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Message: <blockquote data-quote="taliesin15" data-source="post: 4284848" data-attributes="member: 22058">gizmo writes: This is one reason I thought the whole thing looked out of balance--especially in comparison with kobolds in a lair, or a goblin/orc/hobgoblin settlement--one thing, though, doesn't it seem kind of odd that on the one hand, most of the humanoids in their tribes/settlements will have some sort of arms and armor, whereas 91% of the people in human (or presumably demi-human) settlements are *unarmed* 1st lvl Commoners?!? Now does that make sense? In a campaign last year, the 3rd lvl PC party had wreaked havoc in dungeon crawling with hobgoblins, then wrote graffiti boasting, saying who they were in the Common tongue. The remaining hobgoblin tribe soon attacked the nearest human settlement, a poorly armed farming hamlet (not where the adventurers were staying, mind you)--fortunately many of those in the hamlet made it to the ditch-surrounded hill fort in time, but not before many humans were killed, kidnapped, much of the livestock stoled, and many of their homes burned before the war beacons summoned the nearest of the King's patrol, some miles away. For perspective, how much is an ounce of gold in present times $600? An ounce of silver is somewhere around $10. I doubt very much that the average commoner farmer/rancher would have more than 5gp worth of silver and copper on hand, much less 900 gp. It does seem like a problem in the DMG. OTOH, if 91% of those in Thorps (and there are hundreds of them in most kingdoms--far too many for a patrol to always be close enough--maybe within 10 miles at best) are completely unarmed (little or no armor makes more sense), they would make for very easy targets. Seems to me most commoners would have at least a Sickle, Club and/or a Hand Axe. And Slings would be cheap and common enough too. And despite my example of a hamlet with a small ditch ringed fort, it doesn't seem like most small settlements would have any kind of defense, other than say guard dogs/geese, or maybe bordering hedges. If these people are dirt poor, who's going to pay for fortifications? Absolutely agreed. However, in my sample Thorp, you still have 3 Experts, one 3rd level, the other 2 1st. One 3rd lvl Bard, 2 1st; one 1st lvl Cleric. One 4th lvl Ranger, 2 2nd, 4 1st lvl. One 2nd lvl Rogue, 2 1st lvl. Let's say its arguable that 1st lvl Experts have 900 gp worth of gear, and 3rd lvl Experts might not have 2500gp worth of gear. Can you really argue that much about the rest? That's still 16,100 gp worth of gear! Well, PCs that go around attacking anything at random probably deserve what they get. I had an idea once of having the PCs discover a Goblin Gold mining operation, only to find out way too late that it was pyrite, or Fool's Gold...</blockquote>

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