liquidformat
2021-03-08, 11:33 AM
So let's say in a population with a mix of levels presumably age is the dominate reason for gaining levels as the longer you live the higher chance you have to gain experience; therefore, the higher level you would be expected to be. Outside of extraordinary characters (like PCs) this seems to be a reasonable expectation that most of your highest level characters are also the oldest unless there exists some sort of system where you loose levels with age once you hit say venerable age which doesn't exist in the standard 3.5 universe to my knowledge. Since the rules only talk about starting age it is a reasonable expectation that once you hit adult age exp gained/year should be similar across all races since there is nothing in the rules saying otherwise. IE nowhere in the rules do you have an exp penalty for being an elf compared to being a human because you live longer. As such we can quantify average exp gained per year for a population based on level and age of said population.
By this logic we would also expect the populations with the highest ratio of adult to maximum age to also have the highest average level. So you would expect (ignoring splat book races) elves to have the highest average level, followed by gnomes with dwarves slightly lower then a huge jump down to halflings, half-elves, humans, and half-orcs. As such you would expect Elves, gnomes, and dwarves to be the most powerful and dominate races. Often in many settings there is the trope that elves while long lived don't reproduce often; while this would mean they have smaller population in general this would also suggest that more resources would be focused on elf offspring which should help ensure lower mortality rates are lower and the general population chooses more powerful classes. So you would expect more 'PC' classes in elf populations which would also increase power level of elf populations, or any other longer lived race with low reproduction rates.
There is also the trope of kobolds (ignoring dragonwrought), goblins, and orcs having high birth rates and age much quicker than other races though outside of kobold general goblins and orcs aren't given any aging stats, so you would expect these three races to have large populations with relatively low average levels. Races like kobolds, goblins, and orcs, heck even humans thematically are cast as being more combative than many of the other races and given the exp system in 3.5, there is an expectation that they gain exp faster since they are more likely to engage in combat. Even so lets say an orc reaches maturity at 10 and max age sits around 40, that is only ~30 years where an orc is gaining levels compared to 640 years for an elf. For Orc populations to have similar average level we would expect them to gain over 20 times more experience per year compared to elves but you would also similarly expect mortality rates to be at least 20 times higher. Even worse lower level characters are more likely to die so shorter lived races that are more combative would have much higher mortality rates and should have lower average levels since they are so much more likely to die at lower levels. This would be compounded with races that have high birth rates since there would be less resources to go around comparatively. So once again this highlights that long lived races should be more powerful.
So then why in many settings are humans which are one of the shortest lived races normally portrayed as the most dominate and powerful? It seems rather clear that given the natural course of things they should be a rather minor race.
By this logic we would also expect the populations with the highest ratio of adult to maximum age to also have the highest average level. So you would expect (ignoring splat book races) elves to have the highest average level, followed by gnomes with dwarves slightly lower then a huge jump down to halflings, half-elves, humans, and half-orcs. As such you would expect Elves, gnomes, and dwarves to be the most powerful and dominate races. Often in many settings there is the trope that elves while long lived don't reproduce often; while this would mean they have smaller population in general this would also suggest that more resources would be focused on elf offspring which should help ensure lower mortality rates are lower and the general population chooses more powerful classes. So you would expect more 'PC' classes in elf populations which would also increase power level of elf populations, or any other longer lived race with low reproduction rates.
There is also the trope of kobolds (ignoring dragonwrought), goblins, and orcs having high birth rates and age much quicker than other races though outside of kobold general goblins and orcs aren't given any aging stats, so you would expect these three races to have large populations with relatively low average levels. Races like kobolds, goblins, and orcs, heck even humans thematically are cast as being more combative than many of the other races and given the exp system in 3.5, there is an expectation that they gain exp faster since they are more likely to engage in combat. Even so lets say an orc reaches maturity at 10 and max age sits around 40, that is only ~30 years where an orc is gaining levels compared to 640 years for an elf. For Orc populations to have similar average level we would expect them to gain over 20 times more experience per year compared to elves but you would also similarly expect mortality rates to be at least 20 times higher. Even worse lower level characters are more likely to die so shorter lived races that are more combative would have much higher mortality rates and should have lower average levels since they are so much more likely to die at lower levels. This would be compounded with races that have high birth rates since there would be less resources to go around comparatively. So once again this highlights that long lived races should be more powerful.
So then why in many settings are humans which are one of the shortest lived races normally portrayed as the most dominate and powerful? It seems rather clear that given the natural course of things they should be a rather minor race.