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<blockquote data-quote="Fenes" data-source="post: 4449013" data-attributes="member: 604">One of my &quot;rules&quot; is to not show the NPC's power aka level unless there's no other way. The PCs may hear of the reputation and deeds of NPCs, but not in a way that the players could reverse-engineer the NPC's level. And of course telling the players straight away that whatever is written in the campaign setting doesn't have to be true in my campaign.So, Elminster has a big reputation, but he could be a level 5 wizard IMC with good ties to the bardic colleges. The Simbul is powerful - of course she is, she's the Queen of Alagond. And personally defeating dozens of Red Wizards? Of course she did, just as the PCs killing a dozen orcs is lauded as &quot;stemming the tide of the great orc horde&quot; by the town bard.Cutting down on spells like teleport (restricted to a specific and costly prestige class in my campaign) and raise dead (basically inexistent and replaced by direct divine intervention) and similar spells that are sought by PCs and which would make it easy to guess minimum levels helps too.So, most of the visible power of an NPC is &quot;Indirect power&quot; - influence, followers, contacts, money, etc. - and not direct combat/magic power. Which means it's logical that they'd rely on hired help for dangerous work.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Fenes, post: 4449013, member: 604"] One of my "rules" is to not show the NPC's power aka level unless there's no other way. The PCs may hear of the reputation and deeds of NPCs, but not in a way that the players could reverse-engineer the NPC's level. And of course telling the players straight away that whatever is written in the campaign setting doesn't have to be true in my campaign. So, Elminster has a big reputation, but he could be a level 5 wizard IMC with good ties to the bardic colleges. The Simbul is powerful - of course she is, she's the Queen of Alagond. And personally defeating dozens of Red Wizards? Of course she did, just as the PCs killing a dozen orcs is lauded as "stemming the tide of the great orc horde" by the town bard. Cutting down on spells like teleport (restricted to a specific and costly prestige class in my campaign) and raise dead (basically inexistent and replaced by direct divine intervention) and similar spells that are sought by PCs and which would make it easy to guess minimum levels helps too. So, most of the visible power of an NPC is "Indirect power" - influence, followers, contacts, money, etc. - and not direct combat/magic power. Which means it's logical that they'd rely on hired help for dangerous work. [/QUOTE]

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