D&D General consideration on sapient folk having two distinct base cultures?

[Yaarel]

Generally, nomads flourish where farming is difficult.

There are places where nomads become merchants traveling traderoutes. These can become highly educated, technologically sophisticated, with well organized armies, all while inhabiting tents in traveling campsites.

Iron ore can be refined well by makeshift kilns dug in the ground with sides made from mud.

Definitely, think thru the consequences of magic. It is a gamechanger.

 

[Minigiant]

Generally, nomads flourish where farming is difficult.

There are places where nomads become merchants traveling traderoutes. These can become highly educated, technologically sophisticated, with well organized armies, all while inhabiting tents in traveling campsites.

Nomads flourish in the 4e POL setting for this reason.

Nomads with good scouting couldstay away from wandering monsters and find the fortified/hidden farming villages for trade.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Nomads flourish in the 4e POL setting for this reason.

Nomads with good scouting couldstay away from wandering monsters and find the fortified/hidden farming villages for trade.

you know what bugs me about PoL settings is that few are built with the correct backstory to justify them in at least a degree of realisum.

 

[Minigiant]

you know what bugs me about PoL settings is that few are built with the correct backstory to justify them in at least a degree of realisum.

That's because people make them too harsh.

POL isn't a hellhole. It's basic video game "if you walk into the forest and its not the elf or gnome forest, you are gonna be attacked". Kingdoms and civilization exist in POL. It's just the wild places are dangerous or some roads with highwaymen.

Nomads move in big enough numbers to scare off paragon and weaker monster but small enough to dodge epic monsters. An orc raiding party of 7-8 can't fight 30-50 adult river nomad halflings.

 

[Mind of tempest]

That's because people make them too harsh.

POL isn't a hellhole. It's basic video game "if you walk into the forest and its not the elf or gnome forest, you are gonna be attacked". Kingdoms and civilization exist in POL. It's just the wild places are dangerous or some roads with highwaymen.

Nomads move in big enough numbers to scare off paragon and weaker monster but small enough to dodge epic monsters. An orc raiding party of 7-8 can't fight 30-50 adult river nomad halflings.

no, I mean about how the points of light themselves appear, only places fairly early in civilisation development or after a collapse work like that.

 

[Minigiant]

no, I mean about how the points of light themselves appear, only places fairly early in civilisation development or after a collapse work like that.

POL setting tend to be post collapse, post war, or before empire states.

The gimmick is that the nobility lacks the money, men, and/or power to clear the monsters because of something that happened before. So they hire the cheaper questing adventurers.

Nentir Vale uses a pyrrhic war of 2 empires to destabilize the area.

 

[Hussar]

There's the flipside of that though. Most D&D settings are FAR too populous. Think about it. On the Sword Coast, you have Neverwinter, Waterdeep, and Baldur's Gate, all cities of several hundred thousand, all within about a week of travel of each other (at least by water). That's far, far too heavily populated.

 

[Minigiant]

There's the flipside of that though. Most D&D settings are FAR too populous. Think about it. On the Sword Coast, you have Neverwinter, Waterdeep, and Baldur's Gate, all cities of several hundred thousand, all within about a week of travel of each other (at least by water). That's far, far too heavily populated.

Too populous and too centralized.

 

[Ixal]

Generally, nomads flourish where farming is difficult.

There are places where nomads become merchants traveling traderoutes. These can become highly educated, technologically sophisticated, with well organized armies, all while inhabiting tents in traveling campsites.

Iron ore can be refined well by makeshift kilns dug in the ground with sides made from mud.

Definitely, think thru the consequences of magic. It is a gamechanger.

Sure,
But the iron ore has to be dug out, the charcoal has to be created in large quantities and once you get into more advanced metallurgy you are starting to need other chemicals during the forging process, etc.

 

[Scott Christian]

I would think creating a sub-background, one where you choose a background and your sub-background (nomadic, agrarian, or industrial) might work. You could avoid the whole culture/race thing, and still provide proficiencies, tools, skills, and if you wanted to, an attribute bonus. I mean, you are not going to break the game by giving players an extra +1 somewhere.

Also, you could have a list of feats that are dependent on the sub-background. Maybe hand those out as a bonus during character creation. For example, your nomadic sub-background could allow for you to gain advantage on constitution saves against natural elements (heat, cold, etc.) and allow for you to regain an extra hit dice during a short rest. I'm just spitballing, but you get the idea.