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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SHARK" data-source="post: 168615" data-attributes="member: 1131">Greetings!Hmmm...indeed. It is true that all powerful leaders should be high level, but I suppose I was attempting to make the connection that many high-level characters don't necessarily have to be *leaders* One could certainly argue that prima facie having high levels presupposes *leadership ability* but I suppose that I make some distinctions between the following effecting characters:(1) Personality: Many personality types, despite the person having a broad range of skill and distinguished abilities, are not suited for leadership. In addition, the person may often not desire such a leadership role, and its attendant responsibility. To use an example from real life, I can think of many Marines who are long-serving Sergeants, Staff-Sergeants, and Gunnery-Sergeants, that when it comes to being an all-around warrior, are often superior in those abilities to many of the Majors and higher field-grade ranks. Those Marines, in D&D terms, could be seen as 15th-20th level Fighters, or Rangers, for example. The higher-grade officers might also qualify to be 15th-20th level, in a variety of classes. Thus, it can be seen that there is a wide difference in rank, and authority, but not necessarily in personal ability.(2) Political Authority/Power:This is related to point one, above. There are also various positions in government, the military, business, and the Church, that feature different leaders of various ability. The political power or authority doesn't necessarily require outstanding real abilities and skill. Oftentimes, such skills and abilities may shift the odds in favor of one's star rising, but there are plenty of examples of people throughout history that while in awesome positions of power and authority, when the rubber met the road, they just didn't measure up.(3) Actual Occupational Choices:There are many people of vast skills and ability who, whether from previous career training, or extensive personal training and experiences, have none the less chosen to pursue some other form of occupation or status that is not representative or even relevant to their deeper levels of skill and abilities. To use just a few examples, there are many *Security Officers* that, while in relatively positions of low pay, are in fact highly trained former or reserve police-officers or military personel. There can also be found throughout the business world, various struggling entrepenuers who were quite successful in a previous line of work. If you encountered them at the business seminar though, or chatting at some regional office for training, you wouldn't know that they have degrees in Philoosphy, or Law, or have some very different abilities from what their present status would suggest. In Sociology, this phenomenon is called Role, and Master Status. One's *Master Status* represents one's real abilities and skills, and yet that can be very different from one's current *Role* In a similar way, there are many people that are very successful in one kind of career, and they either retire, or choose to change careers. Sometimes, this can be at relatively young ages. Say, someone lives and works as a Ranger from the time they are 15 until they are 35. That's 20 years. They could well be a master of survival and woodcraft, and yet, move to the city and begin serving in the local watch as an ordinary-looking police-officer, walking the night-watch on the foggy waterfront. These realities--quite real in the real world, can and should, be at work in our fantasy worlds.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Colonel, great thread by the way!<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Semper Fidelis,SHARK</blockquote>

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