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ORDINARIES

While important Narrator characters and antagonists will usually belong to one of the four heroic roles (Warrior, Adept, Expert, and Generalist), most people in the world aren't heroic adventurers or devious villains. They're just ordinary people, going about their daily lives, with very little need for the skills and abilities of adventuring heroes. These characters are called ordinaries in DPoNI.

Ordinary is essentially a fifth role, in addition to Warrior, Adept, Expert, and Generalist, but it is a role inferior to the other four in terms of abilities. Levels in ordinary grant only one thing: 4 starting skills at 1st level and 4 additional skill ranks per level. Ordinaries do not gain combat or saving throw bonuses, nor do they gain any feats (either at 1st level or as they progress in level). The only difference between a 1st-level ordinary and a 20th-level ordinary is the number and rank of the character's skills. This is the case for most ordinary people: they learn and develop skills, but have little or no need to improve their ability to fight, avoid hazards, and so forth. If you can describe a Narrator character as an "ordinary (whatever)," odds are that character has the ordinary role.

Ordinaries also do not have or gain Conviction, nor do they acquire Reputation. They don't have the extraordinary drive and motivation of heroes and villains. They can (and sometimes do) use extra effort, but that is all.

Of course, ordinaries can be mixed-role. They gain all the benefits of their level in any other role(s), including Conviction and Reputation. A retired soldier turned shopkeeper, for example, might be a 2nd-level Warrior from his early military training, but a 5th-level ordinary from his years of minding the store, which developed some of his skills (like Knowledge and Sense Motive) but not his military prowess. Likewise, a wily government functionary might mix levels of Expert and ordinary, just as a wise sage might mix levels of Adept and ordinary; possessing some skill with the supernatural, but primarily focusing on "book knowledge."

You can generally treat ordinaries as two levels lower than their actual level when comparing them to heroes. Ordinaries lack many of the usual benefits of their level, so they're no match for a character of one of the other three roles at the same level.