Level Spread in Your Worlds?

[SowZ]

What is the level spread in the worlds you guys run? Just curious. I've played in high level worlds and low level worlds. Sometimes there are worlds where an epic character or someone level 12+ is not uncommon and sometimes you'll never see them except as villains. What games do the playgrounders play?

I'll give an example. But you don't have to format yours like this or even read through mine. You can just ballpark average levels, too.

Most People: Level One, some competent people Level Two
Long-Lived Races: Level Two, some competent people Level Three
Most Military People: Level One Warrior for recruits and trainees, Level One Fighter for those with formal training or those living in highly militaristic cultures. Level Two for veterans, (maybe 30% of the army.) Level Three for Sergeants and exceptional soldiers, (maybe 10%.) Level Four+ is reserved for heroic figures and make up 1% or less.
Military of Long Lived Races: Same as above but everything is bumped up a level.
Expert Criminals/Mercenaries/Assassins: Most level two. Maybe 25% level 3-4. 1% level 5-9.
Heroes: Those considered heroes of the land other than PC are level 6-11 or so and there are only a handful at any one time. (Less than ten.)
Villains: A Big Bad may have a handful of lackeys at level 8-10, (four or five,) and will probably be around 14 or 15 himself. He will be the only NPC above level 12, not counting monstrous races naturally that powerful.
Monsters: The number of monsters above ECL 10 at any one time is less than 50, usually, with only 5-10 dragons existing in a given world at any one time.

[Malimar]

I basically use four continua of NPC power:
As per the Alexandrian's famous Calibrating Your Expectations (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/587/roleplaying-games/dd-calibrating-your-expectations-2), the overwhelming majority of people in my world are class level 1-4.
A few powerful kings and popes can get up to class level 5-7 or so.
For NPCs, there isn't much in the way of limits on templates, racial hit dice, LA, etc. If a high-CR creature comes along, it's really up to PCs to stop it; the NPCs probably can't help themselves. Entire civilizations have been devastated by a single balor. High-CR creatures are, of course, not as common as many settings assume them to be.
The vast majority of characters use the all-10s or Average Array for their stats. Some powerful NPCs use the Elite Array. Big Bads may use the same point buy as the PCS (usually 30 nowadays).
The vast majority of characters have only levels in NPC and other low-tier classes (and of those, most are Commoner). Even the most powerful usually have at least one or two NPC class levels mixed in and are not usually particularly optimized.
I also use the divine ranks rules, roughly as presented in Deities & Demigods, with the difference that even deities are usually in the level 15-25 range with not so much of that 20 Outsider HD stuff.

Those few PC heroes who get up past level 5 tend to be a-few-in-a-generation types. Human(oid) NPCs tend to quickly cease to be a problem for PCs.

(I also houserule that "Epic" starts at level 10 instead of level 20 (with some modifications, e.g. there is no epic spellcasting). I've never actually tested this houserule in play, because I've never been in, much less run, a campaign that hit level 10.)
(I don't put much restriction on items that take high caster levels to make, aside from you usually can't buy them in stores. You can still find dudes carrying them around. Rule of Fun. Or else Whatever Explanation The Players Come Up With And I Say Sure Let's Go With That.)

[Zonugal]

Typically in my campaigns I use this type of scale:

1st-level: Unlucky protagonist (someone like Frodo falls in here. They are doing everything to make it through the adventure, typically relying on wits to do so).
3rd-level: Seasoned protagonist (people like detectives, swat members, fire fighters and other people who typically risk their lives in a career fashion fall in here. They survive primarily as they know what to do and when to back-off).
6th-level: Expert protagonist (characters like Blade or Indiana Jones fall in here. These guys make their way through adventurers because they are good enough to do so. They survive through skill and experience).
9th-level: Legendary protagonist (characters like Batman fall in here. This is typically where players stop receiving levels and these are the top guys. They are sent in to save the world. They are better than anyone in the world and know it.)

[MukkTB]

Most People: 1-5 mostly on the lower end of that (NPC classes)
Long-Lived Races: the same
Most Military People: 1-2 for grunts, veterans + specialists + officers and important characters higher
Military of Long Lived Races: the same
Expert Criminals/Mercenaries/Assassins: as appropriate for the adventure but probably less than 8 unless they're important characters
Heroes: near the level of the 'zone'
Villains: as appropriate for the adventure
Monsters: Generally I pick a level for the zone and keep monsters and inhabitants for that zone at roughly equal CR. An inhabited zone wont have a level above 6 for normal pseudo medieval humanoid inhabitants.

[Gnoman]

For all social classes, all occupations.

1-20+

Most adults are between 6-14.

I despise the notion that you should force all but a very few people into a narrow level range. Indeed, I never use the Commoner class for anything I stat up, and only use the other NPC classes for cases where they are the most appropriate choice for the individual character.

[Ernir]

I despise the notion that you should force all but a very few people into a narrow level range.

Would you mind explaining your loathing?

[Gnoman]

Basically, the notion that, out of thousands or hundreds of thousands of individuals, 99.999999% of them are minimally powerful nobodies that depend on the .000001% that happen to be PCs or are bad guys for the PCs to fight. Moreover, if you make most npcs in the 1-4 level range (which is pushing it, I've read a lot of campaign worlds and played in several where everyone that wasn't "important" was a level 1 commoner) then there's no logical source for even masterwork items, little skill difference between an expert blacksmith and a poor one, and a number of similar problems that just make the world make zero sense.

[Marnath]

Basically, the notion that, out of thousands or hundreds of thousands of individuals, 99.999999% of them are minimally powerful nobodies that depend on the .000001% that happen to be PCs or are bad guys for the PCs to fight. Moreover, if you make most npcs in the 1-4 level range (which is pushing it, I've read a lot of campaign worlds and played in several where everyone that wasn't "important" was a level 1 commoner) then there's no logical source for even masterwork items, little skill difference between an expert blacksmith and a poor one, and a number of similar problems that just make the world make zero sense.

Oh really? (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/587/roleplaying-games/dd-calibrating-your-expectations-2)


You’ll see this same fallacy trotted out whenever someone insists that the local blacksmith “must” be at least 10th level in order to be competent in their profession. In reality, the typical village blacksmith is probably only a 1st level character. At 1st level the average blacksmith’s Craft (blacksmithing) skill looks like this:

+4 skill ranks
+1 Intelligence bonus
+3 Skill Focus
+2 from an assistant or apprentice helping them

That’s a +10 bonus on their checks. This bonus allows them to take 10 and craft masterwork-quality items. By 3rd level an experienced blacksmith can do that without the help of an assistant.

That formula can apply to any sort of craftwork, and most of them will not need assistants because most craft DC's are lower than 20.

[MukkTB]

A world needs more population than a bunch of level 1 commoners.

Still as a GAME that simulates a STORY its easier to keep track of a small handful of important characters and assign more generic attributes to the extras and generic dudes.

[Zanatos777]

I usually have most people between levels 1-6. I rarely use the commoner class, instead using the appropriate class for whatever they do. I believe that most NPCs are not adventurers and have little desire to level up, thus they don't really gain many levels. Advancement takes work and most might talk about how they wish they could slay the "Great Dragon of the Mountains" but few will actually pick up a sword and train to do so (they are adventurers). Adventurers on the other hand are not all PCs and against constant or near constant adversaries thus grow slower and tend to reach a level where they stop growing. An archmage in one of my worlds may be only level 15, they may be stronger but they might not be.

Thus encountering characters who are level 11 or higher is rare but they are legends. Above them are when characters get to around 15, at this point most are considered forces of nature. It does tend to mean that the party is able to slaughter entire towns or armies with little trouble (most soliders are level 3 or 4) but my players have always had fun with it.

Epic characters do exist in my worlds but they are almost always mythic characters who possess powers or abilities thought impossible. Epic spellcasting for instance I usually treat as a radical theory on the unification of magic (the different schools) usually disbelieved or the divine character being believed to have been granted a much larger portion of divine power.

[Gnoman]

Oh really? (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/587/roleplaying-games/dd-calibrating-your-expectations-2)



That formula can apply to any sort of craftwork, and most of them will not need assistants because most craft DC's are lower than 20.

I'm speaking from a purely narrative standpoint. If there's little mechanical difference in skill between an apprentice and an expert, than the creation of superb works makes no sense, even if the simplified mechanics allow it.