Advice on dealing with Very Important PCs

[bathtub66]

I am starting a new campaign, and for the story hook I want the PCs to be a little more established than your run of the mill freelance dungeoneers. One will be a seasoned diplomat, one a high cleric in the church, one a respected knight. The idea is to make the plot a little more compelling by making the characters more established with important roles in the world. But it seems a little weird having these seasoned fighters have the abilities of 3rd level characters, able to do virtually nothing. Have you ever done something like this? What do you do to offset the high credibility coupled with low stats?

 

[athos]

I am running a political campaign where the PCs are important figures in the kingdom, so I started them at much higher levels. There are a couple pitfalls you have to watch out for if you do this. First, you will get a ton of munchkin types trying to make impossible characters that dip into all kinds of classes for no reason other than they read on some forum it makes a tough character. Second, you have to screen for very experienced players. It is no good giving a high level character to a player that has never played one up to that level. And finally, it takes forever and a day to coordinate wtih all the characters to make sure they "fit" into the kingdom and won't have overlapping areas that might cause conflict.

To me, third level characters just aren't going to be in charge of a church, other than maybe in a small village. If you want to do 3rd level, scale it down a bit, make them the local village priest, the local witch, the local sheriff, etc.

 

[Azgulor]

I reject the conceit that 90% of the game world is 1st level. Basically, your average human between 20-40 years in age is 2nd or 3rd level. NPCs that have dangerous careers can be even higher in level.

1st - The NPCs
The usual conceit is that NPCs must be low level or they'll overshadow the PCs. That can occur if the NPCs are idle and eager to take on the PCs quest/adventure. However, in my campaigns, these NPCs have other responsibilities - jobs, families, allegainces, etc. They also frequently have NPC class levels and average stats. They also have personality flaws. The head of the mage guild might be a higher level wizard but he's a coward that never left (the equivalent of) arcane academia. He's an old fart that'd piss his pants if he had to fight a real monster. That mid-level captain of the guard? He's never been more than 20-miles beyond the city limits and is used to dealing with drunks & burglars, not ravaging orc hordes and undead.

2nd - The PCs themselves
I also typically start my campaigns with the PCs being in that "non-newbie" tier of 2nd - 4th level. They're older, a bit more seasoned, but their ages aren't out of line with other NPCs of their level. Although they have positions of some importance or reputations of exceptional ability, the rate at which they've had to rise to the occasion is much slower than after the campaign starts. Basically, circumstances or opportunity hasn't forced them to realize their full adventuring potential.

Also, temporal & religious power, respect, & resources do not (and should not) be tied to level. The head of the Dockworker's Guild is a 4th-level Expert not a 16th-level thief (unless he's the guildmaster and the Dockworker's are just a front...). That rank-n-file soldier? He's one of the best archers in the land (Fighter 7) but has Cha as a dump stat and can't lead for crap so he's never risen above the sergeant (Warrior 3) that's on his case all day long.

 

[S'mon]

IBut it seems a little weird having these seasoned fighters have the abilities of 3rd level characters, able to do virtually nothing. Have you ever done something like this? What do you do to offset the high credibility coupled with low stats?

I scale the levels of the campaign world to fit the levels of the PCs. Eg in 4e, you might have a world where 1st level PCs are greenhorn newbies, barely able to take on a typical goblin (skirmisher-1). In another world 1st level PCs may be established heroes who can wreak a bloody path through the goblin hordes (minion-1s).

If you are starting the PCs as peers of the realm, and they're 3rd level, make sure NPCs of similar status are of similar level. The famous wizard is a 4th level Human Mage (MM), the Orc Warlord is a 4th level Orc Berserker (MM), most soldiers are minion 2-4s, and so on.