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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5748120" data-attributes="member: 6669384">By the books, the vast majority of people in the D&D world are 1st or 2nd level, and 80% are commoners, with no real PC class levels.A 3rd level Bandit Chief, with a dozen archers in hiding, is pretty much used to being the biggest, baddest guy around.And while higher level people will be able to gauge the effective levels of opposition based on Knowledge Dungeoneering or Knowledge Nature for most critters, or by simply observing how well equipped an adversary is, the low level types don't have such an option.  They haven't got the skills or experience.You can look at clothes and tell if they're common or well made.  Well made might be magical, or they might just be expensive.PCs see men in common clothing, no obvious personal jewelry, and they know that if these guys don't have any rings or amulets, they don't have any magic rings or amulets.  If their weapons aren't at least master worked, you know for a fact that they aren't magical.Soa Notice Obvious roll for anyone with any levels in Spot tells you if the "bandit troupe" you're facing are a speed bump or not.The nobleman, however, was well dressed, with good quality gear, and a pack or formidable looking hounds.  It takes an actual check to see what he's got.  Something like Arcane Sight tells you a lot about a man with levels.  All that aside, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I don't have my game world scale up with the PCs.  There are still Orc raids along the borderlands, Highwaymen on the roads and petty evils out there even when the PCs have out leveled such things.Most DMs either scale their world, or they hand-wave such encounters, presuming that they happened but were so insignificant that they aren't worth mentioning.  The thing is, while a Fire Storm or a pair of Fireball spells would have routed the bandits in the blink of an eye, the fact remains that you spent those spells on something today, and thus may not have them later on when something worthwhile comes along.</blockquote>

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