What is the median level of the population of your gameworld?

[kigmatzomat]

I said 2nd but only because I believe there's a high mortality rate which requires an excess of young, thus lowering the median worldwide. typically only 50% of the world's children survive to their teens, either due to injury, illness, or starvation.

In my primary setting within the game world, the median is probably closer to 3rd level if not 4th, but that's a well-organized, lawful good society with a civilian militia able to handle most of the low-level threats and fairly high incidence of divine magic to keep them alive. That's actually rare for the world as a whole; most countries have little organized religion and many actively suppress religion. (The gods got in a war, messed up the planet, and have ceased actively supporting their priesthood)

 

[TheAuldGrump]

An awful lot of 1st level commoners. And I think thay the word you want is 'typical', not 'median'. Median just means 'middle'. So 'median' in a typical, non epic game would be 10th or 11th level, not because there are a lot of 10th level characters, but because it is halfway between 1 and 20... The word 'average' would be closer, and is typically something like 1.02 or so.

The Auld Grump, sorry 'bout that...

 

[Baron Opal]

Yeah, another for third. A Commoner or Expert can at third level reliably make a masterwork item by taking 10. 6 (skill) +2 (feat) +1 (attribute) +1 (tools). I think this adequatly describes a new master craftsman. My level breakdowns are

1st- Trained apprentice / Old teen
3rd- New master / Yound adult
6th- Old master / Middle aged talented / adventurers
9th- Old talented
10th- Hard ceiling for NPC classes
12th- talented adventurers

There are three notable peaks. 3rd level is the default for the basic competent humanoid. 6th level is the average level for the experienced adventuring bands. 12th level is the average level for the lone adventuring heroes, or the rare heroic band. There is a notable dearth around 9th level as most plainfolk don't have the talent or opportunity to reach that level and adventurers tend to get killed at that level (IMC). The few that make it to 12th tend to survive anything.

So, if someone was trying to make an army, they would probably have half 3rd levels, half 1st levels, and have 6th level officers. A few 12th levelers would be available if the noble / general had the means to recruit them. There are a few higher level people but they don't have an interest in such "low level politics".

Baron Opal

 

[Tatsukun]

In my homebrew, one Exp is "The amount you learn by going to work for one normal day". On top of that, some exciting / difficult things happen in every life. I just handwave it as 500 Exp / Year of life (starting at 15)

Of course, in my world if you want to find a really high level NPC, you should be looking for an elf or a dwarf. Human NPC's just don't live long enough.

-Tatsu

 

[Nifft]

10th level is average for NPCs.
How do they differ from PCs?

1/ NPCs generally have levels in Expert and/or Aristocrat.

2/ NPCs don't often have high ability scores

3/ NPC skills & feats are not tuned for combat only.

4/ NPCs act like they actually care about their lives.

-- N

 

[TwinBahamut]

What are they teaching kids (or twin platinum dragons) these days? :\

Median level - the level at which half the **population** are below that level, half the population above. So in 101 people if the 51st is 2nd level, that's the median level. Average level would be sum total of all levels divided by the number of the population, which will usually be higher than the median.

Interestingly, by your definition if you allow Epic NPCs then the median level is 'infinity' because the maximum level is infinite, and half infinity...

Upon finding a much clearer definition of median, I guess you are right. Still, please don't just insult me by calling me a kid simply because I made a mistake. I am no kid.

More on topic, it seems that in my homebrew setting NPC levels tend to be somewhat higher than default. Because it is a highly militaristic setting, the army will serve as a decent example.

Basic Soldier: 2nd or 3rd level
Captain or Knight: 4th-7th level
Soldier in Elite Unit: 8th-11th level, or possibly even higher

Some rulers of kingdoms or elite commanders would easily reach up to 15th to 18th level.

In addition, NPCs tend to be of NPC classes far less often. Expert would be more common than commoner, and fighter would be almost as prevalent as warrior.

 

[S'mon]

Upon finding a much clearer definition of median, I guess you are right. Still, please don't just insult me by calling me a kid simply because I made a mistake. I am no kid.

Apparently even Auld Grumps can make the same mistake...

 

[S'mon]

An awful lot of 1st level commoners. And I think thay the word you want is 'typical', not 'median'. Median just means 'middle'. So 'median' in a typical, non epic game would be 10th or 11th level, not because there are a lot of 10th level characters, but because it is halfway between 1 and 20... The word 'average' would be closer, and is typically something like 1.02 or so.

The Auld Grump, sorry 'bout that...

*sigh* I asked "what level is the median adult inhabitant of your game world?" not "what is the median level of the levels in your game world?" - which would be infinity if you use Epic levels, or 10.5 (not 10) if you use 1-20, and anyway is a stupid question. To find the level of the median adult inhabitant you start with the level of the lowest level person and go up to the halfway mark, so in a population of 101 it would be the 51st inhabitant. Doing that with DMG demographics the answer is "1" because over half the adult population are 1st level.

 

[Gez]

For 0 level races, I tend to make the median around 5th level. That means they'll face tons of 0 and 1st level members, and very few 15th level, and it averages to around 5th.

Another median/average confusion.

There are three statistical terms which must not be confused: Mean, Median, and Mode.

The mean is better known as the average. Sum of all values, divided by number of values.

The median is the pivotal value. Half are lower, half are higher.

the mode is the most common value. One may consider a multimodal distribution, with several modes.

On a perfect bell curve distribution (such as sum of 3d6), the mean, the median, and the mode will be the same. Most results will be 10 or 11, the average result will be a 10 or a 11, and half the results will be 3-10, while the other half will be 11-18.

But for most things, you don't have such a unity.

For D&D levels, for example. With "tons of 0 and 1st-level" characters, the mode will be 1 (let's ignore 0-level, which aren't really supported by D&D 3). The median will probably be 1, maybe 2. If it's 2, it means that, of all people who aren't level 2, half are level 1, half are level 3 or more. And the mean will be higher, maybe 5 as you put it.

 

[RandomPrecision]

Gotta say 1. My society is like an iceberg - one ninth above the water line.