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[Scoops Novel]

If you've got an idea of how badass a level 7 is but not a 13, please share the extent of your wisdom. By the end we should have a comprehensive breakdown.

Spoiler: Results so far: (click to show/hide)

1 Green but trained soldier - possibly a exceptional one
2 Blooded
3 Experienced
4 Veteran
5 Elite troops
6 War hero
7 Human with extras - Highlander/Wolverine
8 Straight up inhumanly good - John Wick
9 Inhumanly good, and a min-maxer. Bellerophon (Pegasus rider)
10 Legend. Physics defying. (Conan)
11 Physics breaking - Captain America
12 Wuxia - Crouching tiger hidden dragon shenanigans - Elrond.
13 City busting Harry Dresden
14 Army crushing. Achilles
15 Dragon slaying. Witch king/Beowulf
16 The world is just enough.
17 Godbotherer - Beren (stole from the devil himself)
18 World maker, world breaker. Grandpa Roshi
19 The best in the world. Krillin
20 Godly

Spoiler: In-universe comparison (click to show/hide)

01-04 Apprentice adventurer
05-10 Coming into one's own
11-16 Mighty adventurer
17-20 Heroic archetype

[Criptfeind]

Too variable depending on class and build to really say. Not to mention when comparing levels to things in reality there's too a large disparity in how they even relate to reality in different categories. IE: in a d20 system the +5 or 6 that a really good swordmaster might have isn't nearly enough to represent what his skill would be like in real life in comparison to someone with zero training. But in real life he also wouldn't be able to take significantly more magic missiles to the face like he can in D&D. So you can't even say something like "a level 3 fighter is like a not supernaturally good but still top tier swordsman." because it's true in some categories but not in others.

[Scoops Novel]

Let's forget about point for point real life translations and more in-game feel. At lv 1 you can take out 2-3 guys, so that makes you the average green but trained soldier against civvies. At level 2? You tell me.

[MrRoboto75]

Approximately 1 fireball.

[Criptfeind]

Let's forget about point for point real life translations and more in-game feel. At lv 1 you can take out 2-3 guys, so that makes you the average green but trained soldier against civvies. At level 2? You tell me.

The variations between class/build and even playstyle matter too much for any easy conclusion. A level 20 fighter with a heavily enchanted sword and armor might take a small army of dudes to kill, but assuming he just endlessly hacks away at the enemy troops he's imminently killable. 1 in 20 attacks will hit and do a bit of damage, eventually his hp will be worn down. Then he'll die. A wizard of that level (or even significantly lower) with the right preparation and style might literally be able to kill the entire population of earth with relative ease and a bit of time. Or maybe the wizard just blasts a ton of dudes with fireballs until he runs out of spells then beats them to death with his staff until he dies just like the fighter. Or maybe the fighter uses powerful magical items to great effect and isn't killable.

One could try to standardize it a little bit, and make guesses at lower levels. but these variations of style and mechanical ability exist at all levels. Also like, the point for point thing sure looks like it's still happening on your exsample, in D&D at level one there's a large random element. Line up a level 1 dude against a commoner in the same gear and the commoner is going to score almost as well as the level 1 dude, like you say, after a few of them he'll be worn down. However, that can even happen in repeated 1v1 fights. I think a trained soldier could likely go against 1 scrub at a time for quite a bit longer then one could do in D&D.

[beorn080]

There is a variant ruleset that limits leveling to approx level7. Up to there, you can get an idea. Level 1, a house cat is considered stronger then your average commoner. A lvl 1 fighter has good endurance, and can last quite a while. The wizard can perform a number of tasks, sharply limited, while supporting with a crossbow. Other classes fall somewhere in between. Power level, a party might be able to take over a small village for a bit. By level 7, magic is seriously coming into play. A single decently built plager character could probably kill a small village, regardless of class. Any trained opponents would make it more difficult, and against an army, they'd lead the spearhead to the commander, but one or two in a party of fourbwould probably fall in route. At around level 13, a properly built mage could destroy everything. A good fighter could keep up, especially if they surprise said spellcaster. By level 20, there is no contest. Any intelligent spellcaster should be considered to never be surprised, given the amount and degree of their buffs. Fighters simply gain more feats, which are very slow and linear compared to the amount of options a mage gets.

To put it into vs army terms.

Level 1, the party are scouts, making attacks of opportunity on supplies.

Level 5, mage blasts a hole, party rushes the commander

Level 10, party stalls an army, Spartan style.

Level 15, the mage casts a single spell and the opposing army dies.

Level 20, the mage is the army, and casts a single spell, killing the entire other kingdom.

[Scoops Novel]

Comparing them to others of their class at a different level is most important. If a level 20 wizard is Belgerath the sorceror, what does that make a lv 15 wizard? We're assuming optimal play here btw.

[NullForceOmega]

It astonishes me to no end how badly people misjudge fighters in 3.0/.5.  A properly kitted level 20 fighter with well selected feats is one of the most idiotically powerful characters possible, and unlike that mage, if someone drops an anti-magic field, he's still going to kill every last one of you.

Level 20 fighter is like memetic Chuck Norris or Mr. T, simply too damn physically powerful to engage without planning and a small army (if the fighter is well built, make that a large army).

[Flying Dice]

You really can't generalize to that degree, for the exact reasons that Criptfeind outlined. The potency of any given level varies wildly between classes, and the inherent randomness of chance-based checks and combat make extreme outliers a regular occurrence. That's one of the reasons d20 is still popular despite the flaws, it can result in truly oddball results fairly frequently.

But, as a very vague and general rule, the low double digits (9-12 or so) are where the party moves beyond the realm of being individual actors and more strongly resemble figures out of legend and myth. Very low levels are so chance-based that you can't tell ahead of time, very high levels are so esoteric that it doesn't really matter, all that changes is the set of mechanics by which they break settings over their knees.

It astonishes me to no end how badly people misjudge fighters in 3.0/.5.  A properly kitted level 20 fighter with well selected feats is one of the most idiotically powerful characters possible, and unlike that mage, if someone drops an anti-magic field, he's still going to kill every last one of you.

Caveat: that 20th level min-maxed fighter is idiotically powerful... at once specific thing/set of related things. If you ever need to do something that doesn't benefit from being a nigh-invincible woodchipper on legs, the fighter is much less useful than most other things. Not that DMs are likely to run an epic level campaign that isn't absolutely full of things with huge guts.

[NullForceOmega]

Since the only purpose a fighter has is to 'fight' things, I don't know why said 20th level fighter wouldn't be hyper specialized into killing things.  And again, if you are fighting an enemy that is able to employ or create anti-magic then that fighter remains the unstoppable force, while almost all the other classes are now hamstrung (barbs and rouges are still pretty much fine.)

The other posters are right though, it isn't at all easy to quantify how 'powerful' a character is at any given level.  But at 20 and beyond you are moving into Achilles territory.

[Neonivek]

Level 10, party stalls an army, Spartan style.

Which will never REALLY happen in 5e... but that is because in 5e an army... is an army.

Won't happen in Pathfinder either due to the Troop rules either.

Level 20, the mage is the army, and casts a single spell, killing the entire other kingdom

Ok now this is ridiculous. You need some epic level magic to actually do this kind of damage.

---

Though it is REALLY hard to place an exact power level on characters because dungeons and dragons levels are usually quite... "Metaphorical" so to speak representing more the wit, will, and luck of a hero than actual raw power.

HP for example is usually not actually your ability to resist damage... but often heroic luck or skill in mitigating damage. (or at least... it is sometimes a balance of that idea)

HOWEVER... 5e has probably the most balanced and understandable scale.

If you just give someone some armor and a weapon they are usually a CR less than 1
A heavily armed and skilled human is CR 3-5
A Elephant and beast of similar hugeness 4
A T-Rex and similarly huge and mighty beasts is CR 8

-Essentially CR 10 is kind of the maximum for natural creatures. That is as powerful and as potent you could ever be through purely natural means. CR10 is also about the time something actually comes into legitimate power.
-CR 5 is the peak of human ability outside dungeons and dragons before you factor in exceptional equipment. So an Olympic level Swordfighter given a sword and a "Chainshirt" is CR5, and CR6-7 if you give him exceptional platemail.

PCs... Well I'd have to calculate it... They start out at around CR 1-2 typically...

[NullForceOmega]

I once tried to stat myself up based on the various things I've done in my life, and ended up about sixth or seventh level, which seems to be a good baseline for a highly capable 'normal' person, like a veteran soldier, police officer or firefighter (years of actual experience at their profession, and very good at it.)

[Neonivek]

I think Gladiator (CR5) from my calculations is ALMOST the equivalent of a 11th level fighter... at least in terms of skill

A actual level 11 fighter is going to be more powerful for multiple reasons... But that is the understandable idea.

So in DND 5e... You hit human peak ABOUT level 10... (give a supernatural ability or two)... at the latest.

[Frumple]

... y'know, isn't there some kind of D&D modern ruleset? It would be hilariously off due to how little attention was probably given to conversions and whatnot, but that would, technically, be able to get you numerical information like how many bullets a Nth level character can take, how hard they would be to hit, etc., etc. From there, you can crunch physics numbers and get a pretty precise (if farcical) picture of what's what.

If you're looking for more general stuff... well, I'd probably say assume a younger dragon is roughly equivalent to a tank, if maybe not a particularly large one. So say juvenile or young adult (CR 7/9ish, for what that's worth) is around an abrams or something. Figure out at which point any particular class can do meaningful damage to one of those, and you have your baseline for when you're dealing with something that can do nonsense like filet a main battle tank with a longsword, at which point you're well past just about anything real life human and air strikes are rapidly becoming of questionable utility.

Though for some real fun, Olympics comparisons might be amusing. World record long jump has a DC of about 30. For a reference, that means an at-most 9th level (and almost certainly lower) wizard would be able to casually allow anyone not suffering from penalties to match or break it, offering peak human with a touch. That would probably set a decent ceiling on the point you're no longer dealing with stuff inside the realm of human possibility, and capability is reaching the point threat evaluation is involving words like tank battalion, off shore artillery, or unconditional surrender. Can almost certainly reach that point before 9th, but there's probably little to nothing after it that hasn't. So somewhere around 8th or 9th is likely when things have become inhuman pretty much across the board.

[Scoops Novel]

By level 7, magic is seriously coming into play. A single decently built player character could probably kill a small village, regardless of class.

So, would you say Highlander type power? Wolverine might be the modern equivalent.