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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arrowhawk" data-source="post: 5748170" data-attributes="member: 6679551">What books are you referring to?  Source books or novels?  When I look at source books and you look at NPC's in any given town, take the one in the DMG II,  Saltmarsh.  Population 3850.   Every single member of the town counsel has core class levels.  Cleric 10, Fighter 3, Druid 8, Cleric 10, wizard 1, bard 1...and that's ignoring their Aristocrat levels.  There is a list of 35 "notable citizens," one who is a 12th level cleric.  Here are the list of "other" citizensOther Citizens: Barbarian 10, barbarian 3 (5), barbarian 1 (3); bard 9, bard 4 (2), bard 2 (4), bard 1 (8); cleric 8, cleric 4 (2), cleric 3 (2), cleric 2 (4), cleric 1 (12); druid 4, druid 2 (2), druid 1 (4); fi ghter 3 (6), fi ghter 2 (4), fi ghter 1 (8); monk 6, monk 3 (2), monk 1 (4); paladin 5, paladin 2 (2), paladin 1 (4); ranger 1 (4); rogue 9, rogue 3 (4), rogue 2 (5), rogue 1 (8); sorcerer 4, sorcerer 2 (2), sorcerer 1 (4); wizard 7, wizard 3 (2), wizard 1 (4); adept 7, adept 3 (2), adept 2 (5), adept 1 (11); aristocrat 7, aristocrat 3 (2), aristocrat 1 (19); expert 1 (57); warrior 1 (55); commoner 1 (3,275)So we see that over 10% of the population has PC grade class levels, and some of them are quite high...and that's people who have decided to settle down in Saltmarsh.  There's no information on "adventurers" who are not considered part of the population but would definitely have class levels. Bandit chief is the biggest baddest thing around?  You mean until he runs in to one high level wizard?  Or maybe a war party of trolls and ogres?  Or maybe a Troll ranger decides to hunt his members one by one?  What about the necromancer who's looking for new minions?I didn't know that Know. of Dungeoneering and Nature worked against humanoids?Clothes will tell you whether someone has money, that's about it.  The won't tell you if they have money and don't spend it on clothes or if they simply don't value or have money to begin with.  Nor does one know if the rings and amulets and cloaks are in fact magical or, just as you suggest, expensive.  You can't tell if someone is wearing rings, if they have gloves on over them.  Or the amulets, necklaces, periapts, bracers, etc are worn under a cloak or armor.  What about that sack she's carrying?  Is that a Bag of Tricks?  Doesn't hold Figurines of Wondrous Power?   And let's be honest, items are low down on the list when there are a number of spell casting classes that can wear armor.It's an open question of how distinguishable a masterworks sword is from a knockoff.  Ever been to a concert?  What about local band at a bar?  Can you tell from the audience whether their instruments are the equivalent of masterworks by construction?  Remember, people don't have brand names in D&D like they do in RL.  So it's not like you can see that the sword is a Rolex or a BMW.  I also not to sure you're going to have a time to check the quality of a sword while someone is swinging it at you.  As I mentioned, it's not like magical swords are always shiny, never get dirty, and have bright neon labels indicating they are high quality.  At least in our campaign someone had to do an Appraisal and that requires time to actually study the item, swing it, check its sharpness, etc.  Not plausible  from 60 yards away on horseback, or conversely, when you're hiding in the bushes waiting to spring a trap.What's funny is that your own anecdote proves my point.  When you have spell casters (not just those who look like Wizards) that can wipe out a small army of soldiers...I think that changes the "highway robber" or robin hood sustainability quite a bit.  Your chief got wiped out in one round.   Stories like that are going to percolate throughout society and across the nation.  You won't find too many robbers jumping people they don't know or have never seen.  They'll only rob people they know, people they can intimidate.  A similar thing has happened with the local mafia in the US.  Organize crime usually exploits their own ethnicity when they are small time.    IMHO, D&D has a major problem with plausibility and societal behavior.  We've all seen the discussions on the absurdity of a real economy in D&D.  That problem extends to the day-to-day flow of real towns and by an order of magnitude when it comes to adventurers.  The truth is there's no way to know what the world would be like if the things in D&D really existed.  IMO, it's like replicators or teleporters in Star Trek.  Those things would so fundamentally change the world, it's impossible to accurately predict how society would adjust to them.</blockquote>

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