Advice about NPCs

[Zeromage1]

Hi, everyone. I'm fairly new to Pathfinder, although I've been playing RPGs forever. I kind of got stuck at AD&D 2nd edition for about a decade. I'm designing a small kingdom. What level class would you expect the king to be (if any)? A Cavalier? Level 10? Level 20? Say he was level 5, what would stop a level 20 wizard from just walking in and taking over his kingdom? Would any of his men at arms be high level fighters maybe? How do you construct a kingdom realistically so that it doesn't seem like one 20th level character could just take over the entire kingdom?

[IronFist]

This should help. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/kingdom-building)

[The Corinthian]

It depends entirely on your setting, on how common high-level characters are and what it means to be high level.

In one of my own settings, where characters above 10th level are very rare, the King would probably be level 5-8, and his champions similarly -maybe he'd have a champion of level 10-12 in special cases, or be that powerful himself if he'd come to the throne by his own power, Conan-style.

He could be any of a variety of classes, basically any class depending on the culture of the court and the circumstances of his life, although he'd most likely be a Fighter (I give Fighters a bunch more skills so they're less helpless in out-of-combat situations). So in Pathfinder, I'd say a Cavalier sounds like a good guess.

But whatever class or level he was, the only thing stopping a 20th-level character from walking in and taking over the kingdom would be that basically, no 20th-level character would bother. 20th level characters are more or less demigods, and ruling a "small" (or even quite large) kingdom wouldn't really be worth their time. 20th level characters do things like rule entire races of extraplanar creatures (the Sultan of the City of Brass, the Githyanki lich queen), scheme to kill or become gods (Raistlin Majere) or make credible efforts to take over the entire world.

[Zeromage1]

My setting is a planet with a single continent with six kingdoms on it. There are about 12 million people altogether, so I'm worried that one or two 20th level characters could upset the entire balance of the world.

[Zeromage1]

This should help. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/kingdom-building)

Thanks for the link!

[holywhippet]

Well, if you look at the Forgotten Realms as an example, most of the rulers are spellcaster of one sort or another. Thay is ruled by a lich, Hillsfar by a mage, Zhentil Keep was ruled by a council of mages. Some places aren't though, Cormyr and Shadowdale were ruled by fighter types.

A king doesn't need to have a character class. They could be a high level aristocrat for example, relying on their subjects to fight in their stead.