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It would be text with no identifying marks that it was posted by Neon, would you accept that?
If it wasn't specified, then it's fair game to include that notion. Because the facts are that in a world where invasion by bloodthirsty monsters is a legitimate threat, people would defend against them.
We also didn't specify if the gnolls were sponsored by a demon-aligned Lich who provided them magical weapons. Would that have been fair game? After all, evil liches do exist and could provide magical gear to the gnolls.
If they wanted to alter the premise, they were free to explicitly state they wanted to do so. They did not. They acted as if the additions they were making were already part of the discussion, when they were not.
Really? Because from out here, it looks like your point wasn't "any village would be killed off by raids" but to specify that halflings would be killed off. Especially when you rejected the idea that they would have access to militia and scouts, whether their own or by paying taxes to other people who supply the militia and scouts.
You mean, when discussing a halfling village (the express premise) who was explicitly said not to have a militia (because they believe in coordinated community defense by having everyone carry slings, something neon said repeatedly made them different from humans) I focused on discussing halflings who didn't have a militia or any scouts (that would be part of a militia)
Golly gosh, I wonder why I didn't assume things I was specifically told not to assume.
The tax issue is Oofta constantly misunderstanding my post, as I have laid out to them twice now. The tax issue, such as it is, had nothing to do with the discussion of the village I was having with Neonchameleon.
This is true. Because you are assuming that the people in your deathworlds build their villages exactly like humans in the real world did, even when they're not humans, and that they wouldn't include any defenses against legitimate monster raids, and without taking magic and general D&D weirdness into account.
We are taking into account the fact that there are legitimate size differences between halflings and gnolls and that halflings are fully capable of taming, training, or domesticating monstrous creatures, and that there is magic that can be used.
No you weren't. At least not the latter part. Canonically, however, halflings build their villages in safe areas and build them hidden away where it is difficult to find them.
I'm sorry, but you are wrong.
I was told repeatedly last thread that halflings built their homes where they couldn't be attacked by monsters, because they built them in safe areas and they could never be found.
When I suggested logical defenses that halflings would need, like walls and militias and scouts, because DnDland is dangerous. I was told I was assuming a deathworld so severe no society could ever survive.
Look, I could dig up last thread and quote you pages of this stuff, I don't feel like that would be productive. Can we just drop this, since you would never believe me, and I don't want to get dragged into repeating the last thread? I mean, you can feel free to tell everyone you want halflings to have all these defenses. I'll back you up, but I'm not starting that fight again.
It means that halflings understand the concept of reinforcing their homes.
I never said they didn't understand it. I just said that having a reinforced roof doesn't mean your door is reinforced. Do you disagree with this? Is your roof intrinsically linked to your door such that changing one changes the other?
Because--once again--you are increasing the dangers without allowing people to respond to the dangers.
No, I specifically stayed within the confines I was given. 10 gnolls. Average, bog-standard gnolls, attacking a village. Never specified it was a super fortified and reinforced village. Just a village.
If you want to go further than that, feel free, but I stuck the discussion premise that was initially put forth.
It means that halflings aren't just fish in a barrel, as you would have them be.
Sure, maybe they were smart enough to dig trapdoors and tunnels beneath all their cover, so they could traverse between the cover without being seen. And then they could rise up out of the ground behind the gnolls and strike from outside the village.
But, since that wasn't part of the discussion, and we have just normal halflings behind cover, with gnoll archers waiting to see a halfling to shoot, I'm not going to say that gnolls are too stupid to hold their fire until they can see a target and will just mindlessly fire arrows into a wooden wall for no reason.
And if halfling villages are hidden, then the gnolls are less likely to see them. Or they would only destroy the paddocks and above-ground parts and leave the underground homes intact. And if the halflings truly felt that they were outnumbered and outclassed, they would hide underground (along with their probably decent-sized stores of food) until the threat passed.
Maybe. But this is where I think the goal of the gnolls to kill as many people as possible would have them seeking the halflings out. And if you find farms and farm animals, you probably know that the farmers are living nearby, and finding the dirt paths leading to their doors isn't going to be that difficult.
Could halflings possibly wait it out, if we assume this is a consistent strategy of theirs? Theoretically possible, but it ends up mattering how patient the leader of the gnolls is, and they can have very powerful and intelligent leaders who might try and fake out the halflings. It becomes an entirely different sort of situation.
Fine: the premise is that people who live in a magical, monster-filled world would include defenses against magic and monsters to the best of their abilities, and would themselves employ magic and monsters while doing so.
You know. What you actually will find in the game, as opposed to your premise, which doesn't exist.
Then we have an entirely different scenario, and I'm sure the people do their best to defend against the threats they can.
No you didn't. You even pointed out that NeonChameleon suggested there would be a wall around a halfling village. And I suggested ha-has, which are half-wall, half-ditch.
You did see the part where I said "last thread" right? and you suggested Ha-has this thread... which isn't the last thread.
That could explain your confusion.
You're the "bad guy" because you are either grossly misunderstanding what people are saying and refusing to accept explanations (instead whining that you're being attacked), or fully understanding it but lying about it.
Explanations like "you said that militia's are mercencaries" or "you said halflings don't pay taxes" or "you assumed gnolls had weapons and armor, and that stacks the deck in your favor"
Yeah, grossly misunderstanding other people, that's what I'm doing. Meanwhile... you've misunderstood which thread I was talking about just a paragraph before. And seem to continously be acting like I just refused to let halflings have defenses like a militia when I was specifically told that they would not have a militia. Maybe, you are misunderstanding?
Orcus' Intelligence and Wisdom scores are 20. Maybe, just maybe, that's a bit better than an Int 6 Wis 10 gnoll with a terminal case of mob mentality?
You know, you're right. It would almost be why I mentioned him. Because it shows that being an "insane creature of demonic evil" (you know, he wants to kill the entire world and raise it as undead, so he rules a world of eternal death) doesn't mean you can't make plans.
Now, you can claim that an intelligence of 6 prevents complex planning... except I never stated any plan that gnolls do not canonically engage in. Ranged attacks, use of fire, breaking down doors. The only thing in contest is whether they can hold their fire until they see a target. Which, since a creature with a 3 intelligence can do it, I don't see why a creature with a 6 intelligence can't.
I believe that you, earlier, linked to an r/AskHistorians thread? Someone did, at any rate. Well, here's another thread from
them that seems to suggest that they are actually quite dangerous, even to people in (leather) armor.
Now, in D&Dland, slings don't do a lot of damage. Not as much as they should, at least. But,
when combined with other reasonable precautions that halflings (or other races) may take, slings, even doing d4 damage could be quite effective. And mind you, some of those reasonable precautions could include an halfling or two with the
magic stone cantrip.
This is where you constantly trip up. You are assuming a flat plain where the halflings have no defenses or weapons other than slings and getting upset when other people are (rightly) pointing out that this is illogical and unrealistic and would never happen anywhere other than your deathworld.
Yes I did. To respond to a demand that I provide a real world answer to why humans didn't have a society where every one used slings (and I found two anyways)
Yes, in the real world, slings are incredibly deadly weapons. However, we also need to take into consideration that this isn't the realworld, but is DnDland.
Gnolls have 22 hp. Look in the DMG on page 268. You will find Shotguns and automatic rifles. Barring a critical hit, the maximum damage of a shotgun if you have a +2 dex mod (a dex of 14 which Neon insisted I use, even though halflings get a +2 mod, giving them a 12) is 18 damage.
22>18
Therefore, in DnDland, a gnoll can survive a shotgun blast to the chest. Not occassionally. Not if it is a glancing blow. A full bore shotgun blast, hitting max damage.
Is a sling deadlier than a shotgun? No.
Now, if you want to start having magical sling stones, and watchtowers, and a militia and trained ankhegs and a friendly dragon that likes pies, go ahead. But, if given what I was given in the original post. A halfling village, with no special circumstances, and slings. That is not enough, unless you have nearly 70 halflings attacking all at once. This is not a failure of my imagination. This is not me not understanding how DnDland works. This is me saying "if you have A and B and that is it, then that is not enough"
If you want to say that a normal halfling village with no special circumstances should mean walls, watchtowers, outriders, trained attack dogs, planned cover and sight lines, again, feel free. That was not what was understood to be the case in the scenario being discussed.
