Where are AD&D's High-Level NPCs?

This is a question I've pondered quite a bit in my exploration of AD&D. Theoretically, my assumption would be that there's nothing to restrict a character-type NPC from reaching the same level of experience as a player character of the same type. That is, a human character can become a cleric of 29th level, a fighter of 11th level or higher, or a magic-user of 18th level or higher (no upper limit is provided in the latter two cases, whereas 29 seems to be the cleric's limit for whatever reason). 

Non-human NPCs would also presumably abide by the same restrictions imposed on player characters of that type, so an NPC elf could advance as far as 7th level as a fighter and 11th level as a magic-user, and no more, just like a player character. Interestingly, NPC dwarves, elves, and gnomes can be clerics, and NPC halflings can be druids, even though these options are not available to player characters:

The PHB, in the section titled THE ADVENTURE, describes three different adventure types, characterized by the setting in which they take place: Town Adventures (which include not just towns but also cities and large villages, and so are probably more accurately described as settlement adventures), Dungeon Expeditions, and Outdoor Exploration (this is, for my money, a better configuration of modern editions' "Three Pillars of Play" - which are Combat, Exploration, and Social Interaction).

The DMG provides some guidance as to what level character-type NPCs encountered in each of these scenarios will be, so I'll analyze the subject within this framework.

I'll begin with Dungeon Expeditions, because NPCs encountered in these scenarios will tend to be of lower levels. Character-type NPCs are encountered in dungeons as early as the 1st dungeon level:

They can also be encountered all the way in the deepest levels of the dungeon, and on every level in between:

Here is the relevant section describing the level of these NPCs:

Character-type NPCs encountered on the 1st through 4th levels of the dungeon are of the corresponding level in their class. Such NPCs encountered on the 5th through 15th levels are level 6 to 12. NPCs encountered on the 16th level or deeper can be as high as 13th level. 5th level NPCs are oddly never encountered in dungeons, nor are those higher than 13th level.

This suggests that 13th level is the maximum level at which player characters should continue to embark on dungeon expeditions - that's before clerics or magic-users gain access to 7th level spells, for context.

Next, let's look at Outdoor Exploration. For whatever reason, character-type NPCs are encountered in temperate and sub-tropical uninhabited/wilderness areas and nowhere else - not in arctic, sub-arctic, sub-tropical, or tropical areas, and not in waterborne environments. Not even in inhabited areas! The occasional high-level NPC is still encountered in groups of men (bandits, berserkers, brigands, etc.) and demihumans (dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc.), but full parties of fellow/rival adventurers are not.

According to the special footnote to these encounter tables, character-type NPCs in the outdoors are always of 7th through 10th level:

But random encounters are not the only way to encounter character-type NPCs outdoors. We must also account for those NPCs who rule strongholds:

Excepting the bard, which is an outlier by design, there is a good deal of overlap with those character-type NPCs found in the lower levels of dungeons and in random outdoor encounters. Only magic-users, thieves, and assassins exceed 13th level - and, as I mention in my post on Thieves and Assassins Guilds, this table is not totally reliable when used to stock an outdoor area, since the PHB states that thieves can only build small-type castles within or close to towns and cities, and only Grandfather/Grandmother assassins (15th level) rule wilderness strongholds (14th level assassins' strongholds are always in a town or city).

Where are all the higher-level character-type NPCs, then? According to the rules presented by the DMG, characters adventuring in dungeons and outdoors will never encounter a cleric capable of casting 7th level spells or a magic-user capable of casting 8th level spells (16th level in both cases), an illusionist capable of casting 7th level spells (14th level), a Great Druid (14th level), a Grandfather/Grandmother assassin (15th level), or a monk of higher than 13th level.

This has gameplay significance because players may need to be able to find such NPCs. They may need a cleric to cast resurrection, a magic-user to cast wish, or an illusionist to cast vision. Druids, assassins, and monks will need to find higher-ranked NPCs of the same type and defeat them to advance in their own class. Where are they?

As I've already mentioned, the Grandfather/Grandmother assassin should be in a wilderness stronghold. Druids, likewise, according to the PHB, "do not dwell permanently in castles, or even in cities or towns", but "in sacred groves...set in woodlands and similar natural surroundings":

While no such restriction is imposed upon higher-level monks, it seems fitting to me that these too would be (literally) cloistered away in some remote wilderness monastery. It seems to me that the highest-level druids, assassins, and monks are left off the castle sub-table merely because they are unique individuals who should be deliberately placed in the play area with careful consideration by the DM - though this rationale again is not applied to monks in the same way, who appear on the sub-table despite the fact that those of 9th level or higher are, according to the PHB, one-of-a-kind:

That still leaves the higher-level spellcasters, which brings us to Town Adventures.

In my post on henchmen, I mention that 1-in-100 humans and 1-in-50 demihumans are "suitable for level advancement". Of those, generally, 1-in-10 are "interested in offers of employment as a henchman". Since newly recruited henchmen can only be 1st through 3rd level, this means that 10% of the character-type population in a settlement is of 1st through 3rd level, but no guidance is provided for the level distribution of the remaining 90% of character-type NPCs.

The city/town encounters detailed in the DMG shed a bit of light on the level of NPCs found in these environments:

• Assassin encounters are with assassins of an indeterminate level (my guess is that one is to refer to the Thief encounter below to determine the level of the assassins).
• Bandit and Brigand encounters at night will include "1 or more leaders" (based on the Monster Manual there could be a fighter from 8th to 10th level, a magic-user of 7th to 10th level, or a cleric of 5th to 6th level, but it's unclear how to determine which leaders and of what level will be present because the Monster Manual deals with much larger groups of bandits).
• City guard encounters include fighters of 2nd to 5th level and indentured magic-users of 1st to 4th level.
• City official encounters include fighters of 1st to 4th level.
• City watchman encounters include fighters of 1st to 5th level and indentured clerics of 2nd to 5th level.
• Cleric encounters are with a cleric of 6th to 11th level and can include lesser clerics of 1st to 4th level.
• Druid encounters are with a druid of 6th to 11th level and include either lesser druids of 1st to 4th level or fighters of 1st to 6th level.
• Drunk encounters can include individuals from many of the other encounter types, presumably at similar levels.
• Fighter encounters are with a fighter of 6th to 12th level and include henchmen of 1st to 4th level.
• Gentleman encounters can be with fighters of 7th to 10th level.
• Harlot encounters may be with a harlot who is a thief or is working with one (presumably of the same level as those described under Thief, below).
• Illusionist encounters are with an illusionist of 7th to 10th level and include either illusionists of 1st to 4th level or fighters of 1st to 6th level.
• Magic-user encounters are with a magic-user of 7th to 12th level and henchman magic-users or fighters of 1st to 6th level or 4th to 7th level, respectively.
• Mercenary encounters include 1st level fighters and may include fighters of 2nd to 5th level.
• Merchant encounters include a fighter of 1st to 4th level.
• Monk encounters are with a monk of 7th to 10th level.
• Noble encounters include fighters of 1st to 4th level, and the noble may even be a fighter or cleric of 5th to 12th level.
• Paladin encounters are with a paladin of 6th to 9th level.
• Pilgrim encounters may include a cleric (or druid) of 2nd to 8th level, a monk of 5th to 6th level, a fighter (or paladin or ranger) of 1st to 8th level, a thief (or assassin) of 2nd to 7th level, or a magic-user of 6th to 9th level (as with Bandit and Brigand encounters, it's not entirely clear how to determine which of these character-types will be with the group, as the Monster Manual details much larger groups).
• Press gang encounters will be with 1st level fighters with a leader of 2nd to 5th level.
• Rake encounters will be with fighters of 5th to 10th level.
• Ranger encounters will be with rangers of 7th to 10th level.
• Ruffian encounters will be with 2nd level fighters and may include an assassin of 5th to 8th level.
• Thief encounters will be with a thief of 8th to 11th level and may include lesser thieves of 1st to 4th level.

So, that's a lot of information that I probably didn't need to type out. Do you notice anything? The highest-level character-type NPC which can be randomly encountered in a city or town is of 12th level (and that's only individual fighters and magic-users and noble clerics). Again, where are the higher-level NPCs?

Well, they must be somewhere. The DMG contains the following list of prices for hiring NPC clerics to cast certain spells:

(Interestingly, there is no such list for druid, magic-user, or illusionist spells, suggesting that while clerics are probably happy to accept tithes to their faith in exchange for service - if the character requesting such is "of similar alignment and religion as the cleric" - those other classes will probably only provide their services in exchange for magic items or service in kind.)

This list includes 7th level cleric spells like astral spell, control weather, earthquake, gate, regenerate, and restoration. Higher-level NPCs are present in the world (and specifically in large enough settlements), but for some reason are never randomly encountered in dungeons, outdoors, or in settlements.

This suggests that such NPCs are essentially retired from adventuring (they do not go into dungeons or the wilderness) and insular (they do not leave the place in which they reside to wander the streets of towns and cities). They have to be deliberately sought out where they live, and they probably won't be happy to see you.

So where do they live? Clearly not in dungeons, and apparently not in wilderness strongholds. However, while there are certainly domain-less high-level NPCs in D&D, I have a hard time believing that retired, insular, very high-level NPCs would be without them. 

Rather, I suspect that these individuals have ruled their strongholds for a long time - long enough that they are well a part of the established order. Strongholds maintain order in the borderlands, attracting people to settle around them in tax-paying single dwellings, thorps, hamlets, and the like. Eventually, I imagine, those communities grow into villages, towns, and even cities, with those old strongholds at their core. Is this where the highest-level NPCs live?

I think so. I think cities especially probably have lots of strongholds within them - those may be ruled by NPCs like those found on the castle sub-table in the DMG, but I imagine others will be ruled by even higher-level ones. Unfortunately, there's no guidance as to what the distribution should be.

In my post on settlements (which leans towards 5e), I stated that the character-type NPCs in my settlements are broken into groups corresponding to the "Tiers of Play" - 65% will be Tier 1, 20% tier 2, 10% Tier 3, and 5% Tier 4. In a later post, I wrote about how a similar "Tiers of Play" framework might be applied to AD&D (specifically 2e). While in that post I found that the "Tiers of Play" framework did not clearly map onto AD&D, I do still find it helpful to consider here.

In my post on henchmen, I provided an example AD&D city of 35,000 people with the following character-type NPC demographics:

• 280 humans
• 35 dwarves
• 35 elves
• 14 gnomes
• 35 half-elves
• 14 halflings
• 3 or 4 half-orcs

Since the total is 416 or 417, and 10% of these will be henchmen of 1st to 3rd level in accordance with the AD&D DMG's rule of thumb, that leaves 374 to 376 character-type NPCs to be distributed as follows:

• 243 to 245 low level (level 1 to 3 but not interested in work as henchmen)
• 74 to 76 medium level (level 4 to 7)
• 37 to 38 high level (level 7 to 12)
• 18 to 19 very high level (level 12 to 20 - or 20+ in AD&D 1e's case)

We can use AD&D's Character Subtable for dungeon encounters to get some idea as to what classes those very high level characters are:

Since this is for dungeon encounters, it may not apply to cities exactly, but it's what we've got. It's also worth noting that I'm not taking race into account, which would affect the distribution somewhat. Dwarves can't be magic-users, for example, so allowing all of these NPCs to be of any class will result in skewed numbers - but this is just a broad overview.

We can expect the average AD&D city to have the following very high level character-type NPCs in residence: 3 or 4 clerics, 7 or 8 fighters, 0 or 1 paladins, 0 or 1 rangers, 3 or 4 magic-users, 0 to 1 illusionists, 1 or 2 thieves (each of which might have their own guilds or gangs at war with one another), 0 to 1 assassins (but no higher than 14th level), and 0 to 1 monks. There will be no druids, because druids do not live in cities, and you might opt to rule the same for rangers and monks depending on taste (this is how I'm leaning).

While the demographics I'm using to divide the NPCs into "tiers" are entirely of my own invention and not based on anything in particular, I think they work reasonably well for the setting AD&D is depicting. The assumption seems to be that player characters will be able to find very high level NPCs in large settlements if they go looking for them, and these numbers support that. It also makes sense that player characters will be bumping into NPCs of up to 12th level in the streets, since there are a decent number of them living in the settlement.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone, and hopefully I've demonstrated that this is not just worldbuilding and number crunching for its own sake, but that these numbers actually have gameplay implications and are important to consider when running a game. What are the chances that a high level cleric of the player character's alignment lives in the city? What is the political landscape among the city's fighter lords? If the party has earned the ire of one powerful magic-user, is there another they can call upon for powerful magical aid? How many Thieves Guilds are active in the place, what is the status of their internecine turf war, and which would it be best to align with?

The player characters are not the most important or powerful individuals in the setting, and they may never be. I for one think it's important to know who those individuals are, how many of them there are, where they can be found, what they want, and most importantly, how the player characters might have to deal with them.