Ability points PC vs. NPCs

[Quasqueton]

I was thinking about ability scores, and how it is that the PCs always have much higher scores than the common man (even those that supposedly arise from the common man).

For instance, in my game, PCs have 28 points for the Point Buy method. Normal/common folks have 15. Special people (leaders and such) have 20 points. NPCs with PC classes have 25 points.

But it is not just in my game that the PCs stand head and shoulders above the common people even at low levels. The fact that by the core rules, PCs use 4d6-1 to generate their ability scores, and presumedly, normal/common folk use 3d6 supports the concept that the PCs are "supermen" in comparison to the rest of their world.

I used to think that the PCs were born into their ability scores. They rose into their character classes and came to be adventurers because they had the abilities naturally. In other words, the farmer commoner with 18 Str and 14 Con eventually took to the fighter class.

But thinking more about it when considering my game paradigm (the points mentioned above), I thought of another explanation for PCs having higher ability scores: the training for their PC class produced/raised their scores. The farmer commoner with 11 Str and 11 Con was recruited into the fighter school and eventually worked his body up to the higher scores.

PC class training is intensive, be it bard, barbarian, wizard, or even sorcerer. Be the training from an official organization or from an individual tutor, PC class training is much better than NPC class training (compare warrior to fighter, or expert to rogue, or adept to wizard).

You can take a set of twins, with identical ability scores, train one in the local militia and the other in the elite forces, and you will end up with one a warrior with 15 PB points, and one a fighter with 25, 28, 32+ PB points. It was the training that brought up the ability scores, not the ability scores that prompted the training.

Is this how you see the reason for the fact that PCs always have much higher ability scores than the normal/common man? Am I really slow for having come up with this concept 24 years into my D&D "career"?

Quasqueton

 

[Crothian]

Actually I usually use the same method the PCs use to determine NPC stats. I think the PCs get enough of an advantage they don't need more.

 

[Arnwyn]

Is this how you see the reason for the fact that PCs always have much higher ability scores than the normal/common man?

"Fact"? Meh.

 

[National Acrobat]

Actually I usually use the same method the PCs use to determine NPC stats. I think the PCs get enough of an advantage they don't need more.

I concur. I mean, the NPC's didn't get to be BBEG's by having watered down stats. If my players ask for a class or spell or item, the NPC's use it as well. Same goes for ability scores.

 

[Darkness]

I concur with Crothian and National Acrobat.

In my next campaign, the PCs get 36 points.

Important, and somewhat important, NPCs do too if they have PC classes.
Other NPCs with PC classes get ca. 28-32.
NPCs with NPC classes other than Commoner get ca. 15-25.
Commoners don't usually get stats.

Generally. Exceptions exist - a select few NPCs might get even more than 36 points.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Is this how you see the reason for the fact that PCs always have much higher ability scores than the normal/common man?

No. Because I don't want to deal with the multiclassing issues.

 

[lotuseater]

i think the original explanation behind the discrepancies between your average npc and the pc was your first point, that pc's just happen to be exceptional, which is what leads to them becoming adventurers in whatever form. where the training aspect really comes in is leveling up, figuring that as you become a more able warrior/spellcaster/etc. you are improving your body and mind. of course, if someone wants to instead say that these initial ability scores also sprang from training, because it fits the campaign, that works too.

this question paralells the realworld debate over whether genetics or environment play more of a role in development. since there's no definitive answer to the question yet, i don't see why there really needs to be one in the game world either.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I use the same generation methods for NPCs as for PCs.

 

[Elric]

High natural (rolled) ability scores increase chance of making it to a higher level
Presumably, higher level also increases ability scores, but other than the 1 point every 4 levels, this is not represented in the D&D rules.

In general, the character with the higher ability scores is more likely to survive to high level. The PCs are unique- they alone are given an exception to this rule, because they are (probably) going to become high level no matter what their ability scores are. NPC base stats should keep going up as the NPCs increase in level. If this were the case, though, then PCs would have (on average) higher rolled ability scores than everyone they encountered for the first X levels and lower rolled ability scores thereafter.

To avoid this problem, it seems much easier to just make major (and maybe semi-major) villains have the same ability score method as the PCs, at all levels.

 

[Quasqueton]

I am absolutely stunned. Flabbergasted, even.

All your NPCs have the same heroic ability scores as the PCs? The shopkeepers down the street have 16-18 Int? The town guardsmen patrol all have 16-18 Str? The local councilmen all have 16-18 Cha? Really? I have *never* heard of DMs doing this. [Well, there was one campaign where *everyone* in the world were as good or better than we PCs.]

Well, I guess it does explain some complaints I've read on this forum. If *everyone* has 14s and 15s, then those scores become the average (instead of 10s and 11s). Do you all also bump up monster ability scores too? I mean, by the RAW, monster stats are based on 15 points (11, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10 or 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8). This is pretty pathetic when even the farmer in the field, the merchant on his wagon, and the hedge mage off in the shack all have 15, 14, 14, 12, 10, 10.

Quasqueton