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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kzach" data-source="post: 4102092" data-attributes="member: 56189">Easy.If you base your setting on an average medieval design, then you have a sortof in-built reasoning for PC power. As for control, 4e deals with that nicely using the minions concept.To explain, break down your society into several levels of power. Knowledge is power in this respect. Not everyone can become a fully fledged fighter. They need to not only have the ability, but also the drive and a mentor and trainer.Bob could have great ability scores but just lacks the drive to be a fighter, wishing to simply live a peaceful life. But let's just say he is incredibly keen to learn how to swing a sword, what opportunities does he realistically have to do so? He's not a noble, so he has to find someone willing to teach him, which costs gold, which he doesn't have.So Bob joins the local militia and gets basic training. That gives him the power of an NPC, but he'll never be a great (PC) fighter. His mate, Joe, is also in the militia but his stats suck, so he only counts as a minion.With power levels you can equate them to people's rough ability to obtain them. I have minions, monsters, NPC classes (I still plan to use these even if they're not included in 4e), PC classes with less powerful people (so, if the average PC is 28 point buy, these would be 22 point buy) and the PC's.That doesn't mean that they're the only ones with that level of power. I usually break it down by saying 10% of the population is nobility. 60% of nobility only manage minion status for whatever reason. 30% manage NPC level classes. 5% manage PC level classes but don't excel because of lower stats or whatever. 4% manage to be equal in power to PC's and 1% exceed the PC's power.Generally what this equates to is that the PC's are of noble blood and are privileged enough to be taught by skilled mentors. Giving them noble blood is actually a really good idea. Nobles generally aren't that much richer than their peasant counterparts. The primary difference is access to knowledge and equipment. And if you look at realistic medieval societies, there are literally thousands of noble families, most of which have little more than their swords, horses, armours and allegiance to a lord who gives them food and accommodation in return for their sword arm.It also gives you a gazillion plot options. As a noble, they have less freedom than a peasant. They are duty bound to honour their noble obligations, which more than not, include doing stuff that is very adventure-like. And if they don't honour these obligations, they've just made an enemy <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=":)" />With minions, you can have guards in towns just as high level as the PC's and therefore posing a significant threat without overshadowing the PC's and their abilities. This gives them reason to pause instead of fireballing the tavern and flying off.I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.</blockquote>

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