Average income of a social class?

[DnD_Dad]

In my campaigns I only have a few divisions of class.

1.)slaves-lowest level no income provided to them beyond a few GP a year at most.

2.)peasants-not slaves but not that much better off. Miners, Wood cutters, hunters, ingredient gatherers, Land owners (5-12 acre farm with minimal provisions.) They are taxed by the local lord 30-40% of entire production in coin and the local religious authority demands tything of at least 10% in the same way. After that all money is used for the farm(seed, feed, tools, etc.). After that, even if they break even, they have very minimal spending money for anything that isn't beyond survival.

3.)experts - brewers, soldiers, smiths, merchants, etc. - these people are the beginning level for spenders. They make a weekly or monthly wage in GP per month based on skill level.

4.)master level- guild masters, school masters, stable masters, etc. These are the people that the experts go to learn and deal with true sources of their selected professions. These people make significantly more money per month than the people they train. I estimate a wizard school would charge 100s in GP per month for a student and would house many students at any time. 1000s GP per month.

5.)Lords-they control the money of the economy. Nuf said.

I try to keep this in mind when running a campaign and it gives my NPCs more feeling and makes them goal driven and believable. It make not work for everyone, but it's what I do.

Cheers

 

[haakon1]

Compilation

I'm trying to compile what's been posted by many folks here into a single document for my campaign. I've also been reading up in the DMG on hirelings, and even checked out the original Unearthed Arcana social class tables.

What do you think of this?

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Destitute (Underclass): 0 steady income.
You have no steady source of funds, no living space (or perhaps a squatter's homemade lean-to), and must carry all your gear everywhere. You eat poor quality food, mainly scavenged from settlements and stolen from farms and gardens. You wear a peasant outfit, your only change of clothes. Typically vagabonds, drifters, criminal, and outcasts.

Typically Commoners. Half-orcs are assumed to be of this class (and often are).

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Cottager or Labourer (Lower Working Class): 1 sp/day, or 3gp/month.
Basic peasant subsistence is 1 sp/day. That's what you pay an unskilled labourer if there is plenty of surplus labour. It's enough to keep an active human male from starvation. It's also the cost of a maidservant in your castle - you're not really paying her, maybe an occasional sp at holiday time, but feeding her & keeping her supplied with clean linens etc adds up.

You work for others for wages/subsistance as a hired hand, and do not own/hold any land of your own. You wear a peasant outfit (you own two) and you can rarely afford to eat meat.

In a city, you can sleep in a ragged blanket on a dry(ish) stone/reed floor with 30 other men for 1cp/day, get your food from the market with plenty of hot broth and porridge and you can eat for ca 5 cp/day, if there's regular work you still have 4 cp/day for patching your rags and drinking plenty of weak beer at ca 2 cp/gallon. Not such a bad life by historical standards. But if there's no regular work, you better hope you saved some cps, or it's a choice (at best) between starvation and beggary.

Typically Commoners.

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Crofter, Sharecropper ("Husbandman"), or Tradesman (Middle Working Class): 2 sp/day, or 6gp/month

As a farmer, you either own a poor quality farm on the frontier (crofter) or you own very little land (perhaps a home an a garden) and rent the rest for a share of your crop (sharecropper). You likely share expensive tools and livestock (like oxen and a plow) with your neighbors, or rent them from a lord. Though technically a freeman, your ancestors were serfs and your lot isn't much better.

In a city, you are an apprentice or other semi-skilled laborer.

A mercenary infantryman costs this much. It covers equipment repairs, good eating (equivalent to an Inn meal/day), and booze money.

You wear a peasant outfit, but you own 2-3, including a "Sunday best" version.

Typically Commoners, or Warriors.

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Yeoman (Upper Working Class): 10 gp/month.

As a farmer, you own a reasonable amount of land, and likely have at least one beast of burden (ox, mule, or horse). In the militia, you may serve as a light crossbowman or longbowman.

In a city, you're a journeyman artisan, scribe, teamster, or petty merchant.

You own 2-3 artisan outfits.

As a mercenary soldier, you're an elite soldier, perhaps a horseman or a junior sergeant.

If an unsuccessful/novice adventurer, you sleep 5 to a room (1 sp) and eat 1 meal/day (2sp), the 3sp/day is 2gp/week or 8gp/month for long-term stay. Call it 10gp/month including equipment, clothes, booze & sundries.

May be a Commoner, Expert, or Warrior.

Halflings and Gnomes are often assumed to be this class.
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Middle Class: 30-40gp/month
At the "we're successful!" level. You have a pleasant home and wear clothes appropriate to your role, such as artisan's, scholar's, or traveler's outfit, and have several changes of clothes.

In a city, you're a master artisan, successful merchant, or a professional (alchemist or barrister, for example).

In a soldier, you're a lieutenant.

Typically an Expert.

Dwarves and Elves are often assumed to be this class.

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Gentry/Gentleman/Esquire (Upper Middle Class/Wealthy): 200 gp/month

By definition, the gentry hold enough assets to live on rents without working. You may be well educated.

If you work, it's likely as a guild master, a great merchant, a cleric, in law or politics, or in another educated pursuit without manual labor. It may be a hobby more than a source of income.

If you are a soldier, you are a captain or higher rank.

Some gentry may possess great wealth, social respectability, and useful contacts, but they are not nobility.

 

[FinalSonicX]

I usually just wing income because it mostly doesn't come up but I'm currently building tables for this sort of stuff so that GMs in my setting/system can understand what kind of spending power people have.

My economy is silver based, so gold coins are rarely handled by anyone other than merchants, skilled workers, the educated, and the nobles. Any gold you see should be treated more like 10 pieces of gold in normal D&D. All of the incomes I list are basically just average and the actual numbers can vary based on the individual and their profession.

I split my categories as follows:

Laborers: lowly workers in mines, dock workers, construction workers, etc. These individuals have the least spending power, raking in only 2 silver pieces a month (most of this is consumed with food and rent, leaving them only a small handful of copper for free money).

Farmers: the agrarian farmers who presumably have land, a few animals, and some tools. These individuals don't often spend their money on much other than necessary supplies for their farms, but they make slightly more money. These individuals pull in about 3 silver pieces a month.

Soldiers + Guardsmen: the town guard and full-time soldiers receive a bit of money, but they also rarely see gold. They receive about 5-6 silver pieces a month and have most of their armor maintenance and supplies handled for them by their employer.

Clergy: The lower-class clergy (aka lowly priests, not high priests or leaders of powerful organization) is paid slightly more than all of the lower social classes, and they straddle the awkward line between being poor and being middle-class. Clergy receive about 8-9 silver pieces a month.

Skilled Workers: Skilled workers are workers who have trained their whole life to practice their trade whether it be blacksmithing, carpentry, or gemcutting. These individuals usually belong to the guilds and tend to sell to the merchants and thus make a decent amount of money. These are the lowest of the "middle class", receiving a significant 2 gold pieces per month. This is the lowest social class which actually gets a chance to see gold in any kind of regular basis, but they also form the core of the middle class.

Merchants: The merchants may be stationary or they may travel, but in any case they make the most money out of all professions in the middle class. They make about 4 gold pieces a month.

Educated: The educated include sages, scholars, professors, wizards, high ranking clerics or religious leaders, or simply the very high-class merchant circle who can afford to educate themselves and their children and still have money left to spend. This is the first layer of the upper class and they make 10 gold pieces a month.

Nobles: Nobles control the land and the power, so as a result most of their wealth is invested in tangible things that they then leverage to make more money. They make 24 gold or more (for a reasonably well-established but not hugely affluent nobleman) per month. Noblemen, due to their opulent lifestyles and the necessity of maintaining their lands and troops, tend not to have a ton more money on hand than the merchants or the educated, but they do keep savings available and furthermore they can get an incredible line of credit from just about any lender due to their incredible power and influence.

 

[howandwhy99]

I don't really use social classes. Instead I use NPC classes and they receive a standard pay according to the performance of their class by level and other factors.

For instance, if they are in the PC starting area of the frontier, they typically earn a lot more pay. Of course, there are far less goods readily available and customers too, so... If they are in an area where too many other NPCs of the same basic or expert classes are practicing, then they leave for another area or change classes based upon opportunities available, or live with less pay as prices decline.

 

[tomBitonti]

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Destitute (Underclass): 0 steady income.
You have no steady source of funds, no living space (or perhaps a squatter's homemade lean-to), and must carry all your gear everywhere. You eat poor quality food, mainly scavenged from settlements and stolen from farms and gardens. You wear a peasant outfit, your only change of clothes. Typically vagabonds, drifters, criminal, and outcasts.

Typically Commoners. Half-orcs are assumed to be of this class (and often are).

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I'd imagine that this class often includes the simply displaced, say, refugees from war or disaster. Also foreigners, perhaps quite skillful, might tend to this class, being prevented from obtaining social status because of language or cultural differences. Imagine folks in a UN refugee camp.

Tom

 

[haakon1]

Destitute (Underclass)

I'd imagine that this class often includes the simply displaced, say, refugees from war or disaster. Also foreigners, perhaps quite skillful, might tend to this class, being prevented from obtaining social status because of language or cultural differences. Imagine folks in a UN refugee camp.

I think most foreigners would actually be merchants, sailors, teamsters, or adventurers -- people with a reason to travel, and not necessarily that poor.

Poorer refugees (some might not be so poor, but escaping non-economic troubles, like an invasion) would be in this class, at least until they "get back on their feet".

But I think most of the Destitute would be homegrown.

In the 19th century, Karl Marx described the lumpenproletariat, "underclass" or "marginalized" people in more modern terms, like this:

"This scum of the depraved elements of all classes ... decayed roués (rakes), vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, swindlers, mountebanks (con men), lazzaroni (day labourers/street thugs of Naples), pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, brothel keepers, tinkers, beggars, the dangerous class, the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society."

A sociologist in New York City described (in less pejorative terms) the underclass in 1981 as consisting of 4 main groups:
-- the passive poor, usually long term welfare recipients (beggars or workhouse dwellers in a pre-modern milleau)
-- the hostile street criminal, drop-outs, low-class prostitutes, and drug addicts
-- the hustlers, dependent on the underground economy, but rarely involved in violent crime
-- the traumatized drunks, drifters, homeless bag ladies, and released mental patients

I'm thinking the medieval, 19th century, and current versions of the class probably aren't all that different.

Underclass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Celebrim]

I'm trying to compile what's been posted by many folks here into a single document for my campaign. I've also been reading up in the DMG on hirelings, and even checked out the original Unearthed Arcana social class tables.

What do you think of this?

I think you've described a somewhat adequate silver peice based economy.

Unfortunately, adventurers are on a default gold peice based economy. If you want to retain a silver peice based economy, you'll need to reprice everything and adjust treasure accordingly.

If you don't, some wierd things start happening to the economy of the game world. While food and other basic necessities tend to be priced on a silver peice based economy, tools, buildings, and other durable goods tend to be priced on the gold peice based economy. The first upshot of this is that mechanically, peasants can't afford the hovels, huts, and cottages that they live in nor the tools that they need to perform their labor. The second upshot of this is that PC's can leverage this to buy raw materials under a silver peice economy, and then quickly transform them into finished goods that are costed according to the gamist adventure balancing gold peice standard at enormous profits.

Another wierd result of having a labor market priced in silver peices while adventures buy and sell in gold peices, is that PC's will find that they can amazingly leverage the labor market forcing you to reprice the market whether you want it or not. It becomes relatively easy to go Belloch at mid to high level, and approach problems with a sledge hammer of overwhelming labor - dig everything up, get everyone to work for you, hire all the mercenaries you can find. If 100 longbowmen can be treated like a low cost magic item, it changes the game.

Plus, the mismatched economy just won't work in detail. Finished goods priced in g.p. can't be explained from labor costs and raw materials priced in silver peices, and you'll end up with odd descrepencies depending on where you look to for pricing out whatever the players have decided to do that isn't basic dungeon crawling.

The easiest fix for this is to ignore the realistic silver peice economy and multiple all your incomes, subsistance costs, and anything else with assumptions rooted in the wage = 1 s.p. assumption by a factor of 10 to convert it to the standard gold peice economy. Or alternately you can adjust all of the prices in the gamist gold peice economy down by a factor of 10. Either way, you end up encouraging economic parity between PC's and NPC's of equivalent social standing.

 

[S'mon]

I think you've described a somewhat adequate silver peice based economy.

Unfortunately, adventurers are on a default gold peice based economy. If you want to retain a silver peice based economy, you'll need to reprice everything and adjust treasure accordingly.

If you don't, some wierd things start happening to the economy of the game world. While food and other basic necessities tend to be priced on a silver peice based economy, tools, buildings, and other durable goods tend to be priced on the gold peice based economy. The first upshot of this is that mechanically, peasants can't afford the hovels, huts, and cottages that they live in nor the tools that they need to perform their labor. The second upshot of this is that PC's can leverage this to buy raw materials under a silver peice economy, and then quickly transform them into finished goods that are costed according to the gamist adventure balancing gold peice standard at enormous profits.

Another wierd result of having a labor market priced in silver peices while adventures buy and sell in gold peices, is that PC's will find that they can amazingly leverage the labor market forcing you to reprice the market whether you want it or not. It becomes relatively easy to go Belloch at mid to high level, and approach problems with a sledge hammer of overwhelming labor - dig everything up, get everyone to work for you, hire all the mercenaries you can find. If 100 longbowmen can be treated like a low cost magic item, it changes the game.

Plus, the mismatched economy just won't work in detail. Finished goods priced in g.p. can't be explained from labor costs and raw materials priced in silver peices, and you'll end up with odd descrepencies depending on where you look to for pricing out whatever the players have decided to do that isn't basic dungeon crawling.

The easiest fix for this is to ignore the realistic silver peice economy and multiple all your incomes, subsistance costs, and anything else with assumptions rooted in the wage = 1 s.p. assumption by a factor of 10 to convert it to the standard gold peice economy. Or alternately you can adjust all of the prices in the gamist gold peice economy down by a factor of 10. Either way, you end up encouraging economic parity between PC's and NPC's of equivalent social standing.

Aside from the occasional overpriced piece of adventuring gear (15gp lanterns in 1e AD&D, AIR) I essentially disagree with all of this.

In a pre-modern setting, of course the peasant can't slap down 100gp and buy a hovel! He inherits or makes his own, with help. I'm not sure where you get the overpriced tools from; but certainly tools would be lovingly maintained and last for years; old and worn tools would be resold to poor peasants, only rich peasants could buy new tools direct from the blacksmith.

Rather than assume a gp-based modern-American economy, it works much better* IMO to assume a medieval baseline, then if the PCs do throw money around by hiring vast numbers of people, that's when inflation can kick in; hireling costs will go up. If the PCs are moving masses of men then keeping them supplied will become a lot more expensive too, you can apply a x5 or x10 multiplier.

*For a quasi-medieval feel. You can go for a more modern feel; but then you need to explain why productivity is high enough to support high wages. Either there's a magitech industrial revolution, or perhaps it's an expanding 'American frontier' type setting with lots of land and very low population density. The latter is an unstable situation though; population will rise to fill the available land.

 

[S'mon]

I
Another wierd result of having a labor market priced in silver peices while adventures buy and sell in gold peices, is that PC's will find that they can amazingly leverage the labor market forcing you to reprice the market whether you want it or not. It becomes relatively easy to go Belloch at mid to high level, and approach problems with a sledge hammer of overwhelming labor - dig everything up, get everyone to work for you, hire all the mercenaries you can find. If 100 longbowmen can be treated like a low cost magic item, it changes the game.

This is a strange objection since in every edition of D&D prior to 4e we always had hireling costs which explicitly facilitated exactly this sort of thing. Of course wealthy adventurers can hire hordes of hirelings! This doesn't change the game - it is the game!

The main issue for mid-high level adventurers is not hireling availability, it is hireling effectiveness. Mid-high adventurers are superhuman engines of destruction; hirelings are not. Taking 3e as an example, the 1st level warrior longbowmen your 6th level PC can hire look nice, but are not effective vs the CR 6 monsters down the dungeon - they'll die in droves, if they agree to go down there at all. The exact same thing applies to low-level minions hired by a 9th level 4e PC.

If you want to dig stuff up from a locale close to inhabited territory (as in 'Raiders'), then droves of 0th level labourers/minion-2 human rabble can do the job, yup. Why not? If there's danger you'll need to pay them extra. If it's a locale away from settled lands then you'll need to pay for supply trains, guards for the camp, guards for the supply trains, etc. To me that's great, it engages the PCs with the campaign world. And if they don't want the hassle, they can go solo, using their own heroic resources.

Personally I find peasants rolling in gp who can afford to buy +1 swords down the market far more of a problem than rich PCs in an sp world. It's not the 1 sp/day labourer who jars me, it's the Orlane or Hommlet peasant with 100gp in his treasure chest.

 

[Janx]

Smon has a good point. Wealthy pcs are sposed to be hiring.

While i suspect unscrupulous innkeepers will rent rooms at higher rates when mr. Moneybags shows up, the assumption that rich people are idiots and dont know the going rate is wrong.

I'm not going tp pay 1gp/ when i know hirelings work for 3sp/day. When faced with actually getting my business or not, they will work for the going rate.

Proof: go watch some mexicans down by the gas station. They take the same pay regardless of the quality of the truck that picks them up.

Here's a historical question: what impact did all the gold spain brought back have? Thi was a huge influx of cash, akin to adventurers coming back from the dungeon.