Summary
Once you reach level 20 inDungeons & Dragons, you’ll get what’s called a capstone ability. These abilities are supposed to be the most powerful in the game; the definitive hallmark of completing your level progression in your class. Unfortunately, though, not all capstone abilities are as good as others. Some are downright bad.
That’s why we’ve created this list. Next time you’re choosing a class for yourself in Dungeons & Dragons, and you know you want to play to level 20, refer back to this list before finalizing your decision. Here are the worst level 20 abilities in DND.
8Primal Champion
Just A Stat Buff
Primal Champion is the capstone ability for all barbarians,regardless of subclass. When you get this capstone ability, you increase both your Strength and Constitution by four to a maximum of 25. This is extremely helpful for barbarians in terms of their attacks.
However, there are two reasons why this ability feels a little underwhelming. First, while the added Strength certainly helps with attacks, once you reach level 20, you won’t gain any more HP. This means the Constitution buff won’t help with your HP max, which is a bit of a bummer. Two, if your stats are already at 25 thanks to magic items, this ability essentially does nothing.
7Three Extra Attacks
Ultimately, Not Very Unique
Attacking is a fighter’s bread and butter. So, it only makes sense that the capstone abilities for fighters would be to increase the number of attacks you can do in a single turn from three to four by the time you reach level 20.
However, this ability feels a little narratively underwhelming. Yes, attacking again as a fighter is great and makes you a force to be reckoned with. But, ultimately, it’s just one attack. The ability doesn’t feel like it scales you up to level 20, but rather, it’s just a nice cherry on top. There’s nothing terrible about this ability, but compared to some of the others, it feels a bit disappointing.
6Body And Mind
Another Stat Buff
Similar to barbarians, the capstone ability for monks is also just a glorified stat buff. When you reach level 20 as a monk, your body and mind improve to the point where you can increase your Dexterity and Wisdom by four to a maximum of 25.
Luckily, you don’t run into the same issue you do with barbarians with Constitution with this ability. Increasing these stats will help with your focus point abilities, initiative, and more. However, because so many monk abilities feel so unique and cool (like Deflect Missiles/Attacks, for example), having the capstone ability for monks just be a stat increase feels sort of misguided.
5Living Legend
One Part Useful, Two Parts Not
Living Legend is an interesting level 20 ability, as it can only be acquired if you choose to take the Oath of Glory as a Paladin. Unlike some other Dungeons & Dragons classes, paladins get their level 20 ability thanks to their subclass, not just their class.
When you gain this level 20 ability, you gain the ability to cause a missed attack to hit instead of once on each of your turns for ten minutes, which is extremely helpful. You also can reroll saving throws (but must use the new roll) and gain advantage on Charisma checks. While the first of these abilities is extremely useful, the other two are less than ideal, and again, the feature only lasts for ten minutes. Meaning, that depending on when you use it in combat, you could waste your usage of it.
4Foe Slayer
Just Four Extra Damage
This next level 20 ability is probably the most underwhelming on this list. It also adds insult to injury that it’s a ranger ability, and rangers often are the target of uninteresting or unfun abilities, even though they’ve now been revised a few times.
When you take this ability, your Hunter’s Mark die increases from a d10 to a d6. More damage is great for a ranger. But, at the end of the day, a die roll is a die roll, and you can still roll relatively low on a d10. Ultimately, it’s disappointing compared to a lot of other level 20 abilities, which grant characters to powerful features rather than just minor damage boosts.
3Soul Of Artifice
Artificer, Still In Need Of Tweaks
The artificer is a class that, in many ways, is still Unearthed Arcana or homebrew content. There are many differentversions of the artificerfloating around out there. However, one such version has the level 20 ability Soul of Artifice, which has some uses but more drawbacks.
When you get this ability, you gain a +1 bonus to saving throws per magic item you are currently attuned to for a maximum of six. If you’re reduced to zero hit points, you can use your reaction to end an artificer infusion, causing you to stay up. These abilities are useful to be sure. However, artificers are not necessarily front-line combatants and aren’t always the class that needs rescuing in terms of HP. It feels off that the artificer level 20 ability would assume that your artificer is more likely to go down and therefore in need of an ability to prevent yourself from going unconscious.
2Sanguine Mastery
Has Blood Hunter Ever Worked?
Blood Hunter is another classthat always needs some work. This class comes from Matt Mercer and Critical Role and involves using blood magic called hemocraft to invoke abilities. The level 20 ability, Sanguine Mastery, allows you to potentially reduce the number on your hemocraft die, therefore losing fewer hit points.
When you get this ability, you can reroll your hemocraft die once and use either roll. This can prove tremendously helpful, or relatively minimal in effect, depending on what you roll. Ultimately, any ability that relies on rolls feels a bit too flimsy for a level 20 feature. You also gain the ability to regain Blood Maledicts on crits, which can prove useful.
1Eldritch Master
Who Has That Kind Of Time?
As a warlock, when you gain your level 20 ability, you can use your Magical Cunning feature to regain all expended Pact Magic spell slots. Magical Cunning is an ability you gain at level two that allows you to perform a rite for one minute to regain Pact Magic spell slots equal to half your maximum.
Obviously, at level 20, it’s great that you can regain all of your spell slots, as warlocks tend to be very limited in this regard. However, because you have to take a minute to do this, it’s not going to be the type of thing you can whip out in the middle of combat. You’re still going to have to do this in between encounters when your party could take a short rest anyway. Yes, the one-minute detail is helpful, but not enough to constitute a level 20 ability.
