| Interpreting the tables | - | - | - | - |
| Dungeons & Dragons | Advanced Dungeons & Dragons | - | Dragon #129 | Dragon magazine |
In the Monster Manual, Monster Manual II, the FIEND
FOLIO® Tome, and Oriental Adventures,
demi-human clans and human villages
receive certain above-average level characters,
depending upon the number of demihumans
or humans present. For example,
on page 39 of the Monster Manual, it is
stated that for every 20 (male) elves,
there
is one with above-average fighting ability:
a 2nd- or 3rd-level fighter in this case. This
seems to work in theory; in practice, however,
something is slightly amiss.
The main problem is that not all multiclass
options are covered in the previously
mentioned game books. The whole system
seems arbitrary, ignoring certain classes,
class combinations, and levels. But logic
dictates that there are more low-level
types than high-level types, though certain
levels are often missing while higher ones
are found in every community.
These problems alone weren?t important
enough to justify the effort it would take
to work out an entirely new leadership
system, completely rehashing the old. But
then, Unearthed Arcana came along, creating
even more problems! New classes are
now open to each race; more races and
sub-races have appeared. It now seems
reasonable to fix both systems at once.
Fortunately, the new Oriental races and
classes also fit neatly into the revised
system presented here.
Every race that establishes its own communities
is covered herein. There are
dwarves (gray, hill,
and mountain), elves
(dark, gray,
high, valley,
wood, and wild),
gnomes (deep and surface),
halflings (several
sorts), three basic types of humans
(barbarians <barbarian, Oriental
barbarian>, Western or Occidental,
and
Oriental), and korobokuru.
Some races are
not included (the half-elves, half-orcs,
hengeyokai, and spirit folk), because they
generally exist in the societies of other
peoples, rather than creating their own
societies.
Once a community's inhabitants are
known, it?s easier to find needed NPCs,
plan invasions using the BATTLESYSTEM
supplement, or run urban adventures. Of
course, government, politics, and other
details should also be included, but these
campaign elements are up to the DM. The
purpose of this system is merely to determine
the leaders of any group of any
particular race.
The figures below are guidelines only,
meant for typical groups of humans and
demi-human races ? not every single one.
It is very possible that a group of five 1-HD
dwarves would be led by a 6th-level dwarven
cleric and no one else, or that three
dwarves may be encountered who are 6th level
5th-level, and 4th-level fighters,
respectively. The system described below
merely gives general guidelines for average
groups, not universal guidelines for
every group.
Interpreting the tables
Each of the major variations of the PC
races receives a table herein, listing the
exceptional NPC leaders gained because of
group size. There are a couple of things
that should be explained about these
tables, however.
All exceptional characters are in addition
to a group?s total number. For example, a
group with 10 1-HD dwarves gains two
2nd-level fighters and one 3rd-level fighter,
plus one 1st-level cleric and one 1st-level
thief. This does not mean that three of the
10 1-HD dwarves ?become? higher-level
fighters, one of the dwarves becomes a
cleric, or another becomes a thief; it
merely means that there are additional,
leader-type dwarves. Furthermore, these
additional leaders do not add more leaders.
In other words, the above group
would not suddenly be counted as a group
of 15 dwarves after its leaders were assigned.
Instead, the group receives the
leaders appropriate for a group of 10 1-HD
male dwarves, and that is the end of it.
Otherwise, the problems could go on
forever, with each addition of leaders
prompting more leaders, and so on.
While exceptional persons can come
from either sex, only the total number of
males is used to determine numbers and
types of leaders. Otherwise, there would
be twice the number of leaders that
should actually be present in a group.
These ?pyramid tables? are built upon
the typical member of a certain race; for
humans and halflings, the average person
is zero-level. All of the other races, however,
have 1-HD (optionally, 1st-level
fighter) individuals as the average community
member. Halflings and humans
are
indicated by the Dungeon Masters Guide
to be the only races with zero-level beings.
DMs may wish to turn 1-HD demi-
humans into 1st-level fighters to avoid the
question of where the 1st-level fighters are
in a society; otherwise, one may assume
that NPC demi-humans are able to go
directly from 1-HD status to 2nd level.
When the leaders of any racial community
are being figured, first round off the
number considered to the nearest five
(five is the base factor of the tables). Depending
upon the race being considered,
various higher-level types are thus acquired.
For example, a dwarven group
receives a 2nd-level fighter for every five
1-HD adult males. Therefore, a group of
63 dwarves (rounded to 65) receives 13
such leaders. Next, round to the nearest
10, which in the case of the example
above, is 60. Therefore, six sets of leaders
are found for every 10 1st-level dwarves.
In the case of dwarves, every 10 1-HD
male fighter dwarves means that a 3rd-level
fighter, a 1st-level cleric, and a 1st-level
thief are also acquired. Next, round to the
nearest 20; in the case of this example,
there are 60. Every 20 dwarves means that
a 4th-level fighter, a 2nd-level cleric, a 2ndlevel
thief, a 1st-level cleric/fighter, a 1stlevel
cleric/thief, and a 1st-level fighter/thief
are received. The group of dwarves described
above receives three sets of this last
group of leaders mentioned.
This system of rounding continues,
going from 5 to 10 to 20 to 50 to 100 to
200 to 500, and finally to 1,000. When a
group receives but a single set of leaders,
then no more leaders are received. Still
using the example of 63 dwarves above,
the group would cease to receive additional
leaders after it received one set of
the exceptional dwarves awarded for
every 50 1-HD dwarves. A group of 246
dwarves, on the other hand, would receive
49 sets of leaders given for every
five dwarves, 25 sets of leaders given to a
group for every 10 dwarves, 12 sets of
leaders given for every 20 dwarves, five
sets for every 50, two for every 100, and
one set given for every 200. Fortunately,
most of these calculations can be done
mentally in a matter of seconds ? even for
very large groups.
The reason that cavaliers and rangers of
drowish descent are not mentioned is that
these classes do not fit into a dark-elven
community. How could a cavalier living
underground learn how to ride a horse?
Furthermore, what would a good-aligned,
nature-oriented class like the ranger be
doing in an evil society that lives in rocky
caverns? Logic dictates that these classes
would not be found in any normal (evil)
community of drow. Similarly, assassins
are generally not found among groups of
races which are basically good in alignment
(such as hill and mountain dwarves,
and all elves save for drow). The existence
of thief-acrobats, because of their special
nature, is best left up to the DM?s own
discretion.
Humans are typically zero-level types,
but the specific make-up of their forces
depends upon their cultural extraction
and other factors. Certain cultures of
humans in a campaign may not have certain
classes; in such instances, these are
best ignored. These types of humans do
not refer to any particular kind of human,
such as berserkers or merchants; they are
simply the ordinary men found in villages
and towns everywhere. Humans are
widely variable in the subclasses that their
groups contain. Like their Occidental kin,
the specific make-up of Oriental forces
depends upon their cultural extraction
and other factors.
The alignment of these leader types will
generally follow racial tendencies, or will
come as close to it as allowed. Thus,
thieves in a colony of lawful-good halflings
may be neutral good, true neutral, or
lawful neutral. The DM may decide if
special cases exist or not, such as an evil
halfling ruling a group of good ones.
The following abbreviations are used for
the character classes: C = cleric, D =
druid, Sh = shukenja, So = sohei, F =
fighter, B = barbarian, BO = Oriental
barbarian, Bu = bushi, Mo = monk, Mu
= magic-user, I = illusionist, W = wu jen,
T = thief, Y = yakuza, and N = ninja.
Multiclassed characters are noted by simply
placing one class after the other; thus,
a cleric/fighter is listed as ?CF?. The level is
listed after the class.
Using these tables, the leaders for any
typical group of a PC race may be determined.
Interaction at all levels with the
leader-types of any group is made possible,
opening up another field of possibilities
for players and DMs alike.
Table 1
Dwarves
(gray, hill, and mountain)
| Size of group | Special Characters |
| 5 | F2 |
| 10 | F3, C1, T1 |
| 20 | F4, C2, CF1, CT1, FT1 |
| 50 | F5, C3, CF2, CT2, FT2 |
| 100 | F6, C4, CF3, CT3, FT3 |
| 200 | F7, C5, CF4, CT4, FT4 |
| 500 | F8, C6, CF5, CT5, FT5 |
| 1,000 | F9, C7, CF6, CT6, FT6 |
Note: In any group of gray
dwarves, 20% of all thieves are
actually assassins.
Table 2
Elves (dark, gray, high, valley and wood)
| Size of Group | Special characters |
| 5 | F2, C1, Mu1, T1 |
| 10 | F3, C2, Mu2, T2, CF1, CMu1, CT1, FMu1, FT1, MuT1 |
| 20 | F4, C3, Mu3, T3, CF2, CMu2, CT2, FMu2, FT2, MuT2, CFMu1, CFT1, CMuT1, FMuT1 |
| 50 | F5, C4, Mu4, T4, CF3, CMu3, CT3, FMu3, FT3, MuT3, CFMu2, CFT2, CMuT2, FMuT2 |
| 100 | F6, C5, Mu5, T5, CF4, CMu4, CT4, FMu4, FT4, MuT4, CFMu3, CFT3, CMuT3, FMuT3 |
| 200 | F7, C6, Mu6, T6, CF5, CMu5, CT5, FMu5, FT5, MuT5, CFMu4, CFT4, CMuT4, FMuT4 |
| 500 | F8, C7, Mu7, T7, CF6, CMu6, CT6, FMu6, FT6, MuT6, CFMu5, CFT5, CMuT5, FMuT5 |
| 1,000 | F8, C8, Mu8, T8, CF7, CMu7, CT7, FMu7, FT7, MuT7, CFMu6, CFT6, CMuT6, FMuT6 |
| Size of group | Special Characters |
| 5 | F2 |
| 10 | F3, D1, T1 |
| 20 | F4, D2, DF1, DT1, FT1 |
| 50 | F5, D3, DF2, DT2, FT2 |
| 100 | F6, D4, DF3, DT3, FT3 |
| 200 | F7, D5, DF4, DT4, FT4 |
| 500 | F8, D6, DF5, DT5, FT5 |
| 1,000 | F9, D7, DF6, DT6, FT6 |
| Size of group | Special characters |
| 5 | F2, C1, I1, T1 |
| 10 | F3, C2, I2, T2, CF1, CI1, CT1, FI1, FT1, IT1 |
| 20 | F3, C3, I3, T3, CF2, CI2, CT2, FI2, FT2, IT2 |
| 50 | F5, C4, I4, T4, CF3, CI3, CT3, FI3, FT3, IT3 |
| 100 | F6, C5, I5, T5, CF4, CI4, CT4, FI4, FT4, IT4 |
| 200 | F7, C6, I6, T6, CF5, CI5, CT5, FI5, FT5, IT5 |
| 500 | F8, C7, I7, T7, CF6, CI6, CT6, FI6, FT6, IT6 |
| 1,000 | F9, C8, I8, T8, CF7, CI7, CT7, FI7, FT7, IT7 |
| Size of group | Special characters |
| 5 | F1, T1 |
| 10 | F2, T2, C1, FT1 |
| 20 | F3, T3, C2, FT2, CF1, CT1 |
| 50 | F4, T4, C3, FT3, CF2, CT2 |
| 100 | F5, T5, C4, FT4, CF3, CT3 |
| 200 | F6, T6, C5, FT5, CF4, CT4 |
| 500 | F7, T7, C6, FT6, CF5, CF5 |
| 1,000 | F8, T8, C7, FT7, CF6, CT6 |
Note: 25% of all halfling clerics are actually druids, if the
community?s alignment
allows.
Table 6
Barbarian Humans (Occidental or Oriental)
| Size of group | Special characteristics |
| 5 | B2 |
| 10 | B3 |
| 20 | B4, C1* |
| 50 | B5, C2* |
| 100 | B6, C3* |
| 200 | B7, C4* |
| 500 | B8, C5* |
| 1,000 | B9, C6* |
| Size of group | Special characters |
| 5 | F1 |
| 10 | F2, C1, T1 |
| 20 | F3, C2, T2, Mu1 |
| 50 | F4, C3, T3, Mu2 |
| 100 | F5, C4, T4, Mu3 |
| 200 | F6, C5, T5, Mu4 |
| 500 | F7, C6, T6, Mu5 |
| 1,000 | F8, C7, T7, Mu6 |
Among woodsmen and other nature-oriented humans, 20-50% of their fighters
will
be rangers, depending upon how strongly tied to
nature the group is.
In most societies, 10% of these clerics are actually druids, but it
may be as high as
100% or as low as 0% in certain cultures, the degree
being dependent upon the
general importance of nature to that particular
people.
10% of all magic-users are actually illusionists.
20% of all thieves are actually assassins.
Table 8
Oriental Humans
| Size of group | Special characters |
| 5 | Bu1 |
| 10 | Bu2 |
| 20 | Bu3, Sh1, So1, Y1 |
| 50 | Bu4, Sh2, So2, Mo1, W1, Y2, N1 |
| 100 | Bu5, Sh3, So3, Mo2, W2, Y3, N2 |
| 200 | Bu6, Sh4, So4, Mo3, W3, Y4, N3 |
| 500 | Bu7, Sh5, So5, Mo4, W4, Y5, N4 |
| 1,000 | Bu8, Sh6, So6, Mo5, W5, Y6, N5 |
| Size of group | Special characters |
| 5 | BO2 |
| 10 | BO3 |
| 20 | BO4 |
| 50 | BO5, W1 |
| 100 | BO6, W2 |
| 200 | BO7, W3 |
| 500 | BO8, W4 |
| 1,000 | BO9, W5 |