences from adventuring leave you distant from normal society. You have trouble relating to other people with "mundane" or "asinine" problems. With this evil defeated, another arises. You quash it. Rinse and repeat. Each time you become further from the average man. You realize that peace will never truly be an option. The only way to achieve this is with a complete, from the ground up, rebuild of society. Society, culture, tradition, even the gods themselves (who are directly influencing this crooked world) need to be stripped out and rebuilt. You can no longer relate man making the "hard decisions" effortless. This cleansing (be it literal or figurative) seems to be the only option.

This would give the setting a well fleshed out, sympathetic villain who existed before the plot needed a bad guy. His reputation as a legendary adventurer would be enough to show that this guy is no joke.

[Tvtyrant]

Sounds like you have lived long enough to become the villain. Everyone begins rewriting your accomplishments as tyrannical or self-serving, young parties looking for rep start ambushing you, and powerful individuals discredit you to the public to reduce your influence.

The hero then has to decide how to codify their accomplishments; do they become a king, the head of an order, do they retire in bitter anger?

[Jay R]

Games end. When you score the match point, or capture the last checker, or checkmate the opposing king, you have won, and the game is over.

[D+1]

Games end. When you score the match point, or capture the last checker, or checkmate the opposing king, you have won, and the game is over.

"Not chess Mr. Spock... poker!"

[Quertus]

I guess it depends on the character. I can see 5 options: go bigger, go smaller, go sideways, stay the same, and get bent.

Go bigger - you may be the biggest fish in this pond, but there are other ponds with bigger fish. Seek them out, and continue your growth.

Go smaller - now that the BBEG is gone, you can finally settle down, grow some tobac, find a wife, write a book - whatever it was you'd be doing without a BBEG. Roll credits.

Go sideways - time to play the "lord of a castle", politics & taxes minigame, like Gygax intended.

Stay the same - there must be some more dungeons to loot *somewhere*. Maybe a prophesy to subvert? Or even another BBEG on another world, where we can just skip straight to the end?

Get bent - time to become the next BBEG…

[Malphegor]

I'd go full Conan. Sit on my throne, adapt to being a ruler, root out the corruption inherent in the system, get attacked by snake sorcerers, constantly have to remind people why they call me Conan the Barbarian and not Conan the Merciful or Conan The Tickles You With A Feather In Combat.

[Bohandas]

Now it's time to tackle the age old question "Why doesn't Elminster just fix all the world's problems"

Steamroll through all the low level problems of the world.

[Excession]

Well now that I'm the one in charge, I can finally get around to fixing some things. Some sensible tax laws for a start...