NPC Level Demographics

[Flexor the Mighty!]

One of my NPC's, unless he's important, is a HP total base stats and any relevent skills that I give them. So the town blacksmith may be statted like this,

Frank the Blacksmith
5 hp
S: 10 D: 10 C: 12 I: 12 W: 10 CH: 10
Craft(Blacksmithing) + 10
Sense Motive + 4
Bluff + 5

or something like that. I don't see a real need to worry about what level he is, or what his full stats are. Non adventuring types stay at 1-6 HP forever and have a +0 BAB. I don't like the idea of a 16th level commoner with a +8/+3 attack bonus and 62 HP. A first level Fighter should be able to slay any commoner.

 

[Xeriar]

Typically a 16th-level commoner (my program only gets them to 6th on generous XP gains) is going to have -6 to str, dex and con, and not start out with great scores to begin with.

What I hated about the DMG was that, generating a city by sectors or whatnot produced different results than generating it whole.

That, and leaving so much of the population at an unskilled level when a certain amount of skill was definately the norm for many societies seemed odd as well.

 

[A'koss]

A different look at NPC Commoners.

IMC, we use a single "Commoner" class to represent Commoner, Experts and Aristocrates (who are more likely to be multiclassed with PC classes).

This class is simply a vehicle to advance people who have everyday jobs that don't involve combat. The Commoner doesn't gain any extra HPs, BAB or Saves as he rises in levels, only skill points (base 8), feats (normal) and ability score boosts (normal). The difference between a commoner and a so-called "expert" is simply levels. The expert is just a higher level commoner. The aristocrat is essentially the same, but they are more likely to dabble in warfare (multiclassed with the warrior or fighter) or other another PC class.

The net result being I can have normal people who are good at their jobs (a 12th level blacksmith or sage has zero impact on the power of the game) without possessing unrealistic combat ability on the side.


Cheers,

A'koss.

 

[Angcuru]

I am a firm believer that in real life , if people were made into d&d stats there wouldnt be anyone over level5.

Well, if you put it that way.....
I know someone who is a LVL 20+ Sniper, lvl 5 Carpenter.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Heh.

I haven't assigned class levels in NPC classes to any of my NPCs since 3E came out. (That's personal games, not published material, obviously.)

Frankly, neither I nor my players could care less if the blacksmith is a 4th level expert or a 7th level commoner. He's a blacksmith. If the PCs want normal equipment from him, they can buy it. If they want something abnormal, I decide based on the situation if it's likely to be obtainable or not, and how long it'll take. On the off chance I need to roll something (like say a Diplomacy check or Sense Motive check for haggling), I guesstimate whatever seems reasonable.

Sure it's not precise, but it works, and frankly it saves a lot of headaches. My general attitude toward planning my campaigns is that I don't bother statting anyone I don't expect to be:

A) a major part of the plot, and

B) involved in combat or magic use of some sort.

All I do is make sure I've got enough knowledge of the game to fudge it if something unexpected happens, and we go from there.

 

[KDLadage]

The system I use is still in a bit of flux, but the final version will be in a future volume of UMBRAGIA. The idea of it is that 1st level represents the point that a character reaches the age of physical maturity, in most cases. For the humans (Aesir, Haitir and Vanir) of my world, this is the age of 13-16 or so (1d4+12).

Each year of a person life after that, they will experience many things. I have a chart that balances the regional conditions (wartime, disaster, peace and tranquility) against a die roll that then determines the CD of that year's life. This then represents the experience that the individual earned over the course of that year.

Typically, a young adult (ages 15-20 for humanity) will be somewhere between 1st and 3rd levels. An adult (ages 20-30) will be somewhere between 2nd and 5th levels. A mature adult (above the age of 30) will be somewhere between 3rd and 7th levels. Typically, outside of extremely hostile areas, levels above 5 are rare, and 7 nearly impossible.

Additionally, under the right conditions it is possible to "exchange" NPC class levels for PC class levels in my world my "spending" 50% of the experience needed to gain a level. For example, suppose we have a 3rd level warrior. He has worked with the city guard for a long time. He needs 3000 XP to advance from 3rd level to 4th level.

In a time of war, however, if he has 1500 XP, he can "spend" those and convert a level of Warrior to Fighter instead -- making him a Warrior 2/Fighter 1. He now has 3000 XP (instead of the 4500 he had a moment ago) and remains a 3rd level character... but he is still noticably better at his job.

I do things like this...

 

[Ace]

IMC I use 5 NPC classes, Aristocrat (for the wealthy) Commoner (for serfs and slaves and people with no opportunity) Expert, Warrior (for conscript soldiers and so so combat types) and Freeman (Like a commoner but with 4 skill points)

I don't use adept

Typical level assignments are between 3-5 for most adults, younger people are levels1 or 2 and older people will get to about L10 max

For stats I use a 15-20 point buy or roll 3d6/average dice

Hit points are caluclated normally except that no one (including PC's) will have less HP than their con stat

 

[Ace]

The system I use is still in a bit of flux, but the final version will be in a future volume of UMBRAGIA. The idea of it is that 1st level represents the point that a character reaches the age of physical maturity, in most cases. For the humans (Aesir, Haitir and Vanir) of my world, this is the age of 13-16 or so (1d4+12).

Each year of a person life after that, they will experience many things. I have a chart that balances the regional conditions (wartime, disaster, peace and tranquility) against a die roll that then determines the CD of that year's life. This then represents the experience that the individual earned over the course of that year.

Thats a little like a system that appeeared in one of the old Rolemaster companions. You could calculate xp on a daily basis based on how tough a day it was

I liked the idea quite a bit. I like the notion of a long down time (1 or 2 game years) passing betwenn adventures. Anyway I think it would be cool to open a campaign with "A year has passed, everyone has leveled up"