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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sheep" data-source="post: 1878504" data-attributes="member: 4965">One thing which doesn't seem to have been discussed regarding the economics of low-level adventuring is that it has comparatively high start-up costs.  Setting aside the training that a typical 1st level adventurer has compared to a typical peasant and the time and effort required to attain that, a typical adventuring party (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard/Sorcerer) starts with an average total wealth of roughly 375 gp (working from the starting gold chart).  So a group of adventurers who take on the CR 1 dragon are basically paying off their initial investment (and that doesn't include training).  Its only with repeated encounters that the money starts to come in, but the risk gets higher too.  You might get lucky the first time, but your luck is likely to run out.D&D combat has the (somewhat unrealistic) flavour that you are far more likely to survive combat if you are in a larger group.  At low level you are unlikely to die outright in any combat, but instead be left unconscious and bleeding to death.  As long as your group wins and the cleric is still up, or someone has a healing potion, you will survive; and even if the cleric is down you still have a roughly 40% chance of stabilising naturally from -5 hp.  But practically, a healer of some sort is required if you are going to do anything more than one fight and then run away.So a group of peasants who go adventuring without the village priest or druid with them is very likely to suffer fatalities in a CR 1 encounter.  And as other people have pointed out, the village priest or druid may be the difference between the crops prospering or failing in a given year. The village as a whole may be very reluctant to allow their best warriors and their healer go out on an adventure which might bring in what one of the group might earn in a year of farming, where the flip side is that if the healer dies the village may starve that winter.Factor in that a group of peasants will not likely have the spare cash to buy good equipment---its one thing to take on a dragon or a couple of orcs when wearing scale mail and wielding a greatsword; its another matter if you are untrained in fighting, maybe have padded or leather armour available, and perhaps a rusty old sword, or more likely a quarterstaff or dagger---plus the uncertainty and possibility that you may be biting off more than you can chew---is that a CR 2 wyrmling white dragon, or a CR 4 wyrmling red dragon with 60hp and a 2d10 breath weapon? is it 2 orcs or 20 orcs?---and all of a sudden adventuring doesn't look like it may be so common.The conclusions?  Adventurers are probably not peasants and most peasants don't have the resources to make the risks of adventuring worth the return. Adventurers, no matter what their origins, have been lifted above the peasant class by apprenticeship, training, and access to equipment of some quality.Corran</blockquote>

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