DM SURVEY: How many Level 1+ NPCs in a village?

[napoleon_in_rag]

Hello, fellow DMs.

I am designing a random table for building Villages/Towns/Cities on the fly and I am looking for some feedback from other DMs on how they run Leveled/Classed NPCs in their campaigns.

SITUATION: The party is approaching a village with a population of about 500. You need to build it on the fly.

Question 1) How many Level 1+ NPCs would you place in the village? What factors would go into that decision?

Question 2) What level and class would you make the NPC? Are their classes you would be less likely to use? What factors would affect the level? Would the PCs levels affect this decision?

Question 3) What occupation would the NPCs be? Would they be typical farmers/peasants? Or would they have a "special" occupation (Thieves guildmaster, Captain of the Guard, Village Priest, etc)?

[zinycor]

If am improvising, and have no plans for this village...

None.

I would just use stats from the monster manual. I only use PC levels for NPCs that matter.

[Lunali]

PC levels are typically far to complicated for an NPC. In general a town will have combat abilities in some form that allows them to deal with any enemies in the area. This could be in part through obstacles like walls, but there also needs to be a strong enough city guard that almost any encounter the PCs have in town could be handled by the guards as well. If a town doesn't follow that pattern, it is unusual and there is a reason for it, which attentive players could investigate.

[JackPhoenix]

None.

NPCs don't have levels.

[JNAProductions]

Would I build any of them as PCs? No.

Would I have any of them be more powerful than your standard Commoner? Yes.

To what extent? I'd probably have 400-450 be normal commoners, with minor variations if needed. (Most would have proficiency in a skill and some tools. The village elder has good mental stats, but poor physical ones. The grouchy blacksmith has good Strength, Constitution, and Intelligence, but poor Charisma. And so on and so forth.) A few dozen would be guards or similar, with some combat training. Maybe one to five at a decent peg above that-a retired, low-level adventurer who still knows how to wield a sword well. A hedge mage who can cast a single 2nd level spell per day. And so on.

[MaxWilson]

Hello, fellow DMs.

I am designing a random table for building Villages/Towns/Cities on the fly and I am looking for some feedback from other DMs on how they run Leveled/Classed NPCs in their campaigns.

SITUATION: The party is approaching a village with a population of about 500. You need to build it on the fly.

Question 1) How many Level 1+ NPCs would you place in the village? What factors would go into that decision?

Question 2) What level and class would you make the NPC? Are their classes you would be less likely to use? What factors would affect the level? Would the PCs levels affect this decision?

Question 3) What occupation would the NPCs be? Would they be typical farmers/peasants? Or would they have a "special" occupation (Thieves guildmaster, Captain of the Guard, Village Priest, etc)?

If it's a random village? None. They're just peasants. If the PCs show an interest in the NPCs, it's possible they could coach one of them into becoming a first-level Thief or Fighter or something, but otherwise they're all just 0th level blacksmiths/farmers/soldiers/etc. and maybe a retired sage or two.

Rationale: players have more opportunities to do interesting stuff if NPCs can't do it for them.

For similar reasons I would make it relatively rare for any NPCs to have the aptitude for learning magic.

Stuff like a Thieves Guildmaster or Captain of the Guard would be reserved for larger communities on the scale of 5000-20,000 inhabitants. Small villages of 500 can't support whole communities of thieves or large numbers of soldiers.

However, in frontier territory it would be different. A small village in the Wastes or Fringe will of necessity have a town militia (all able bodied civilians automatically enrolled) and a professional soldier as sheriff to train them and lead them. Call the sheriff a 4th level Fighter with the Inspiring Leader feat and grant some weapon and armor proficiencies to anyone who's been in the militia for at least a year. They can defend themselves even from giants in a pinch but they still have need for PCs to act as recon, investigators, force projection, and force multipliers: the sheriff can't take a posse of 30 farmers off their land to investigate reports of necromantic rituals in the Waste, and taking fewer than 30 would be dangerous, but he can ask the four 5th level PCs to please check it out if they are going on that direction, and send him word.

Result: NPC has a good motivation to deliver adventure hooks to players.

[Sparky McDibben]

However, in frontier territory it would be different. A small village in the Wastes or Fringe will of necessity have a town militia (all able bodied civilians automatically enrolled) and a professional soldier as sheriff to train them and lead them. Call the sheriff a 4th level Fighter with the Inspiring Leader feat and grant some weapon and armor proficiencies to anyone who's been in the militia for at least a year. They can defend themselves even from giants in a pinch but they still have need for PCs to act as recon, investigators, force projection, and force multipliers: the sheriff can't take a posse of 30 farmers off their land to investigate reports of necromantic rituals in the Waste, and taking fewer than 30 would be dangerous, but he can ask the four 5th level PCs to please check it out if they are going on that direction, and send him word.

Result: NPC has a good motivation to deliver adventure hooks to players.

Other options for frontier territory include someone who knows just enough magic to give the PCs some information. This might be a sage with the Ritual Caster feat, or, if you're particularly generous, someone with a couple 1st level wizard/cleric spells.

This allows you to give the party just enough information to support one conclusion while you set up another.

Another thing to think about are what purpose these NPCs can serve. Can they identify magic items? Sell scrolls? Allow the wizard to learn spells? Or can they add quest objectives? "While you're out looking into those rituals, I heard about a ruined wizard's tower that might have an interesting spell..."

Finally, do they just serve to make the players more invested in the town? "We gotta help them! That poor old cleric was so nice!"

[CTurbo]

Yeah no planning at all I'd improvise on the spot as needed. Some of the townfolk will be boosted as necessary depending on the party's interactions. I am NOT above giving NPCs character levels. I am definitely known to do that as well as giving NPCs feats at times. One time my party was harassing a NPC barmaid so I made her a high level Barbarian and it was awesome hahaha. The point is it's your world and you do whatever you want. You have nobody to answer to. In my campaign, the old homeless beggar in town is probably an ancient Silver Dragon. The inkeeper could possibly be a retired level 20 Fighter so be nice to him lol. That beautiful Princess? Yeah she is a mid level Bard with a 22 Charisma.

There are plenty of premade stat blocks in the books to use on a whim too.

[Spiritchaser]

Wherever possible at least one with PC stats and level and enough backstory to give them a legitimate reason to join the PC’s for a session in case a drop in player shows up. It’s not always possible, I don’t always make time, but it’s always nice to be able to accommodate easily

[Rukelnikov]

I'd generally just add them on demand if I'm making in on the spot having a rough idea of what U want them to be, like, "ok this guy was the captain of the guard during the fated bugbear attack, and he survived, so he'll be around a fighter lvl 3 or 4", and then if it becomes necesary to have more defined stats i'll just make a quick simple build.

[Keravath]

If I am improvising, then the correct answer is however many I need. There are 500 people in the town, how many will the characters realistically interact with? 10?

Unless the PCs have proven themselves to be marauders likely to kill the townsfolk (in which case they may well have a reputation that precedes them) then it is unlikely to come to combat so I don't need NPC levels. All I need to know is what the NPCs are interested in, any relevance to the characters current interests, any knowledge they may have of other ongoing storylines and whether there is likely to be any significant interaction between the NPCs and the players.

If the players stop for the night in a town that likes to waylay strangers from distant lands whose absence is unlikely to be noticed then something might happen .. otherwise it doesn't matter.

As a general rule of thumb, out of a population of 500 in a average village, the vast majority would be commoners ... maybe 450. Of the remaining, maybe 20 to 50 might be notable in some way. For most of these, use the NPC stat blocks in the back of the monster manual.

If there is a church there might be a priest with a couple of acolytes. There might be a small complement of village guards or a militia depending on how many bandits/dangerous creatures are typically in the area. This could be anywhere from 3 to 30 people. There could be a shop selling home brewed remedies operated by a hedge wizard or witch. 500 is also quite a sizable village so there could be a local keep and minor nobleman depending on whether I needed one or not :)

Basically, every town or village is unique and made to order depending on the requirements of the plot/plots that are ongoing so there isn't much of a "standard" answer.

[Misterwhisper]

With pc class levels, maybe 1. An adventurer stopping through or a retired person of influence.

Past that a few have npc class levels.

Guards are level 1 warriors if they have been there a while.
Blacksmith might be a level 1 expert.
Mayor may be a expert.
Captain of the guard might be warrior 2 or 3.
The best hunter in the village might be an expert.

Bigger city’s I go with 1% have pc classes.
10% npc classes.
Everyone else is just a commoner.

[sambojin]

In a village of 500? Twenty of them. They are all 2nd level Druids. They are all Moon Druids.

This explains why I don't have to go into complicated supply chains for how people get fed (all villagers eat good berries), why sometimes people know stuff they shouldn't (druids were spying on them), why anyone can do anything I need them to do (lots of guidance), and why at any moment a pack of CR1 beasts can just appear and do whatever I need them to do, such as killing nosey adventurers that ask too many questions about how a village like this could possibly be sustainable in real life.

Every village. Level 2 Moon Druids. 20 of them.

[greenstone]

500 people in the village?
Most of them would be commoners. Maybe 20 would be CR 1/2 to 1, something like a bandit, a scout or a thug. Maybe one or two would be CR 2 or 3, like an archer, a priest or a veteran.

[Chaosmancer]

I've been looking at a similar situation for a new campaign world of mine, where the main city has been holding off the hordes of the Abyss.

One thing I figured out, if you are using older edition materials, assume level 3 (5e) is level 1 (3.X). I pulled this from the Paladin class mostly, but it tracks for most classes. You aren't considered a "real" Paladin at level 1 and 2, you are a squire.

So, if you want to have a "professional thief" and use the Rogue class, they should be between 3 and 5.

Guards might be level 2 fighters, career soldiers, knights of the Realm, ect between 3 and 7.

It isn't a perfect system, but it is good for eyeballing when you want the players to face individuals who have skill sets similar to them.

Then, scale up for cities and down for villages. In a big city the captain of the entire guard (if they earned their position through skill and service) is more likely to be higher level than the captain of the guard in a small town.

[Kane0]

I pull it out of my butt. Population of 500?

100 CR 0s (commoners)
100 CR 1/8 (guards, cultists, nobles)
75 CR 1/4 (acolytes, apprentices)
75 CR 1/2 (scout, thug)
50 CR 1 (spy)
50 CR 2 (captain, berserker, druid, priest)
25 CR 3 (archer, knight, veteran)
25 CR 4 (warlock)

That's on the high end, the village will be self sufficient and able to deal with most low level threats (dire critters, the odd orcish incursion, etc) without catastrophic losses, not to mention put a damper on unruly adventuring types thinking they can get away with whatever they want.

Bonus points: Because of my group's sense of humor, any civilized location the PCs visit will almost always feature the following:
- Greedo's Bank
- Hunter's Lodge and/or Wonky **** Tavern
- McMages Magic Emporium
- The Loot Locker General Store & Storage
- The Pink Pearl (exactly what you think it is)
- A Second Opinion Healing House
- A Wes n' Sons Smithy
- Shekel & Spade Gambling Den and black market

[MarkVIIIMarc]

As many as are needed. If the PC's for some reason set roots in the town because they like the bartender or mayor I'll do my darndest to place a plot hook there. Maybe something easy, maybe something "level appropriate" or a hook back to main plotline.

Don't get hung up on fleshing out the whole town either. Random visitors may not discover Tony Soprano is extorting the shopkeepers