How Special Are The PCs?

[Emerikol]

But what about how they compare to a broad cross section of the NPC population?

I've expressed my view before but it's worth another listing. I realize this is not the standard D&D way.

A. Levels 1 to 6 are common. Almost all people fall into this category. Obviously 1 is more common than 6 but any reasonably sized town has a few 6th level.
B. Levels 7 to 12 are uncommon. While rarer in small towns they are common in big cities.
C. Levels 13 to 15 are renowned. In a nation there are a half a dozen to a dozen
D. Level 16+ are legends. They are rare even in a nation. There are maybe 20 to 50 on a large continent.

Most troops are A with sergeants and captains at the higher levels.

Knights, High Priests, Wizards for hire, etc.. are at level B. They make up a lot of the mounted soldiery in a medieval kingdom.

C and D are obviously great leaders, renowned warriors, crafty archmages, etc... These people have the ear of the King often. A good number of these though remain anonymous and keep a low profile. If they are out and about you could mistake them for group B easily. So the visible number of C's and D's is likely lower than the reality.

 

[The Soloist]

Depends on the campaign concept:

In my last 5e campaign (2018-19), the four level 2 characters were brothers and sisters, and children of a Baron, who was murdered prior to session 1. The long term objective was to find out who and why they killed him - and possibly enact revenge. They were well above the common man, in status, ressources and capabilities, despite only being level 2. They were 'special' with a mega arch plot, they had a manifest destiny of trying to stop the enemies who were attempting to destroy their noble family and they were heroes of the realm.

In my latest Fantasy AGE campaign (2022-2023), the four characters were unrelated regular mercenaries trying to survive getting odd jobs from various factions in and around Skullport. They were not 'special' at all. There was no mega arch plot, no manifest destiny and were not heroes.

 

[Koloth]

Really depends on the game and setting. A typical Traveller character is just another slob in a galaxy wide empire that is one of several galaxy wide empires. D&D type games tend to be a bit smaller in scale. The above average character might be known as someone of note to the locals but is probably not known a couple of towns over. Those towns have their own characters of note.

 

[JConstantine]

Relative to the people in the same "class" as them (if such exists) where do they sit.

Even with this clarification, I'm going to agree with @DrunkonDuty in that, for me, it depends on the game.

In a Forgotten Realms game, with the likes of Elminster, Laeral Silverhand, Drizzt and the Companions of the Hall, etc., your standard PCs are arguably less special than their peers. Meanwhile, Eberron was specifically conceived of to ensure that PCs were exceptional - the Great Druid Olian is an awakened tree that cannot leave the Greenheart; Jaela Daran is one of the most powerful clerics as the Keeper of the Silver, but is just an regular human child outside of the Cathedral of the Silver Flame; Mordain the Fleshweaver and Lady Illmarrow are treated as boogie men rather than known threats like Szass Tam.

With superheroes, a gritty, street-level iron age game is going to have PCs be less special than other supes, while a four colour game is going to have them be more special than average. I like both.

In Vampire: The Masquerade, PCs are typically low on the hierarchy compared to other vamps, despite clearly being more special than mortals.

In Blades in the Dark, PC scoundrels are intended to be above average in terms of ability/specialness, even if their crew starts at the bottom of the ladder.

In Call of Cthulhu, PCs are regular joes - academics, journalists, detectives, etc. - only special insofar as that they get swept up in events bigger than themselves. Same goes for Indiana Jones style pulp adventure.

Similarly, in a hard(ish) sci-fi setting like The Expanse, PCs are going to be on par with their peers for the most part, outside of characters like Bobby who are a marginal cut above by virtue of being a MCRN marine. Conversely, in Star Wars, PCs are typically going to be more special than their peers, even if they're not on par with the Skywalkers.

 

[Scribe]

I prefer the idea that they are not special, but can become so.

 

[Reynard]

Even with this clarification, I'm going to agree with @DrunkonDuty in that, for me, it depends on the game.

Of course it does. That is why I am asking you your preference, and how that informs games you choose to run and play.

 

[haakon1]

For me (running 3.5e) the PC’s start out as 1st level with an adventurer class.

Regular are mostly 1st level in an NPC class - most are Commoners, but some are only slightly weaker - Warriors, Expert, and Aristocrat.

By the time a character reaches 5th level - “Fireball capable” as a player and fellow DM once memorably put it - they are likely to have some local renown and reputation. Quest givers come to them, and they may well know personally the local luminaries, like the lord, priest, and any local retired adventurers. If they tell the lord or priest about a problem and their relationship is good, they may well help - much as the protagonist in a TV show may be able to get an NPC to help on an issue important to the community. Basically, the PC’s are important pillars of the community - if they have joined one.

By 9th level, with 5th level spells like Raise Dead and Teleport, the PC’s may well be personal allies of the King (likely 9th-12th level), the high priest, and other high level NPC’s.

Town or city guards are always going to be Warrior 1, maybe with F1, War2, C1-2, Pal1-2, or Wiz1-2 helpers if it’s a rough place or they’re a response team.

What about the bartender and tavern staff? It depends. If they are not just Com1-3 or Exp1-3, they will have a name and a backstory - a reason they are special.

 

[Autumnal]

Looking at what I’ve messed around with lately, I find PCs who have great heroic potential, who may or may not have achieved any of it yet. Sometimes they’re like Neo at the start of The Matrix, with already-distinctive talents and unusual ambitions, but who’d still be hard to pick out of a lineup. Sometimes they’ve already achieved quite a bit and belong in the company of others. A fair number of these have discovered they were unwittingly serving evil ends and cut loose - think of the first couple of seasons of Alias, or Finn in the third Star Wars trilogy. Sometimes they’re well-worn veterans of many unusual and even epic adventures. Of these, some are mature, experienced, and very much up for more. Others have worn out or at least have experienced clear-cut decline from their peak and are looking for worthy conclusions to their adventuring time.

All of these seem to me to be part of an overall population like an adventurousness equivalent to the Herzsprung-Russell diagram. Others might not agree. And one-shot/short-run characters may not fit the pattern at all, but they stand out by not doing so.

 

[Alzrius]

For me (running 3.5e) the PC’s start out as 1st level with an adventurer class.

Regular are mostly 1st level in an NPC class - most are Commoners, but some are only slightly weaker - Warriors, Expert, and Aristocrat.

By the time a character reaches 5th level - “Fireball capable” as a player and fellow DM once memorably put it - they are likely to have some local renown and reputation. Quest givers come to them, and they may well know personally the local luminaries, like the lord, priest, and any local retired adventurers. If they tell the lord or priest about a problem and their relationship is good, they may well help - much as the protagonist in a TV show may be able to get an NPC to help on an issue important to the community. Basically, the PC’s are important pillars of the community - if they have joined one.

By 9th level, with 5th level spells like Raise Dead and Teleport, the PC’s may well be personal allies of the King (likely 9th-12th level), the high priest, and other high level NPC’s.

Town or city guards are always going to be Warrior 1, maybe with F1, War2, C1-2, Pal1-2, or Wiz1-2 helpers if it’s a rough place or they’re a response team.

What about the bartender and tavern staff? It depends. If they are not just Com1-3 or Exp1-3, they will have a name and a backstory - a reason they are special.

For me, insofar as 3.5 goes, PCs are special in three ways:

1. They have (slightly) more inherent skill: Most NPCs have their ability points derived via a point-buy system that is worse than what the PCs use, indicating (to me) that the PCs are those people who are born with a measure of more inherent talent/skill/potential than other people (save for those NPCs who are developed with PC-level stats). Even if the PCs roll for their ability scores, most NPCs are still going to be designed with lousy ability score arrays. Your average nobody NPC is going to have a mixture of 10s and 11s for all of their scores. Basic mooks and such will have 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13, and of course most major NPCs will have scores of 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, and 15. Only those rare few will have ability scores matching the PCs.
2. They have better training than most people: Most NPCs in the game world will use NPC classes, which are designed to be worse than PC classes. Obviously, this won't apply to creatures who don't use class levels at all (i.e. monsters that advance by natural Hit Dice), and there are going to be plenty of notable NPCs with levels in PC classes. But the background characters who make up 90% of the game world are all commoners, experts, warriors, etc.
3. They have better luck when it comes to money: This one all comes down to the wealth-by-level tables. PCs at a given level are simply going to have more gear (i.e. stuff that's worth more gp) than an NPC of the same level...and most of the time they'll have more valuable gear than a NPC of several levels higher than them. From an in-game standpoint, the PCs are just that lucky in terms of their exploits yielding payoffs, whereas everyone else just isn't taking home that much cash for what they do. Even other adventurers don't hit mother loads like the PCs.

But other than that, the PCs are just like everyone else.

 

[Tonguez]

It depends a lot on the intended game but generally I prefer PCs that are competent at what they do and generally heroic in deeds. I also tend to like playing up character troubles (flaws and disadvantages), as it makes their heroic deeds even more special when they are 'overcoming' an inherent drawback.
I dont want overpowered (ie high level DnD) but I do want heroic actions being pushed to epic outcomes (which is probably why I like 'spend x for a bonus' systems).

In short I like PCs to be competent and their specialness to arise from their heroic actions (spending bennies to push the outcomes as needed)