Which class is most common?

[FallofCamelot]

Just an idle thought. Which classes do you see as the most most commonly encountered? Or to put it another way if you took a million inhabitants of Golarion at random, which classes would be most represented?

I'm not talking about NPC classes by the way as it's obvious that the most common class would be commoner. This is just for PC classes.

My list would be as follows, most common to least common:

Rogue
Fighter
Cleric
Bard
Ranger
Wizard
Barbarian
Paladin
Cavalier
Inquisitor
Druid
Alchemist
Sorcerer
Summoner
Oracle
Monk
Magus
Witch
Gunslinger

I tend to think of claases as either established classes (Rogues, Fighters, Clerics, Bards, Rangers, Wizards, Paladins, Cavaliers and Monks) archaic classes (Barbarians, Druids, Sorcerers, Oracles and Witches) and new classes (Inquisitors, Alchemists, Summoners, Magi and Gunslingers).

My impression is that the established classes are the most common classes to encounter having displaced the old classes centuries ago. The archaic classes are on the decline and are only common in isolated and rural areas or appear as accidents of birth (as in the case of Sorcerers and Oracles). Conversely the new classes are in their relative infancy and whilst they are on the rise in civilised areas, they have yet to achieve the prevalence of the etablished classes. Thus the established classes dominate whilst the archaic classes are in decline and the new classes are beginning to come to the fore.

What do you think? Do you interpret things differently? Do you think a class should be higher up the list? I open the floor for discussion.

[Cheapy]

Fighter!

Rogue!

Not summoners!

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

I tend to think fighters would be the most common class. Anywhere that has a standing army (Castles, large cities, etc.) is going to have a crap ton of lvl 1 fighters. They're easy to train and relatively speaking their job is simple. Hit that (bad guy) with this (sword, etc).

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Casters, in no particular order, would be at the bottom of the list.

[FallofCamelot]

Fighters would be perfectly valid as the number one spot. I think there's not much in it between rogues and fighters.

As for all casters being at the bottom, for the most part I agree and the list reflects that. However, I'm not sure I agree in certain cases. For example I really think there's a bunch more Clerics than Barbarians and I think that Wizards are also fairly common. By contast I believe that Monks would be very rare.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

FallofCamelot wrote:

Fighters would be perfectly valid as the number one spot. I think there's not much in it between rogues and fighters.

As for all casters being at the bottom, for the most part I agree and the list reflects that. However, I'm not sure I agree in certain cases. For example I really think there's a bunch more Clerics than Barbarians and I think that Wizards are also fairly common. By contast I believe that Monks would be very rare.

True, there are probably fewer barbarians than clerics. Mostlyl because cleric covers a number of religions and across any civilized or uncivilizedland. barbarians however, only the uncivilized lands with few exceptions (like the golarian equivelant of rambo)

[Lincoln Hills]

Hm. The prevalence of Warriors and Experts somewhat reduces the frequency of their Fighter and Rogue brethren, whereas you can almost count on one Cleric in every village. I'd say, from most common to least:

Rogue, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Bard, Barbarian, Druid, Wizard, Sorceror, Paladin

Or, with the addition of the newer classes:

Rogue, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Bard, Barbarian, Inquisitor, Cavalier, Druid, Wizard, Alchemist, Oracle, Witch, Summoner, Sorceror, Magus, Paladin

The Gunslinger and Monk frequency are both going to vary wildly depending on your campaign. Gunslingers could be more common than Fighters or rarer than Paladins, depending on how you've integrated firearms into your campaign - and Monks might have a monastery in every good-sized town or might all come from a single remote lamasery in the mountains. Too tough to call.