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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pauln6" data-source="post: 9408959" data-attributes="member: 6777422">As a percentage of high level Npcs there were a lot of casters but there were not many high level NPCs so as a percentage of the overall population there were few.  Also paladins and rangers were very rare because ability score minimums were quite punishing so I think they were in the 1% but then barbarians as a class didn't exist then either so the table is only a broad indication of assumptions. There was a great article on the Sorcerous universities which tried to pinpoint the Harry Potter type institutions (pre-Harry Potter) where mages gathered to learn.  So Greyhawk was never full on low magic, more low to medium.  10% wizard is too high to call Greyhawk low magic.  Living Greyhawk (post Harry Potter) ended up putting wizard schools in every playable nation, whereas 1e formalised the Jedi style master and pupil vibe, so there was a shift more towards the mundanity of magic as cultural reference points shifted over time. Modules always leaned heavily into magic themes because adventures were all about going out to find those places but, again they were never meant to be common. Greyhawk was originally built around those initial expectations in the MM.  1 in 5 people may be non human but after you take out the most common halflings, orcs and half-orcs, each individual species is quite rare. Halflings don't get that much of a mention in Greyhawk.  It think it all goes back to the assumptions from Tolkien.  Humans and halflings are primarily subsistence farmers so lots of them are dotted around in small, often mixed, hamlets.  Elves tend to be forest hunter-gatherers, and dwarves and gnomes tend to be miners and underground farmers so they are concentrated in small, more isolated settlements in specific locations, depressing overall numbers.  Mixed villages were not meant to be the norm.  If you recall, there was the table in 1e setting out which races likes each other. But you are absolutely right to say that settings can change any baseline assumptions, as can specific locations.  Grey elves are very rare overall but they aren't very rare within the borders of Celene. But this is why I say a side bar might be a fun exercise.  Greyhawk assumptions definitely morphed over time (some classes didn't exist, so it had to).  A set of recommended assumptions on 1e, 3e, and 5e and how they differed could give really useful information on world building.</blockquote>

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