B9anders
Explorer
thought I'd post a few thoughts on the scale of high level demographics in a fantasy world. The 2nd edition supplement Dungeon Master Option: High Level Campaigns by Skip Williams gives this a shot. Unfortunately, the calculations are somewhat off (following the table, you end up with less than one in five being having adventurer classes and progressing in levels. not one in ten).
Skip Williams suggests roughly one in ten meet the requirements for being adventurers based on having 15 or higher in one of your primary skills, a constitution no lower than 9 and no scores below 8. Regardless of this criteria, it is reasonable to think that about 1 in 10 take up adventurer classes and progress in levels in these (without neccesarily being adventurers). This corresponds to about every other small family or every large one sending off the favoured son (or daughter) to the possibility of making a better life for himself, in the armies, training in arcane academies, etc. Obviously, these numbers will be higher among the higher classes (perhaps just generally higher among elves, dwarves et al), but the generally make up a minority of the population and far from every peasant family will have a trained fighter or wizard in the family.
Assuming a 1 in 10 ratio and then assuming, as skip williams does, that for every 20 1st level, there are half that number who have made it 2nd, 5 who have made it to 3rd level etc. (the rest dying, retiring or just haven't accumulated enough experience) and we can make a calculation of just how many high level characters there are in a campaign world. Assuming a continent slightly larger tha north america (such as Faerun or the Flanaess), with a fairly solid population density (65-70 people per square mile) that gives us ca. 150.000.000 people in total for that region. Of the, one tenth will have adventurer classes, making the table looks like this:
There are additional factors to consider in all of this of course, such as the longelivety of dwarves and elves that, despite the lower numbers compared to humans, might see them reach higher levels and also the factor of exceptional longelivity among high level humans, with access to potions of youth and age-halting spells, particularly among wizards who will have easier access to these than other character classes. In this case, they do not actually belong to the demographics of the current population but are 'remnants' from former generations.
So at the really high level, 18+, the numbers actually begin to rise a bit compared to this table. Nonetheless, it gives you an idea of the progression that happens on a worldwide scale in the current generations among humans with ordinary lifespans.
Considering that arcane training is probably the least available compared to the martial training offered to fighters, the streetwise skills of the rogue and wizards make up perhaps one tenth of the adventuring classed people, depending on high magic your world is. What this also shows us is that high level wizards of the current generations are extremely rare. Roughly, No more than 3 who have progressed to 20th level and beyond. The rest are the ones who have extended their lifespan through various means (how many there are of these is no doubt varies from setting to setting depending on how high or low magic it is). Liches, vampires and other critters hiding away in tombs for adventurers to ransack are of course included in this category.
Looking below level 18 where age affecting spells are likely to be out largely out of people's reach, we can make a more definitive assesment of how many there are of each level in a campaign world. A mediumsized medieval kingdom with mediumsized population density probably has around 1 mio citizens (see Medieval demographics made easy for more on this). A quick table produces these numbers:
17th level characters are literally one in a million, one of a kind in an entire kingdom of the current generations. This not only provides some guidelines on the numbers that can be raised as trained forces for armies, but also demonstrate that the numbers become so few towards the higher levels that, if you are making your own campaign setting, it might be worth it to make some quick notes on the ten most powerful NPCs (level-wise) in such a kingdom (14th-17th level), people who have distinguished themselves as the foremost of men in the land and likely hold high positions in society. It also gives some quick pointers as to how high ib level you want the upper echelons of say the armies or wizard guilds in a normalsized kingdom to be.
The standard for calculating all this also works quite well on a smaller scale. A typical village of 500 will have:
Of these, no more than five will be wizards, the majority probably fighters, rangers and rogues. But it makes it easy to quickly designate the level the captain of the guard and the hedge wizard and his apprentice(s), whilst also giving a fair number of how many trained people there are in the cityguard (probably around 30).
This assumes that NPC classes like warrior and adepts don't exist (tbh, I never saw the point of them. If you want to make NPCs similar to PC classes only not as good you just make them lower level than they otherwise would be - no need for new classes duplicating existing ones only geared down when the level system already accomplishes this).
Skip Williams suggests roughly one in ten meet the requirements for being adventurers based on having 15 or higher in one of your primary skills, a constitution no lower than 9 and no scores below 8. Regardless of this criteria, it is reasonable to think that about 1 in 10 take up adventurer classes and progress in levels in these (without neccesarily being adventurers). This corresponds to about every other small family or every large one sending off the favoured son (or daughter) to the possibility of making a better life for himself, in the armies, training in arcane academies, etc. Obviously, these numbers will be higher among the higher classes (perhaps just generally higher among elves, dwarves et al), but the generally make up a minority of the population and far from every peasant family will have a trained fighter or wizard in the family.
Assuming a 1 in 10 ratio and then assuming, as skip williams does, that for every 20 1st level, there are half that number who have made it 2nd, 5 who have made it to 3rd level etc. (the rest dying, retiring or just haven't accumulated enough experience) and we can make a calculation of just how many high level characters there are in a campaign world. Assuming a continent slightly larger tha north america (such as Faerun or the Flanaess), with a fairly solid population density (65-70 people per square mile) that gives us ca. 150.000.000 people in total for that region. Of the, one tenth will have adventurer classes, making the table looks like this:
Code:
Table 1:
Numbers
lvl. (out of 150m)
1 7.500.000
2 3.750.000
3 1.875.000
4 937.500
5 468.750
6 234.375
7 117.188
8 58.594
9 29.297
10 14.648
11 7.324
12 3.662
13 1.831
14 916
15 458
16 229
17 114
18 57
19 29
20 14
21 7
22 4
23 2
24 1
total: 15.000.000So at the really high level, 18+, the numbers actually begin to rise a bit compared to this table. Nonetheless, it gives you an idea of the progression that happens on a worldwide scale in the current generations among humans with ordinary lifespans.
Considering that arcane training is probably the least available compared to the martial training offered to fighters, the streetwise skills of the rogue and wizards make up perhaps one tenth of the adventuring classed people, depending on high magic your world is. What this also shows us is that high level wizards of the current generations are extremely rare. Roughly, No more than 3 who have progressed to 20th level and beyond. The rest are the ones who have extended their lifespan through various means (how many there are of these is no doubt varies from setting to setting depending on how high or low magic it is). Liches, vampires and other critters hiding away in tombs for adventurers to ransack are of course included in this category.
Looking below level 18 where age affecting spells are likely to be out largely out of people's reach, we can make a more definitive assesment of how many there are of each level in a campaign world. A mediumsized medieval kingdom with mediumsized population density probably has around 1 mio citizens (see Medieval demographics made easy for more on this). A quick table produces these numbers:
Code:
Table 2:
Numbers
lvl. (out of 1m)
1 50.000
2 25.000
3 12.500
4 6.250
5 3.125
6 1.563
7 781
8 391
9 195
10 98
11 49
12 24
13 12
14 6
15 3
16 2
17 1
total: 100.000The standard for calculating all this also works quite well on a smaller scale. A typical village of 500 will have:
Code:
Table 3:
Numbers
lvl. (out of 500)
1 25
2 13
3 6
4 3
5 2
6 1
total: 50This assumes that NPC classes like warrior and adepts don't exist (tbh, I never saw the point of them. If you want to make NPCs similar to PC classes only not as good you just make them lower level than they otherwise would be - no need for new classes duplicating existing ones only geared down when the level system already accomplishes this).
