[...]
Thot - you need to ask yourself why are you doing this?
No, I don't. I know the answer already, and knew it before I started.
Only if you intend to "kill" an NPC or have them cast a spell do you need to worry about levels.[...]
I am sorry, but, with that attitude, how do you find out what the relative position of the PC's in the game world is? How do you know how common certain types of artifacts are?
Without having a clear idea what the level distribution in the game world is, you don't know these things. Without knowing the level distribution, you don't have a clear understanding of your game world's dynamics, in fact. That may work for some styles of play, but most certainly not for mine. I need to know what options the NPC's have, and for that, their competence and available magic are highly, HIGHLY relevant even if they never see combat happening, in fact even if they are dead for a thousand years - because it affects their legacy.
A world where the average 50-year-old soldier is 15th level does PROFOUNDLY differ from one where the average 50-year old soldier is 4th level. Even more so with alchemists: Knowing whether those 1000-year old bachelors are 10th or 100th level is crucial to understanding what the artifacts they forge will look like.
I seriously don't understand how people play without at least having a rough feeling about what kind of level distribution their game world has, and I am not even sure I want to.
As I asked in my previous post, I am curious about people's thoughts about differing approaches to learning of NPC's and PC's. I personally don't like them, but knowing how other people feel about it here helps me understand their positions.