Very few people make it to level 20 in D&D. It's not a question of difficulty - more or less anyone with friends that have high-level spells can come back from just about any ill fate - as much as it is time. Also, as a DM, I can tell you, you need to throw some really nasty stuff at your party to provide a challenge once they get into the higher levels (the Xanathar's encounter building system is fairly good, but I recommend erring on the side of harder, and definitely making sure that any solo monster has maxed-out health and legendary actions.)
By the time you hit level 20 in D&D, you're going to be incredibly powerful. While those who are not full spellcasters might look with an envious eye to the miracle-level 9th-level spells that Bards, Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards gain access to (and Warlocks only a little) a level 20 Barbarian is still an absolute brute. Consider that your average person has 4 hit points, and a level 20 Barbarian with maxed-out constitution taking average health has 285 hit points (if my math is right,) this is someone who can tank an asteroid (and takes half damage!) They have the fortitude of 71 people combined.
Hitting level 20 is a huge achievement, but what does it come with? By this point, casters have already gotten their highest-level spells, so what features do you wind up with?
Let's go class by class and see how we feel.
Artificer:
Yes, it's the newest class, and so it feels a little weird to start with it, but alphabetical order is a really convenient way to list these.
At 20, Artificers get Soul of Artifice:
You gain a +1 bonus to all saving throws per magic item you are attuned to. Also, if you're reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can use your reaction to end one of your artificer infusions, causing you to drop to 1 hit point instead of 0.
So, first off, that first bit is actually great, given that a high-enough level artificer can be attuned to 6 different items. Adding 6 to every saving throw is amazing. The infusion-ending reaction is also pretty great, giving you potentially 6 chances to not go unconscious, though you lose power with each use.
I think this is a really cool, interesting, and useful capstone feature (though I think there are some funky RAW issues about using your reaction when you're at 0 hit points, but this is clearly a place where exception-based game design means it should obviously allow you to do this, though perhaps it could be worded as "if you would otherwise be reduced to 0 hit points, etc."
Barbarians:
At level 20, you get Primal Champion:
Your Strength and Constitution scores both increase by 4, and your maximum for those scores is now 24.
Also, level 20 Barbarians have an unlimited number of Rages per day.
This is perhaps not so flashy, but it's certainly not bad. Getting 2 more AC from your Con (assuming you're unarmored,) 40 additional health, and bonuses to both your chance to hit and the damage you're doing are all great. I think this is the only baseline class feature that allows scores to go over 20 (naturally, I'd assume that if someone has a Manual of Bodily Health or Gainful Exercise that they had read, I'd rule that this is "your maximum for those scores also raises by 4" instead of setting the hard amount at 24. So while the cool factor is really only there if you just like big numbers (which is probably appealing to those who like Barbarians) this does feel unique and very obviously helpful, so I think it's a good one.
The unlimited rage thing is, again, not super flashy, but it does feel pretty great that you never have to worry about wasting a rage on some out-of-combat ability check. Having resources to spend and conserve is a good strategic aspect to the game, but it's also fun when you hit a point where you never have to worry about that again.
Bard:
At 20, Bards get Superior Inspiration
If you roll initiative and don't have any uses of Bardic Inspiration left, you regain one use.
This one is, I think, a pretty standard model for what I think are the "useful, yes, but also quite boring" capstones. Basically, it means that between fights, a Bard can't ever run out of uses of their most iconic class ability. Still, getting one more d12 to throw to an ally is a little underwhelming (and also dependent on whether the DM has people re-roll initiative between waves of enemies in a big battle.) Basically, this is underwhelming and in no way has any real cool factor.
Cleric:
At level 20, Clerics get Divine Intervention improvement.
Your calls for intervention succeed automatically, no roll required.
The winner here really is the Divine Intervention feature, which you get at level 10. However, taking that from a 19% chance to a 100% is a massive step up, and in the hands of creative players and DMs, this can be an awesomely dramatic ability. (A couple sessions ago, our Cleric rolled his first successful DI, which allowed them to bypass an entire garrison of undead soldiers, which was awesome.) Divine Intervention before you get this is a cool sort of Hail Mary (kind of literally) but I think that if level 20 is meant to mean you've become the epitome of what your class represents, being able to call down your god's power without fail feels both flavorful and powerful, and thus this is very much on the good column.
Druid:
At level 20, Druids get Archdruid
You can use Wild Shape an unlimited number of times per day, and you get to ignore somatic and verbal spell components as well as material spell components that are not consumed and don't have a monetary cost, including while in your Wild Shape forms.
Like Barbarians getting unlimited rages, being able to Wild Shape as many times as you want is a very cool feature (and also means that it's nearly impossible to kill a level 20 Circle of the Moon druid, as they can just poof into elemental form over and over, still attack you, and just shift again if they ever get knocked out of it.)
The other element, though, is where this really gets into the awesome category - being able to do component-less casting (which, by the way, means nothing can be counterspelled) and also doing it while potentially in some shapeshifted form really embodies the notion of a Druid as a force of nature -as if they are just a conduit through which nature exerts its power.
Fighter:
At level 20, Fighters get their third Extra Attack:
When you take the attack action on your turn, you can attack four times.
Fighters' ability to attack more than twice does create some interesting math in groups - for instance, if you have a weapon that does extra dice of damage, you're probably best off giving it to the fighter after level 11, because they'll be multiplying that damage by more. That said, level 20 seems a long time to wait for a fourth attack (you get your second at 5, like most martial classes, and your third at 11). Given that an Eldritch-Blast-spamming warlock gets four attacks at level 17, it feels like that should be when Fighters get this.
Is it useful? Absolutely. Is the fact that an action surge can mean eight attacks in a single turn kind of insane? Yes (see Percy in the Search for Grog Vox Machina epilogue one-shot, where I think he did something like 200 damage in a single round.) But it's also, ultimately, more of the same (and the fact that Monks can do, admittedly only a limited number of times, but 4 attacks in a round by level 5 makes this a little underwhelming.)
Monks:
At level 20, Monks get Perfect Self:
When you roll initiative and have no ki points remaining, you gain four.
This is very much in the vein of the Bard one. Again, it's not a bad thing to have, but it's extremely underwhelming.
Paladin:
At level 20, they get... a Subclass Feature!
Given that each subclass has a different thing, it's hard to review all the mechanics, but most tend to be really flashy. I see these (most of them, at least) as sort of major "cooldowns" (to use a WoW term.) Generally, you become some sort of avatar of the oath you've sworn and this has a lot of different benefits. It's a big burst of power, but tends to last only 1 minute, which means just one fight (though I think it'll be rare for it to run out before the fight's over, unless you're in a real slog.) Actually, at least one subclass (Oath of Redemption) has one that works differently.
Still, these tend to be the very definition of big and flashy, so I give this big thumbs up, even if players might agonize about when to actually pop this once-a-day (except Redemption) ability. Top marks.
Ranger:
At level 20, they get Foe Slayer:
Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack or damage roll of an attack made against one of your favored enemies (or the target of your Favored Foe, if you've taken that alternate feature.) You can use this feature before or after the roll, but before any of the effects of the roll are applied (so basically before you hit or miss, and before you know if you've killed the target or not, I guess.)
Hoo boy. Ok, now, being able to add to the attack roll, sure. But for damage, getting at the very most 5 extra damage per round at a level when martial classes are putting out profoundly more is just kind of insulting. Rangers got some love in Tasha's, but sadly there was no cooler alternate feature for this one. The real killer here is that it requires the target either be your favored enemy or your favored foe. First off, I don't like Favored Foe because I think it's worse than just Hunter's Mark in most cases, so I wouldn't recommend taking it. So if you just have Favored Enemy you need to hope you're fighting that type of enemy to get any benefit out of this. I feel like there's some cooler, flashier ability that is waiting in the wings here - something like analyzing the foe to line up a guaranteed critical hit or something.
Rogue:
At 20, they get Stroke of Luck:
If you miss with an attack, you can turn that miss into a hit. Alternatively, if you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20 instead. Once you use this, you cannot again until you finish a short or long rest.
Ok, I like this. Rogues are the one primarily physical damage class that don't get extra attacks, and so the focus is on lining up the perfect shot or strike to land for their insane sneak attack damage (which by this level is 10d6, on top of the weapon's ordinary damage. Likewise, the idea of rogues as broad experts that are just plain good at things comes through in the second clause (though, notably, it doesn't say "you succeed," so you don't get to just auto-win.
In a weird way, the lack of flashiness is its own sort of rogue-like flashiness - things just work out for you when you need them to most.
Sorcerer:
At level 20, they get Sorcerous Restoration:
You regain 4 spent sorcery points when you finish a short rest.
This is similar to, though not quite the same as the Bard and Monk ones. Indeed, depending on how many short rests a DM allows in a day, you could actually use this to get an infinite number of level 1-5 spells. Still, I'd put this in the same category as the aforementioned ones - undeniably useful, but a bit dull.
Warlock:
At level 20, they get Eldritch Master:
You can spend 1 minute entreating your patron to regain all your spell slots. Once you do this, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.
Warlocks are always trying to fit a short rest, and this basically lets you take a 1-minute short rest once a day (Genie Warlocks can also do one in 10 minutes once a day as well.)
Again, depending on how many times you can usually get a short rest, this varies in usefulness. Still, it reinforces the idea of Warlocks as being able to recharge quickly, and four 5th-level slots are nothing to sneeze at. Still, it is low on flashiness, and I think there could have been something more exciting here.
Wizard:
At level 20, they get Signature Spells:
You pick two 3rd level spells from your spellbook. You always have these prepared and they don't count against the number of spells you have prepared. You can cast each without expending a spell slot, but then cannot do so until you finish a short or long rest, unless you do expend a spell slot to do so.
Overall I kind of like this, though it is sort of just an expansion of Spell Mastery (the 18th level feature.) Still, getting a free Fireball and Counterspell once per short rest, as well as always having them prepared, is not bad at all. What this lacks in flash it makes up for in strategic customizability and genuine power.
So, overall, I think there are some clear winners here, with the Druid and Paladin ones probably my personal favorites. I did work our earlier how you could have a +19 bonus to Intelligence and Constitution saving throws as a level 20 artificer without any magical items given to them by the DM, so I do have a soft spot for Soul of Artifice.
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