How is the Wizard vs Warrior Balance Problem Handled in Fantasy Literature?

[Mort]

I don't really understand the current tangent re: could a F1 have been a turnip farmer before he became a F1.

Its back-story, which by definition is pure fluff - how is it even a question that, of course he could have been a turnip farmer. And at the time of the back-story he is "just a turnip farmer" whether he becomes more than that - is level 1+ where the game starts.

Heck he could have been a quadriplegic who one day found that not only could he walk and swing his arms, he now knows how to use a sword! Taking this as a sign, he seeks out adventure (now whether he ends up dead by level 2 is a different matter entirely).

 

[Raven Crowking]

One would think that was obvious, Mort.

 

[Mort]

One would think that was obvious, Mort.

One would, and yet here we are on post 470+ with this tangent taking up a number of those!

 

[Raven Crowking]

One would, and yet here we are on post 470+ with this tangent taking up a number of those!

Yup. And there are still folks entrenched in the idea that, if your guy was a turnip farmer before he became a fighter, you are playing the game wrong!

 

[Mark Chance]

How is the Wizard vs Warrior Balance Problem Handled in Fantasy Literature? Well, Conan usually handled the problem by gutting the wizard.

 

[Raven Crowking]

How is the Wizard vs Warrior Balance Problem Handled in Fantasy Literature? Well, Conan usually handled the problem by gutting the wizard.

Yup.

But it should be noted that sometimes Conan solved the problem by getting another wizard to help.

 

[rkwoodard]

Black Company

Black Company: The Silver Spike

One of the Narrators of Glen Cook’s Silver Spike, is a potato farmer who ran away from home and joined the army. By the end of the book he is back to being a potato farmer, and he won the girl. He was in a world with big bad magic users and weird creatures. He held his own in the story, through brains, planning, general son of a gun toughness.

How does Fantasy Lit handle farmers turned Heroes…..They simply let them be heroes….and farmers.

The tangent seems to be down to how big of a jump of circumstance do you need to see the farmer turned fighter...or rather commoner turned PC. I don't need much. Others, based on the powers of 1st level characters of your edition of choice might need more.

Richard

 

[Raven Crowking]

Likewise Clint Eastwood's character in The Outlaw Josey Wales begins as "a peaceful Missouri farmer" (The Outlaw Josey Wales - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Turns out, he has a talent for killing folks.

This tangent, IMHO, is so long because the question of a wizard-vs-warrior balance assumes a priori that wizards and warriors are two different things, and until that is established, it is difficult to answer how one deals with that difference.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

There is nothing exceptional on that list at all.

They are all means to explain why a turnip farmer has equipment valued at 100gp - five years' work for a common laborer.

If unexceptional, why the need to explain where the money came from at all?

If you were the DM for a D&D game set in Greyhawk and you wanted to start a game a first level and a player came up to you and asked if his first level fighter could have the back story of being a potato farmer before he was a fighter, would you allow it?

PCs can do whatever they like as far as backstory is concerned. They are exceptional.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

They are all means to explain why a turnip farmer has equipment valued at 100gp - five years' work for a common laborer.

If unexceptional, why the need to explain where the money came from at all?

I don't feel the need, but apparently, you do.

1) scavenged from a battlefield

The more wars, the more weapons & armor to be scavenged- only exceptional if there hasn't been a war in a few generations. At best, unusual.

2) stolen

Theft is utterly commonplace.

3) community chipped in

This would be unusual. But, OTOH, if a small town could find someone both willing and able to fight in their service- as a lawman/mayor, leader of the militia, etc.- gearing him up would be a forseeable job perk.

4) prosperous family farm, and farmboy wanted his birthright early (a la the Prodigal Son, but spent on gear)

The only thing unusual here is how he spent the money. Buying out a spare heir wasn't all that unusual.

5) found in a hidden cache (a la Tom Cruise in Legend)

Admittedly an unusual variant on scavenging after a conflict, but not so much so that it is without precedent. Tomb-raiding- by accident or by profession- was pretty commonplace in parts of Africa before the advent of archaeology.

6) bartered for in exchange

If you don't have money, you're going to barter, and you'll do so with whatever resources you have on hand. If the debt is big enough, or the other party is in dire enough straits, the deal may be heavily one-sided.

7) satisfaction of a debt

see above.

8) indentured servitude

Again, nothing special here- it was actually pretty common for warriors of various types in many cultures to be indentured.

For example:

Wiki: indenture
In England the earliest surviving examples are from the thirteenth century. These are agreements for military service, proving that a paid, contract army was then in existence, although other evidence indicates that the method had already been in use for at least two hundred years.[1] Exchequer records of Henry V's French campaign of 1415 (the Agincourt campaign), including the indentures of all the captains of the army agreeing to provide specified numbers of men and at what cost, may still be read.[3] An Indenture was commonly used as a form of sealed contract or agreement for land and buildings. An example of such a use can be found in the National Archives, where an indenture, from about 1401, recording the transfer of the manor of Pinley, Warwickshire, is held.[4]