Dungeons and Dragons, Character rarity

i always assume the following
>all PC classes are equally rare
>PC classes in general are rare enough that you wont find them if you arent looking purposefully, but you can get a hold of one if you really want
>PCs levelled 1-5 are low enough that you could claim never to have heard of them, and though stronger than a normal person, are still capable of being restrained if you really wanted to
>level 10 onwards are varying degrees of fame, and possibly celebrities, and are scarce and powerful, looking for one would be like trying to chat with brad pitt, not gonna happen without the right connections
>large parties of incredibly powerful PCs can occasionally be found walking through towns and cities, although they are usually just passing through

That's not a bad way to do it. Just keep it nebulous to your needs. I'm not sure if I agree with your last point, however. Something never sat right with me to have large parties of near demi gods frolicking around the countryside together.

The rigorous training that comes from joining a military, clergy, or college likely leaves people who attend those at level 2 or so. Sorcerers almost never happen because they get killed as children when their powers start going off, or they get absorbed into wizard schools to learn magic the proper way. Warlocks are probably super rare because they are usually actively hunted, and Barbarians are much fewer in number, but just living in that sort of society probably puts you at 2nd or 3rd.

PC classes make up maybe 10-15% of the world. It would probably be higher if those classes didn't have such high morality rates.

>What do you think in a typical setting are the best population statistics for "hero" Classes? Stylistically, which ones are better off being one of a scant few in existence vs having an entire organization dedicated to their profession.

About 5-10% of an already existing 10-20% of a normal "ye olde stereotypical medieval society" population.

By that I mean roughly 80-90% of everyone is some sort of npc class or otherwise defined by their trade with some contextual skills, abilities, and stats thrown in with the remaining 10-20% are actual classes resembling something you might see out of an adventurer. Finally, though, only about 5-10% of THAT group ever ends up becoming an adventurer or hero or whatever.

This % can be altered dramatically depending on literacy rates, military & religious culture: obviously a functioning fortress city of Orcs is going to have more people who fulfill the requirements of a Hero class than some no-name dirt-farming village, not just because it has more people pursuing that line of work, but because it actively promotes and offers more opportunities, etc..

Keep in mind, though, that I just mean this in terms of, "they literally qualify for this class or are that class" and not necessarily levels of POWER: npc-class type priests, shamans, hedge-mages, kings, mercenaries, etc.. Can all be just as powerful as their class counterparts, but in different, more specialized or utilitarian ways.

So you go for an epic setting, then.

That's pretty close to how I see it.

I guess? Militaries don't really do anything special besides stab each other with swords. They don't usually have rows of fireball flinging wizards in the back somewhere. Unless the kingdom is filthy stinking rich or something. There might only be one wizard/bard college somewhere that keeps itself neutral. I guess I just don't think it's that much of a stretch to think a soldier is level 1 or 2.

What I'm saying is you got a lot of mojo getting thrown around. With one of the magical classes getting an industrialized education model there.

Oh yeah, it's kind of an illuminati thing in my setting.

The wizards of the world keep an eye out for any signs of magical potential, kidnap or adopt them as children because their parents can't handle them anyway, and then the school raises them in seclusion. They teach them the basics, how to control it, and what the different laws are around the world. When they graduate, if the teaching has taken they get a license verifying their credentials and everything. On the outside it appears they are trying to keep kids from being abused so they don't go mad with power when in reality it's a way of making sure all the wizards are on the same side, just in case.

Wizards being wizards, sorcerers, bards, and natural born warlocks.

For reference, from the whole world population the college has only ever had maybe 500 students at it's peak.

Ah, never mind then. I like the idea of Wizards being kind of mysterious being that are only barely understood.

Ok Satan.

>500 students
>PC Classes make up 10-15% of the world's population

So let's be generous and assume 1% of that 10-15 is magic users, meaning there are 5,000-5,250 PCs, thus between five to five and a half million people in your world.

Please, for god's sake, don't just throw around scale like that if it's ever going to matter for your setting. For reference, the *city* of New York, just the city itself, has over eight million people living in it.

OP's post refers to the numbers in the college of ONE nation, not world total!
Consider realistic population totals for pre-industrialsed farming as well...

Yeah, I'm talking mainly about a nation or one continent.

Heres my rarity rankings for classes:

Very Common: Rogue, Fighter, Barbarian. Basically the mass of troops you'll find in an army, or if playing a lower power setting, they're likely to show up as brigand leaders, guard leaders, marauder leaders. Basically found everywhere under the sun.

Common: Rangers, Bards, Clerics, Sorcerers. Rangers being found in most armies working as forward scouts or guides. Bards and Clerics being found in most town as well as being pulled into some armies. Basically a town of 50 to a 100 is bound to have 1 cleric and traveling bard. Clerics tend to congregate towards places with more people as more people + more faith for your god. Sorcerers are oddly more common in primitive societies as the gifts are more inclined to be seen as marks of favor from the divine, as opposed to being shunned.

Rare: Wizards, Paladins, Druids, Monks. Druids become slightly more common in wild areas. Paladins are going to be found most often in military organizations under their churches thumb, or sometimes more broadly under a nations thumb. Wizards are way more frequent in large cities, as the general wizard tends to be school taught. Wizard master/apprentice tends to be a lot rarer as having a wizard as a singular teacher is either very expensive, or the wizard sees a lot of promise in a student. Monks are usually found in large monastery organizations at the edges of most civilized places. Basically getting to the monastery is supposed to be something of an initiation rite.

Very Rare: Warlocks they very rarely congregate, and most clerics/wizards tend to take a dim view of their shenanigans, so they get lots of bad press as well.

I don't know what's going on with our personal realm.

Only that we were so overzealous in our renovations of the mansion from the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh that we turned it into a fortified town and moved the entire place to Greyhawk.

2e implies the rarest class are paladins and the most common are fighters (but also states that no class is truly *common*, because only a minority of soldiers are actual fighters).

In my setting
>Common: Psion, Psychic Warrior, Warder, Warlord, Mymidon Fighter, Vigilante Stalker, Alchemist. Rogue.
>Uncommon: Wilders, Soulknives, Aegis, Harbinger, Zealot, Vitalist, Tactician, Vanilla Stalkers. Monks. Spell-Less rangers.
>Super rare(as in you can count the number of individuals with these classes on your fingers and toes): Wizard. Witch. Arcanist. Magus.
>Bordering on non existent: Clerics, (Anti)Paladins, Shamans, Divine sourced classes.
>Flat out non existent: Sorcerers. Paladins. Bards.

Maybe the college is actually very bad at finding students and most are privately taught