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Level demographics in "your" D&D 3.X

enlightened

First Post
During the short time I spent with D&D 3E, I was into the E6 variant, and that has colored my view of world level demographics in fantasy worlds.

My general assuptions were:

1st level = Professional (90% of the population)
2nd level = Elite (9% of the population)
3rd level = Master
4th level = Long-time Master (generally the highest level NPCs could achieve)
5th level = Hero
6th level = Long-time Hero (the highest anyone has ever achieved)
7~12th level = The avatars of the gods
13~20th level = The very gods themselves as they walk the earth


I want to know what your level demographic assuptions are/were for D&D 3.X.

There's no right answer, and I'd like to add that my level demographic assuptions are different for each edition of D&D that I've played. But what about you?
 

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I play in Eberron, which has a low default level. With few exceptions, the most powerful NPCs are around 12th level. So ...

1st -- 90 percent of the population.
2nd -- A professional in his field.
3rd -- A veteran in his field.
4th through 6th -- A respected leader in his field.
7th through 9th -- Someone not to be trifled with due to sheer personal power.
10th through 12th -- Someone who can shape the structure of society (or lack of society) on a major local level.
13th through 15th -- Someone capable of saving the world, using teamwork.
16th through 20th -- Someone capable of threatening the world, more or less individually.
21st or higher -- Ain't no such thing, except with ECL.) I.e., there's no such thing as a 21st level druid, but there is the Great Oalian, a 20th level awakened pine tree druid.

My PCs are 11th and 12th levels. Right now they're in the process of wiping Daask from Sharn's map. Literally wiping them out. Soon they'll be saving Eberron itself from destruction.
 

Hmmm. Going off of a human baseline for purposes of age.

1st-level: Inexperienced, lazy, or talentless teenagers. And folk in their twenties who had to spend an excessive amount of time studying and meditating/practicing cantrips/praying as opposed to more active training and practice, like apprentice wizards and neophyte clerics. Or just extremely lazy/underachieving twenty-somethings doing simple labor. A farmhand or apprentice blacksmith maybe. A preteen pickpocket who relies entirely on their 'trade' to survive. An inexperienced recruit in the local guards. A young squire.

2nd-level: Journeyman of a simple profession or craft, someone who can probably manage to scrape by a living for themselves. A talented or hardworking mid-late teens teenager who has trained in their trade since childhood. A lazy fellow in their late twenties or early thirties. A scholar in their mid-late twenties. A farmer in their late twenties, or a very active farmer in their early twenties who gets in a lot of brawls or something and learns from the school of hard knocks. A pickpocket in their early or middle teens. A guard with minor experience or some talent. A capable squire.

3rd-level: A journeyman in a significant craft or profession, like a shipbuilder. A master of a simple profession or craft, like a chandler. A talented or hardworking fellow in their late teens, maybe a bit younger if an adventurer or other person facing frequent challenges instead of repetitive tasks. A capable diplomat or monarch, but by no means hardworking or talented. A capable thief or an experienced pickpocket. A guard of average experience somewhere with little danger, or a talented new guard. Someone in their thirties who does a lot of slow activity like reading and writing, a scholar probably. An experienced squire or novice knight.

4th-level: A master in an intermediate craft or profession, or an experienced journeyman. A talented teenage adventurer or warrior with significant experience for their age. A lazy but skilled or talented merchant or leader in their thirties or so. An experienced, respected scholar or artisan. A skilled thief or great pickpocket. A guard captain in a fairly peaceful place, or a lieutenant in a more active guard or military unit. An average young knight. A farmer who's seen more than his fair share of wolves, barfights, and other troubles.

5th-level: A master of a major craft or profession, though probably not so great he or she would be famous. An old, lazy monarch or a talented young monarch in the midst of his or her reign of conquest. A peaceful place's veteran guards. An old farmer or something. The leader of a small military unit or guard unit in a major city. An experienced young knight. A middle-aged but talented or skilled individual. A well-known scholar. A small temple's head priest. A guildmage of middling rank. A monastery's ranking subordinates to the master monk, in a small or new monastery. A small dojo's young sensei. An accomplished big-city thief, but no famous scoundrel. The first mate on a small pirate-ship, or the bosun of a larger ship maybe.

6th-level: An experienced and well-known master in a craft or profession. A venerable but active monarch of only minor accomplishments. An elite guard to such a monarch. A village's champion or veteran militia leader. A well-known knight with talent or great experience. An adventurer in their twenties or early thirties, depending on successfulness and studiousness or activity level. A master thief. A typical guildmaster. A great scholar. An experienced but untalented pirate captain barely worthy of the rank. A large military unit's second-in-command. A great diplomat or capable spy.

7th-level: A famous and highly experienced master in a craft or profession, probably getting old. A war-leader monarch who needs to command on the battlefield to maintain his or her position or expand the territory. An adventurer in their late twenties or early thirties. A guildmage of upper-middle rank. A master sage. A capable assassin or great spy. An accomplished knight. A city's constable or a large military unit's leader.

8th to 10th-level: Highly experienced adventurers and warriors, or talented and highly accomplished old civilians. Royal guards for a great monarch. Upper-ranking guildmages in small or average guilds. Experienced assassins and master spies. Successful and experienced warlords. Veteran pirates or talented middle-aged pirates.

11th to 14th-level: Very talented adventurers, warriors, or leaders with great experience. Elite royal guards, the royal wizard, or an old and very accomplished monarch. Master mages and minor archmages. Major temple leaders. Knight-champions leading an order of knights. Infamous pirates and mercenaries. Master assassins.

15th to 20th-level: Legendary figures and living legends. Veteran adventurers. Veteran warriors of rare talent and great skill. A kingdom's or religion's champion. An old pirate-king or pirate-queen. Challengers of minor demigods or quasi-deities, archfiends, elemental lords, and such.

21st-level onward: So legendary they're probably thought to be mere myths, or at least so legendary that their legends have grown far out of proportion. Only rare individuals make it so far, generally the best of the best adventurers who never quit and never settled down. Occasionally just an ancient and accomplished, but not very ambitious, elf or other long-lived person.


I consider things like 20th-level commoners to be non sequiturs, total nonsense. They're not likely to go above 10th-level, because their lives are too sedate and low-risk, so there's no way they'll learn or accomplish as much in their lives as a live-dangerously adventuring prodigy would. Maybe, just maybe, an immortal elf might become a 20th-level commoner eventually, but D&D elves aren't generally immortal.
 


average conscripts are 1 level commoners as per DMG. average trained soldiers are 1 level warriors. 3 level warrior is more like a corporal or a mercenary captain.
 

1st -- 90 percent of the population.
2nd -- A professional in his field.
3rd -- A veteran in his field.
4th through 6th -- A respected leader in his field.
7th through 9th -- Someone not to be trifled with due to sheer personal power.
10th through 12th -- Someone who can shape the structure of society (or lack of society) on a major local level.
13th through 15th -- Someone capable of saving the world, using teamwork.
16th through 20th -- Someone capable of threatening the world, more or less individually.
21st or higher -- Ain't no such thing, except with ECL.) I.e., there's no such thing as a 21st level druid, but there is the Great Oalian, a 20th level awakened pine tree druid.
These are pretty much my baselines as well, with the exception that there are a handful of epic-level characters. No one over 25th level, though...yet.
 

1st level = Still in training/raw recruit
2nd level = competent
3rd level = above average
4th level = exceptional
5th level = This is as high as most people can hope to get
6th level = Well-known
7~12th level = Heroes-Famous in their country, and may have at least been heard of but not recognizable in other areas.
13~20th level = (13-14)Celebrity in country
(15-17)known worldwide
(18-20)Your name will be the stuff of legends
 

I think more like Arkhandus than the others, but unlike him I have many epic NPCs in my campaign. This is probably because I DM a interplanar epic level campaign that's been running since 2nd ed.

Most people are 1st, but normal people that faces a lot of challenges during their lives will usually gain a few levels. A young bar maid can be a 2nd level rogue, a frontier farmer can be a 4th lvl warrior, a king can be a lvl figher4/aristocrat7 etc.

The PCs are around 25th lvl. I have around 500 npcs, and I guess 15 are epic just in levels, but when it comes to ECL, many more are epic.

When it comes to who shapes the world or whether people are famous, level isn't that important. The PCs are legendary, but when it comes to NPCs, timing and politics can turn a relatively low level character into a mayor player, and some epic level characters keep a very low profile.

A question for the OPs and others who keep their players at low levels: How do your players feel about never being able to reach the full potential of their characters as outlined by the PHB?
 


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