Population and Character Levels?

[Shain Edge]

Is there any source Material on how one goes about to determine a census on how common levels are (Both PC and NPC classes) in the Golarion campaign setting?

[TheWarriorPoet519]

I don't think we have an exact census, but I do recall that most people are 1st-4th level in a given area, with levels 5-10th being increasingly rarer, and levels 10-15 being extremely rare (a handful in a given polity) and 15+ being extremely uncommon.

[Hugo Rune]

Not the Golarion setting but in Greyhawk half the population was 1st level, 1/4 2nd level, 1/8 3rd level and so on.

The demographic rules in v3/v3.5 allowed for more higher level characters. I don't have the pages to hand though to provide references.

Given the sample NPCs (I think in the in the GMG) I suspect the average level for Golarion is at least 2nd level and possibly higher.

[Shain Edge]

I suppose that would be a good question for Paizo to answer.

It would be good to have a decent idea what the chances of getting raised from the dead on an 'opse'! (At least by official channels)

Thanks for the sources and opinions on them!

[Paige Stormblood]

There's a note in the Inner sea Book regarding character level rarity.

Bacially the majority of humanity are lv 1-5 I.e Standard.
Leaders, Nation movers, Heroes lv 6-10 Exceptional.
Lv 11-15 only a handful exist in most nations and lv 16+ are exceptionally rare (being legend's in their own rights).

My guess estimation for numbers would be lv 1-5 consists of most of the population.
1/1000 or so are lv 6-10
1/25000 for 11-15
1/1,000,000 for 16+

That would be my guess.

[Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan]

Hugo Rune wrote:

Not the Golarion setting but in Greyhawk half the population was 1st level, 1/4 2nd level, 1/8 3rd level and so on.

This leaves 1/1,048,576 unaccounted for!

[Alzrius]

Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan wrote:

Hugo Rune wrote:

Not the Golarion setting but in Greyhawk half the population was 1st level, 1/4 2nd level, 1/8 3rd level and so on.

This leaves 1/1,048,576 unaccounted for!

They're not unaccounted for; they're the people who're 21st-level.

[W E Ray]

That's FR where they're all 21st level and up -- not that GH is too far behind FR.
;)

@ Hugo, what GH source are you getting that from, I'm awfully curious.

[Hugo Rune]

W E Ray wrote:

That's FR where they're all 21st level and up -- not that GH is too far behind FR.

;)

@ Hugo, what GH source are you getting that from, I'm awfully curious.

Okay, that's strange, I can't find the reference but I'm sure I didn't just make it up. I don't think it would have been a 1e reference as most of the population are 0 level characters. It might have been a 3e reference, possibly Living Greyhawk but could just as easily been 3rd party or fan created.

[Alzrius]

Hugo Rune wrote:

W E Ray wrote:

That's FR where they're all 21st level and up -- not that GH is too far behind FR.

;)

@ Hugo, what GH source are you getting that from, I'm awfully curious.

Okay, that's strange, I can't find the reference but I'm sure I didn't just make it up. I don't think it would have been a 1e reference as most of the population are 0 level characters. It might have been a 3e reference, possibly Living Greyhawk but could just as easily been 3rd party or fan created.

I don't recall it either, but there are a lot of Greyhawk products (particularly early ones) that I don't have, and I don't read fan-written material.

Even so, that's a very interesting rule about the levels of the general population.

[Hugo Rune]

It may have been a generic 3rd party non-Greyhawk product that I applied to my Greyhawk world. In any case it worked well for my purposes. Above 10th level I pretty much hand picked the characters and then filled the rest of the world (didn't take the computer too long to randomly generate an entire population, rerolling if above 10th level). I then fleshed out some parts using the power structure rules in the v3.5 DMG.

I manily used it to flesh out and enrich the game world and to provide some spark for creativity e.g. the nearest 5th level expert armourer exists in Dyvers, if the players want a mithril shirt crafting they will need to a) learn who and where he is and b) travel to see him.

It also made the players appreciative of how difficult it is to gain audiences with high level characters. I later made up organisations and one of the boons was easier access to such personages.

[W E Ray]

3E sounds right, especially in LG or something -- there's sooo much LG stuff out there that I don't know about/ have, it makes sense that I wouldn't be aware of it.

[Alzrius]

By the by, for those who are interested in learning more about Living Greyhawk, definitely check out BDKR1 The Unofficial Living Greyhawk Bandit Kingdoms Summary (Volume 1) (or, if you're so inclined, its Kindle edition).