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Message: <blockquote data-quote="willpax" data-source="post: 770515" data-attributes="member: 1602">I have found this thread to be very interesting, but don't have much to add to it. I've always started with where I wanted basic competence. Assuming a +10 to a skill allows the character to accomplish most mundane tasks with ease, and that 6 skill ranks, skill focus (I use the variant +3 to one skill or +2 to two related skils), and some basic talent (+1 or +2 stat bonus) is sufficient to accomplsih that. Therefore, I want most of my adult population to be levels 3 or 4. It is also my assumption that most people don't go out of their way to really challenge themselves, so that Kid Charlemagne's observation about there being a point at which experience point accrual slows considerably fits with my assumptions. I don't have elves (I do, but they are immortal demigod-type beings that I would no sooner allow to be a PC class than I would a dragon), so the milder advantages of halflings and dwarves don't upset the balance too much. Unfortunately for this thread, I've never bothered trying to make a mathematical formula to reflect all this. I assume roughly 15% at first and second level (young apprentices and those with less aptitude for learning), 30% at third and 20% at fourth level (the bulk of the adult population), with the remaining 20% spread out among the other levels (the bulk of them 5th or 6th). This "talented fifth" tend to be the wise elders or those who have continuously sought out challenges (like the PCs). Demihuman populations will have these ratios shifted one or two levels higher, but tend to have much lower overall populations. One untested assumption: why should we assume that the overall population gets their stats distributed according to the same random spread as the PC's? I think we could just as easily assume that most normal people inhabit the thick part of the bell curve (a narrower distribution), with most people having only +1 or +2 bonuses. The PCs are special, after all.</blockquote>

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