What level is your average local NPC?

[haakon1]

From the hero or zero thread, I got to thinking: What level is the average, typical, run of the mill NPC in your game.

I'm thinking, the people at the next table in the average tavern, the guy walking down a street in a typical town, and perhaps the typical guards in town.

 

[jonesy]

Two and a half for people with backgrounds. One and a half for the generic masses.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

As always, polls are good for large samples and bad for specifics (as I learn each and every time I post a poll and I'm told how it is flawed).

The poll is flawed .


Not really... and not in a bad way, but I can't accurately represent myself.

I put "Changes relative to PC's (but lower)". But that's not really the case.


First, it depends on the campaign. I ran one campaign that was all over the world...there were highly variable levels of NPCs. I ran another that was more "location based" and the NPCs were on the border of hell (so they tended to be higher level than one might expect farmers to be...because they were seasoned soliders.


But, overall, "Changes relative to PC's (but lower)" is relatively accurate, but not for the reasons most might assume.

It's not that they change because of the pcs. It is true that they HAPPEN to change relative to pcs because pcs go from rural farmland fighting badgers and goblins to urban terrorville fighting the hordes of demons that are plaguing that city (because of macguffin x and plot point 1.7). I guess I'm saying that players naturally move away from "small town boringplace" to "scary city-terrorville" as they level because of increasing challenges and rewards.

But, for my games, it's not that the players are level 7, so the npcs must be level 5-9, in true bell curve fashion. It's more that the players are level 7 and want to go where the 5-9 NPCs are, because the challenges there are substantial, but not overwhelming, and the rewards are good enough to support those challenges.


I don't believe in a level 20 guard....unless that is a level 20 guard at the gates of the citadel in the city of brass, protecting the [epic]sultan... then, yeah. I do believe in it. What I've tried to describe is this in a more mundane/cross level fashion.


EDIT: But on the other hand, it's fun to mix it up a bit. There might be a level 10 retired adventurer with level 1 guards somewhere. There might be a level 3 Aristocrat holed up with level 9 guards in a major city. It's good to make sense, but it's also good to not be a slave to balance. Sometimes great stories can occur from (at level 15) "I shoot the prince. I do 7 damage." "Ok, the prince is dead. Now what?"

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

I put 0-1, but it might be more accurate to say 1-2. A large plurality, maybe a narrow majority of the NPCs in games I run are 1st level (although not all are commoners). There are also a very substantial number of level 2 characters.

That said, in terms of the PCs actually have mechanical interactions with, it skews higher. So sure, the workers in the tavern and the farmer in the field are probably level 1, but it hardly matters what level they are. It matters that lots of rank and file guards will be 1st level warriors, but even that matters less than the level of the bandits... which might be 1st, but might be higher.

 

[jonesy]

I don't believe in a level 20 guard....unless that is a level 20 guard at the gates of the citadel in the city of brass, protecting the [epic]sultan... then, yeah. I do believe in it. What I've tried to describe is this in a more mundane/cross level fashion.

EDIT: But on the other hand, it's fun to mix it up a bit. There might be a level 10 retired adventurer with level 1 guards somewhere. There might be a level 3 Aristocrat holed up with level 9 guards in a major city. It's good to make sense, but it's also good to not be a slave to balance. Sometimes great stories can occur from (at level 15) "I shoot the prince. I do 7 damage." "Ok, the prince is dead. Now what?"

But those aren't typical run of the mill NPC's, are they?

I had a level 20 guard in a campaign once. He'd been there, he'd done it, he'd killed it and owned it and saved it and seen everything. And then he'd got tired and gone back to spend the rest of his life as a regular joe city guard in his home town with a lovely young wife and eleven children.

 

[Lanefan]

Regular Non-Adventuring Joes are mostly 0th level, though "0th" covers a fairly wide range in my game; all the way from Bill the Turnip Farmer who has no training in anything to John the Trainee Militiaman who has seen and done enough to almost be 1st level.

Town guards, constables, militia types, etc. are often levelled - anywhere from 1-3 depending on the situation and town.

Lan-"I don't like turnips"-efan

 

[Relique du Madde]

Since I'm currently running a PL 6 game of Mutants and Masterminds, my answer will reflect the peticularities of that system.

Most people have stats or abilities are in the PL range of 1-3 (and will often face the appropriate penalties for using weapons that do higher damage.)

The typical npc that the PCs are battling against are PL 5.

"Named" badguy NPCs range from PL 6 - 8 (However some are really just PL 1-3 but without penalties to their attack bonus to balance out their PL breaking damage bonus.)

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I voted 0-1. Average Joe is unstatted, but on the fly comes out to level 1/2ish. If he's really old, maybe a full level 1 or 2, and that's only because he's really, really good at making horseshoes or cheese. Or horseshoes made of cheese.

NPCs that PCs are likely to actually interact with are on par with the PCs (+/- a couple levels) or "somewhat higher". I dislike high-level NPCs, because I hate answering questions like, "If it's such a horrible problem, your majesty, why don't you fix it?"

I do tend to play low-power, low-level games, however, so honestly there's not really a lot of level variation IMCs.

 

[JamesonCourage]

4th hit die is average for settled adults. Trainees and younger members of society are 0-3, while advanced or well-trained members of society are 5th+.

 

[Stoat]

Depends on the Edition.

In 2E, the average Joe in my campaign would be 0th level. Town guards are probably 1st level fighters led by 3rd level lieutenants and maybe 5th level captains.

In 3.X, I used the demographics in the DMG, 90% or more of the people in the world are commoners, and most of them are 1st level.

In 4.0, regular people are almost always minions (I tend to default to the "Human Rabble").

But all of that is mostly theory. I don't usually stat up noncombatant NPC's. At most, I'll jot down their Bluff/Insight scores.