Translating tiers and general meta into societal concept

[Jowgen]

The list of Optimizer Tier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?542125-I-give-you-TIERS-OF-THE-OPTIMIZER!)'s has given me an idea.

The way a given campaign setting works lies somewhere between the book-assumed base of the Greyhawk, Faerun, or Eberron settings (lets be fair, Kender make Kyrnn the equivalent of Earth X) and the Tippyverse (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?222007-The-Definitive-Guide-to-the-Tippyverse-By-Emperor-Tippy).

Any given DM has to decide to what degree to play a base setting straight and/or have the setting of their world reflect the relative usefulness/viability of things inherent in the rules.

This inevitable leads to many a scenario where a classic fantasy trope doesn't really make sense (e.g. a credible "Master Monk") while others are hyper-empowered (i.e. "random hermit wizards = God").

I am interested in how the implementation of this fluff-crunch dissonance has manifested in the settings created and/or visted by everyone. Was it taken into account at all, or were PCs basically Ainz & Co?

In a broader sense, I am looking for thoughts on what the ramification of the actual game balance in world should be (assuming one doesn't have access to all things required for a Tippy-opia). What societal norms/assumptions really should be tweaked in a "realistic" 3.5 setting?

[ryu]

For starters the stated basic allocation of classes by level and their easily available abilities mean that problems easily solvable by spells level 3 and lower generally shouldn't exist in most sizeable cities, and most problems that are fixable with the application of mids have a ready market of casters you can pay for such fixes. Why? The number of high level casters in any given population is such that if any of them are benevolent or simply willing to help for economic gain problems are much more efficiently solved than the setting demands.

Similarly even without access to the core permanent teleportation of a Tippyverse, like-minded casters have excellent reason to cluster for the simple expedient of self-preservation and probable benefits of trade. It's less dramatic than in Tippyverse, but casters have extremely good reason not to be shunting themselves to the edge of nowhere, alone, where one mistake in defense against divinations or simple bad luck leaves them vulnerable to enemies.

As you'd naturally expect, less powerful people will still flock to these caster clusters on the basis that even being disadvantaged parts of a society is both safer and carries a higher standard of living than attempting to survive outside.