Max levels in real life

[TerakasTaranath]

I was having a discussion with my friends on what we'd be if we lived in d&d (thanks to easy damus) and I got to thinking what the levels would look like.

Assuming we normal people lived in a d&d world(and lets keep it generic like Faerun), what do you guys and gals think is the max level achievable by us? I think level 8 is top tier "normal" people. Mostly due to the fact that you get a feat/ASI at that level it could be seen as a defining feature like "oh that warrior was so strong he/she could lift this thing!" meaning the his/her strength is 20 or took a feat that really solidified them as strong or tough. Also I feel like the low levels like 1-3 are achievable and then the professional go from 4-6 and then 7-8 are the literal masters before becoming what we'd call a super hero. But some people seem to say we could achieve level 20 with dedication.

So fellow nerds whats your opinion!?

[SirFrog]

I would say level 5 at least based on the fireball I cast the other day

[hymer]

So fellow nerds whats your opinion!?
If I were to form an opinion, I'd want to look at some statistics for falls and likelihood of surviving from various heights.

[supergoji18]

We wouldn't have levels. We'd all be NPCs using the peasant stat block.

[TerakasTaranath]

I would say level 5 at least based on the fireball I cast the other day

That sounds like a great story xD

And I personally find that 5e falling damage isn't the best represented. However I do agree with what the Dungeon Dudes on YouTube said about it. 500 foot drop to say Jon Snow or Jaime Lannister would be deadly as ****, but to Captain America? Ehh. To Thor? Pshh whatever

I guess my real question would be do you see your adventurers as just a cut about normal people or avengers level super heroes?

[Unoriginal]

I was having a discussion with my friends on what we'd be if we lived in d&d (thanks to easy damus) and I got to thinking what the levels would look like.

Assuming we normal people lived in a d&d world(and lets keep it generic like Faerun), what do you guys and gals think is the max level achievable by us? I think level 8 is top tier "normal" people. Mostly due to the fact that you get a feat/ASI at that level it could be seen as a defining feature like "oh that warrior was so strong he/she could lift this thing!" meaning the his/her strength is 20 or took a feat that really solidified them as strong or tough. Also I feel like the low levels like 1-3 are achievable and then the professional go from 4-6 and then 7-8 are the literal masters before becoming what we'd call a super hero. But some people seem to say we could achieve level 20 with dedication.

So fellow nerds whats your opinion!?

Normal people are Commoners. Maybe with boosted stats.

Those with combat training might be Guards.

[Ganymede]

Levels are a gamist conceit to give a sense of heroic progression in a shared storytelling session. Real people don't have levels for the same reason NPCs don't have levels: they are not the protagonists of a story that revolves around them.

[Kharneth]

Levels are a gamist conceit to give a sense of heroic progression in a shared storytelling session. Real people don't have levels for the same reason NPCs don't have levels: they are not the protagonists of a story that revolves around them.

I disagree with your reasoning. I agree that we don't have levels, but it's not because we don't grow and progressively become more skilled.

We don't have a universal level like a character level, but we do have individual levels for individual aspects of us. Ability scores, for example, are distinct levels to describe distinct characteristics. We certainly have Strength, Intelligence, etc levels. Those levels can be subdivided, though because Power is a part or type of Strength, for example and there are many parts to Intelligence.

We're more like an aggregate of ability scores and skill ranks, imo. And they're constantly progressing in minute ways and there's no cohesion to the growth, it all varies by actions, experience, genetic potential, etc.

With that said, based on the performance of DnD characters I'd say in real life none of us are above level 0, with few exceptions who are all going to be level 1. Hundreds of thousands of minute levels between 0 and 1, though. My point is just that not a single person has any ability to spellcast, which even level 1 characters do. And the potency difference between a level 1 character and a level 0 NPC is such that only the most hardened individual could claim to be even a level 1 fighter.

Also, real life makes it weird with the whole "proficiency" thing, seeing as I could pick up any medieval melee weapon and kill somebody quite proficiently with it.

[Damon_Tor]

Normal people are Commoners. Maybe with boosted stats.

Those with combat training might be Guards.

A guard is CR 2 IIRC. I think that makes them the equivalent of an 8th level PC.

[Kharneth]

A guard is CR 2 IIRC. I think that makes them the equivalent of an 8th level PC.

Those guards aren't real guards, they're fantasy guards. And those commoner's aren't normal people, they're fantasy commoners! :smalltongue:

[MilkmanDanimal]

5e doesn't work for real life; 5e is fundamentally a way to represent combat ability, along with very rough skills to help describe how you interact with the world. Now, I could build myself in HERO system pretty easily, as there are more granular skills that more accurately describe things we can do (I'd have Computer Programming, PS: Guitar, at least some level of Cooking), but 5e is too aimed at representing a fantasy setting to apply.

[Nifft]

Normal people are Commoners. Maybe with boosted stats.

Those with combat training might be Guards.

Nobody raised in a modern 1st world state IRL would be a Commoner.

The education and opportunities we take for granted would put us far beyond what a typical medieval Aristocrat could expect.

[Damon_Tor]

I was having a discussion with my friends on what we'd be if we lived in d&d (thanks to easy damus) and I got to thinking what the levels would look like.

Assuming we normal people lived in a d&d world(and lets keep it generic like Faerun), what do you guys and gals think is the max level achievable by us? I think level 8 is top tier "normal" people. Mostly due to the fact that you get a feat/ASI at that level it could be seen as a defining feature like "oh that warrior was so strong he/she could lift this thing!" meaning the his/her strength is 20 or took a feat that really solidified them as strong or tough. Also I feel like the low levels like 1-3 are achievable and then the professional go from 4-6 and then 7-8 are the literal masters before becoming what we'd call a super hero. But some people seem to say we could achieve level 20 with dedication.

So fellow nerds whats your opinion!?

The easiest way to tell what level you are is:
Measure your STR. Simply find the weight at which you can no longer carry an object and must instead drag it and calculate your own strength score accordingly.

Next, find an animal statted in the monster manual with an ac of 10 or 11. Strike it with a simple melee weapon 100 times. Count your hits and misses and compare the results to the % chance of hitting that animal with that ac. In so doing, you can deduce your proficiency bonus, and therefore determine, in an admittedly broad range, what level you're likely to be.

[Kharneth]

Nobody raised in a modern 1st world state IRL would be a Commoner.

The education and opportunities we take for granted would put us far beyond what a typical medieval Aristocrat could expect.

All the knowledge in the world doesn't keep one from being a commoner nor does it increase an Intelligence value.

We are 1st world commoners. So, either the question asks us to put ourselves in the medieval fantasy world or (much harder imo) take the fantasy aspect and apply it to our world.

If I teleported to a medieval fantasy, I'd be a class-less character, level 0. I'd know stuff that these guys couldn't comprehend, but I have none of the 1st level features of any of the classes. How the f*** does a level 1 Fighter heal his own battle wounds??? Y'know what, I just learned something new about myself today: I'm a Rogue, cuz I sure as hell can deal extra damage to someone who isn't paying attention to me.

[Armored Walrus]

I don't think I've killed enough things to be any higher than first level. Unless mosquitoes have an Exp value.

[Armored Walrus]

Normal people are Commoners. Maybe with boosted stats.

Those with combat training might be Guards.

I'm not normal, I'm definitely a PC, at least in my campaign. I know, in yours, I'm just a minor NPC. Probably don't even have a stat block.

[Crgaston]

The easiest way to tell what level you are is:
Measure your STR. Simply find the weight at which you can no longer carry an object and must instead drag it and calculate your own strength score accordingly.

Next, find an animal statted in the monster manual with an ac of 10 or 11. Strike it with a simple melee weapon 100 times. Count your hits and misses and compare the results to the % chance of hitting that animal with that ac. In so doing, you can deduce your proficiency bonus, and therefore determine, in an admittedly broad range, what level you're likely to be.

This is brilliant. I hereby bestow upon you one Internet Point.

[Nifft]

All the knowledge in the world doesn't keep one from being a commoner nor does it increase an Intelligence value. "All the knowledge in the world" would tend to increase knowledge-type skills, which is one thing that certainly does set us apart from the ignorant, illiterate, unscholed Commoners which we don't resemble.

Those are Intelligence checks, though I guess you knew that since you were careful to talk about "Intelligence value" instead of skills or check results.

[GlenSmash!]

Lets look at the DMG values for a handgun, and see how many times a person can be shot with it before the go unconscious (0hp) this will help us determine their level, but could be complicated by class Hitdice and possible the tough Feat

Note: I am being facetious. I do not advocate for real world violence. I like my violence in fantasy where it belongs.

[Ganymede]

I disagree with your reasoning. I agree that we don't have levels, but it's not because we don't grow and progressively become more skilled.

I didn't say that.

[Unoriginal]

A guard is CR 2 IIRC. I think that makes them the equivalent of an 8th level PC.

No, Guards are CR 1/8. You're mixing up with the Bandit Captain.


And a CR 2 humanoid would be the equivalent of maybe a lvl 5 PC.

[Kharneth]

I didn't say that.

Your argument was that we do not have levels because we do not have a progression because we are not part of a plot.

[Kane0]

Well Al Gore is canonically level 10 and DMs like Gygax don't have levels, so my guess would put the max at around 13-15 before we started getting crazy with mythology and the like.


https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/595/32929254420_513a60b879.jpg

[Ganymede]

Your argument was that we do not have levels because we do not have a progression because we are not part of a plot.

Not quite.

I said this.


(Real people) are not the protagonists of a story that revolves around them.

[sambojin]

We are all lvl1 Rogues. Variant Human Rogues, with the either the skilled or prodigy feat at lvl1.

Because we all have something we're good at, we all have pretty amazing and varied skillsets (even if they'd be considered quite niche in a d&d campaign), we all have our secret languages and in-jokes with our friends or family where half of it makes no sense to an outsider, we can all use a basic set of (potentially thieves) tools if we try hard enough, we can all sucker-punch or even hide/shoot people in the right circumstances but hit like soggy lettuce/aim poorly if the person is ready for it, and we by and large tend to die fairly easily unless we get lucky on our saves or death rolls.

Some of us have a wide skillset of stuff we can do, some a highly specific expertise covering their professional career that usually includes a dialect that is fairly indecipherable to those not in that field (even if it is meant to be a part of your common tongue, it really is a different language to others), thus covering the v.human feat choice.

[sambojin]

The maximum level for soldier types is probably lvl2 fighter/lvl1 rogue.

But by and large, we're just lvl1 rogues with varying stats, expertise, skills and backgrounds. In a strictly D&D sense, anyway.

[Mr Beer]

Since D&D levels don't exist and have a complicated raft of mandatory abilities, many of which are entirely fictional or hard to assign real world values to, it's kind of a silly question.

At most you could pick certain peak human feats and map those to particular D&D stats and then say things like 'for purposes of x, maximum human level is 7, where class is Fighter and stat array is y'.

[Kane0]

Whatever level you stop fearing housecats at, which due to bounded accuracy is essentially never

[Nifft]

Whatever level you stop fearing housecats at, which due to bounded accuracy is essentially never

Yeah, that level is never.

We are all 8 Con Wizards with allergies.

[TerakasTaranath]

Since D&D levels don't exist and have a complicated raft of mandatory abilities, many of which are entirely fictional or hard to assign real world values to, it's kind of a silly question.

At most you could pick certain peak human feats and map those to particular D&D stats and then say things like 'for purposes of x, maximum human level is 7, where class is Fighter and stat array is y'.

You raise some good points. I find that this probably articulates better what I was trying to get across. I just wanted to approximate but it got a little out of hand lol.

[Beleriphon]

Also, real life makes it weird with the whole "proficiency" thing, seeing as I could pick up any medieval melee weapon and kill somebody quite proficiently with it.

You could, but how would you fare I comparison to a trained knight in sword play, jousting, or fighting from horseback? I'm willing to bet not as well as the knight. Anybody can a take a weapon and use it for its intended purpose, a sword will kill as long as you stick the correct end into somebody.

An Al Gore is a level 10 Vice President, I'm not sure how that hashes out in terms of D&D abilities. I mean one of the things it could do is let you invent the internet, but I'm not sure what level that would apply to.