How much of gears shall I give to 1st-level warrior?

[Shin Okada]

I am trying to equip some castle guards and cowmen or crossbowmen. How much of gears shall I give them?

P.58 of DMG says 900 gp for a 1st-level NPC. But it seems too much for common soldiers.

 

[dkilgo]

If the NPCs in question are indeed 1st level, then yes you would have to give them 900 gp. of gear. Only because they are 1st level chracters are they not?

 

[dcollins]

Let me point out a little house-rule I use. One thing that bothers me is that the NPC gear table outstrips the PC gear table at levels 1-2, and only after that do PCs surpass NPCs. In my campaign I set up NPCs with 450 gp at 1st level, and 1,400 gp at 2nd level.

 

[CCamfield]

Starting gear for warriors is supposed to be 3d4x10gp worth of equipment. It's on p40 of the DMG (in the section on warriors). I guess that wouldn't make sense for high-level warriors but it seems about right for 1st level guys. They can have a longbow and some light armour, or maybe scale armour for melee types, but not chain.

Interesting point you have about PCs vs NPCs there dcollins. I admit to being a bit shocked by the amount of stuff low level NPCs are supposed to have.

 

[demon_jr]

One time, I used the NPC tables in the DMG for the Core Classes (Fighter, Wizard, etc.) to see how my character stacked up equipment wise with a NPC of similar level.

In some ways, my character outstripped the NPC, but in otherways, my character was slightly inferior.

However, this test was not perfect since my character is multi-classed and the sample NPCs presented in the DMG are single class. The closest core class my character would fit is the ranger.

I guess the point of this was to say that, for my campaign at least, player characters tend to be a little bit better equipped than the NPC of the equivalent level (hence my curiousity to see how my character stacked up to another NPC of the same level)

 

[dkilgo]

Except in reguards to 1st and 2nd levels all NPCs with not match up with PCs when it comes to gear. I don't quite know why that is, but you can see it in the DMG in the NPC charts.

 

[FlimFlam]

If you are making guards I would think that whomever they are working for is suppling them. Or do the guards need to spend their own money on equipment. If the guards are working for a duke (for example) then their equipment should probably be paid for by the Duke, or more appropriately, the taxes he collects. So 900GP worth of equipment shouldn't be too much IMO.

 

[BlackRazor]

Castle Defense

What your warrior "own" and what is used in the defense of a castle is entirely two different thing. The money a normal 1st level warrior own will probably go for many other thing than his fighting gear.

Afterall, he did not choose the life of those no gooder adventurer, living only with a backpack and sleeping in their armor. He will probably buy some furniture to tidy up his
barracks and have many more set of clothing that a normal adventurer. He would probably go out of his way to buy better boots, coldwear and rainwear than average so his patrol when the meteo suck wont be so depleseant.

His lord will provide him with a place to live, armor, weapon training and purppose. I dont think its a good idea to evaluate the defence of a castle by doing a "men-by-men" analysis except if the castle is run by mercenaries or some kind of collective anarchy. The gear they will have is linked to the cash the owner of the castle can munster and his willingless to defend it. Also take in consideration that owner of large lands with natural ressources (as castle owner thend to be) usually manufacture most of their products themselves for their own troop. Reducing the cost of many items. If the lord in question posess a iron mine and some forested area you can be sure as hell that nearly all his soldier will sport some metal armor and he wont have to "Buy" them. because he simply pay the armorer his regular wage, without having to consider making profit.

- Dont mix economics and D&D, you only get headache.