D&D 5E 5E demographics

[SkidAce]

I think I still use the dragon magazine or where ever idea, that 1 in a 100 is exceptional (1st level) 1 of a hundred of those is 2nd, etc etc.

Makes for a reasonable pyramid effect and good for a WAG.

Edit: Correction, it was 10% was exceptional (i.e. 1st level), and then you had half as many 2nd levels, half again 3rds, etc.

So a population of 1,000 had 100 exceptional 1st levels, 50 2nd, 25, 3rd, 12 4th, 6 5th, 3 6th, 1 7th. (I know the math doesn't add up, either you pop is lower levels included, or your pop is higher, levels in addition.)

 

[Ed_Laprade]

The OP is also forgetting that for quite a few campaigns, dropping dead at level 10+ isn't necessarily the end of the character, what with Raise Dead and all. (And when did our world hit 1 billion? Sometime in the 1800s?)

 

[MasterTrancer]

But my main issue with your calculations is that they are just that...calculations. In an actual campaign world, they could be used as guidelines but probably wouldn't be taken too seriously.

Which was the whole point of my post ;-)

 

[MasterTrancer]

Well, for accuracy, you should probably open up the fit population to include everyone ever born. There's no rule tethering level-up to ability scores. There's not even a rule that keeps you from taking a class. The only thing that's restricted by ability score is multiclassing.

I don't think that the whole population would take on adventuring, no. And not that the whole population would survive through the first steps. At least from the tales I'm reading about, for example, LMoP, where parties of 4 people, with good ability scores, are put in serious risk of being wiped out. Anyway, I started this exercise (because thats what it is) exactly because I wanted some updated figures, since the vanishing of minimum ability scores.

Further, remember that killing monsters is not the only way to earn XP. If a humble villager fulfills a lot of noncombat quests, he or she might easily gain a few levels. So I really don't understand the assertion that only half the people manage to gain a level. It seems to have been pulled from the aether, completely lacking in substance.

I said it: since I based myself on DUNGEON MASTER OPTIONS: High-Level Campaigns I kept the "50% of each level levels up" used there; I don't know where Skip Williams got that estimate, but for me was as good as any, for starters. As for leveling up NPCs doing side quests, I don't know: it sometimes makes sense, but...what about your PCs then? Why adventuring if all you need is doing some chores, and the power comes to you? (Mind, I'm pondering about how to actually give XPs based on off-adventuring tasks, but I can't picture so many people actually reaching the pinnacles. In that case, the guidelines are broken at the low levels, but still hold true (for a given value of true ;-) ) the higher you get.

That said, it makes sense that there should be very few people who ever manage to climb to 20. Monsters at CR 20 are generally on par with demigods, and PCs who reach such lofty heights are flirting with godhood themselves.

Agreed.

 

[MasterTrancer]

The OP is also forgetting that for quite a few campaigns, dropping dead at level 10+ isn't necessarily the end of the character, what with Raise Dead and all. (And when did our world hit 1 billion? Sometime in the 1800s?)

I have not forgotten: I stated it may be due to death or retiring. For a little sample, many people here on the forums say that they rarely play over 10th level: can we say that this compensates for the increased survivability of PCs with access to raising magic?

And I would not ask WHEN, but WHY our world reached 1B: wider access to resources, better health services, overall "better" life conditions, brought by the industrial revolution?

And how does your (generic you) campaign world fare? Can it support big populations? Do all the races vie for the same resources, or do they have some clashing along the borders? These are questions that each DM has a different answer to.

 

[Beleriphon]

(And when did our world hit 1 billion? Sometime in the 1800s?)

1804

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population_milestones