Quote Originally Posted by LordCdrMilitant View Post
As for any reason why I don't like superpowered PC's? As mentioned, it doesn't make sense to me how the nation would remain stable, since why would people consent to being treated like dirt, exploited for profit, and shoveling s***/begging for breadcrumbs for a living if they could take a stick and whack some goblins for enough XP to take levels in Fighter and then just keep going from there. If there's little further to fall because you're a medieval serf, there's no harm trying, and it's not actually that hard for a peasant with the NPC statblock and a staff, club, or spear in to take on a goblin. Do it 6 times, now you're a fighter and you can do it with way less risk of dying. Thus, I come to the conclusion that having class levels does not intrinsically make you an awesome superhero who can take on platoons and companies of soldiers.

As a further note, I don't believe in chosen ones or people who are just better, so I have no incentive to change the base way the game works or justify their specialty with fluff to make that assumption true.
I don't think there's a version of D&D (or any RPG, for that matter) in which NPCs gain XP at the same rate as PCs. Back in Basic, retainers got half the XP of PCs, and hirelings got none. So right off the bat, some dude tagging along to stab a thing with a sword didn't level up at all and a moderately skilled adventurer working with the players took twice as long to level up, until a player inhabited them (PCs could take on retainers as their new PC if their original died), at which point they started powering up faster.

3rd Edition D&D says that having an NPC in your party reduces how much experience the PCs get, but also says that only PCs gain XP. I'm pretty sure that 4E and 5E say the same thing, but if anyone has a specific reference I'd take it.

With that in mind, no, most characters can't go stab six goblins and level up, because the spotlight isn't currently on them. It's not even that the PCs are inherently special characters; if the game fast-forwards a year, by default you don't get any XP for the war your fighter won, even if you say that he killed a dragon during it. XP is generated by a character being under the spotlight with a player controlling them.