What is the "Base Level" of your Campaign?

[Turanil]

I read several mentions about "0th level commoners". What's this? I thought since there are NPC classes, the lowest one can be is a 1st level commoner.

In my settings, the average joe is 3rd level at 25-35. Many are only 2nd (too stupid or too lazy), and many are 4th-5th (more ambitious).

 

[Aaron L]

I assume that the average person is a commoner, from 1st level in the mid teens to maybe 8th or 9th in thier 60s, and people who've had rougher lives are higher level. Everyone gains levels as they age, but are all NPC classes. Green soldiers are 1st level warriors, veterans are maybe 4th/5th level, and elites are 10th and up. Heck, bouncers at bars tend to be 2nd or 3rd level warriors. Nobles are either experts or aristocrats, or multiclass as both, and tend to have higher levels to represent a lot of training.

But magically, very few people are actually spellcasters. The average priest is an expert, the rare one an adept, and only special mystic knights are actually clerics. Eberron describes the situation perfectly.

Arcane casters are recovering from a purge in the main play area and are still rather rare, but the few wizards around tend to be powerful, as the weaker ones either get more powerful or die, so 7th level is avareage I'd say, with the limit going all the way to epic levels.

Now, the large continental empire has a much higher concentration if power, and there you'll find actual epic level fighters as generals, and an area where the nobility is all sorceres of power from mid teens to high epic, so there are large variations in power level.

 

[Hitokiri]

I read several mentions about "0th level commoners". What's this? I thought since there are NPC classes, the lowest one can be is a 1st level commoner.

In my settings, the average joe is 3rd level at 25-35. Many are only 2nd (too stupid or too lazy), and many are 4th-5th (more ambitious).

0th level is basically a hold over from earlier editions. People who did not have a PC class were considered "0th" level. Basically, by saying they are 0th level, we are stating that they don't have a class.

 

[LondonReign]

Well, I guess I would have to be considered Low magic/low power. My base village of 700 people, where the current batch of PCs started, had this distribution:

Ari2 (mayor)
Exp4 (herbalist and main NPC)
Exp2 (x4) (skilled craftsmen, including the blacksmith and tavern owner/local brewer)
Exp1 (x12) (other craftsmen, etc)
Rgr 2
Rgr 1
Clr 1
War 2 (Sergeant of the Guard)
War 1 (x6) (Town Guard)
Com 1-3 (x670)

 

[kigmatzomat]

0th level is basically a hold over from earlier editions. People who did not have a PC class were considered "0th" level. Basically, by saying they are 0th level, we are stating that they don't have a class.

3.0 eliminated the 0th level character. By the rules everything needs to have a class or racial HD, that's why the NPC classes are exist.

 

[Aaron2]

3.0 eliminated the 0th level character. By the rules everything needs to have a class or racial HD, that's why the NPC classes are exist.

I've seen several variations on house ruled 0th level character. I have my own. The problem with the RAW, is that what do you do with children? Humans don't have racial hit die. Does everyone pick their class the day they are born?

I'm pretty close to the original poster ...

0th: Pretty much everyone until they are about 16-21 years old.
1rst: Most people throughout their 20s.
2nd: Experienced craftsman, veteran soldiers etc.
3rd: Journeyman craftsman, leaders of soldiers (optio, decurian, sergeant etc).
4-5th: Master craftsman, experienced officers (centurians, captains)
10th: Heroes of the land, great leaders, feared wizards etc.

No one gets over 5th level unless they purposely seek out dangerous or challenging situations. If you spend your entire life playing it safe and enjoying life, you'll top out at around 3rd-4th level.


Aaron

 

[Slobber Monster]

I hardly bother with NPC classes at all. The idea of a 10th level warrior or commoner seems pretty useless to me. Instead I use 1st level warriors or commoner stats to represent the typical people of the world. Anyone with any more fighting ability than that gets levels in Fighter (or maybe Ranger) as necessary to take them to the needed CR. Anyone with unsual talents, or an aristocrat's knowledge base simply gets assigned whatever skill points are required for their role in the world.

Note that a 1st level commoner can still be competent in a skill without any fudging. Consider a dwarven armorsmith, with a decent base stat (14 Int), 4 ranks in Craft (Armorsmith), Skill Focus (Craft(Armorsmith)), and a +2 racial bonus to crafting metal items. That's a +11 skill modifier, +13 if he has masterwork artisan's tools - enough to make Half-Plate without having to worry about wasting raw materials.

 

[Desdichado]

ptolemy18, I agree with practically everything in your initial post with one exception: "I probably would turn down the chance to play in an epic level campaign."

I think the only thing I would caution is this; a lot of folks (myself included, on many occasions) have compared the D&D rules to fantasy books they've read, and made changes based on that. I've come to the opinion more recently that D&D is really for D&D and other systems are better for attempting to more closely model another system. It doesn't have to be a radically different system; I think other d20 fantasy games, including d20 Modern/Urban Arcana or d20 Wheel of Time or OGL Conan for example make for great alternate rulesets. But D&D itself is so fraught with D&Disms that it's more trouble than its worth to try and cram assumptions from a non-D&D setting into it. IMO, of course.

 

[Hitokiri]

3.0 eliminated the 0th level character. By the rules everything needs to have a class or racial HD, that's why the NPC classes are exist.

Why is it people continually quote rules at me, even after I've already pointed out that it is a hold over from an EARLIER EDITION. It's like they are going to win some sort of prize by proving they know more about the current system than I do. I feel like reverting to THAC0 just to spite these people. Or maybe I'll introduce force points just to really get them foaming at the mouth!

Yes, I realize that 3.0 did away with 0th level everything. I also realize that trying to shoehorn every single person in my campaign world into a psuedo-PC class complete with level advancement creates just about as many problems as it eliminates, in addition to being a colossal headache. And since, "by the rules", I can pretty much adjust my campaign worlds to fit whatever model I want, I give that particular rule the old heave-ho.

 

[ptolemy18]

ptolemy18, I agree with practically everything in your initial post with one exception: "I probably would turn down the chance to play in an epic level campaign."

Did I say this? I meant I probably WOULDN'T turn down the chance...

Jason