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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Philotomy Jurament" data-source="post: 4199238" data-attributes="member: 20854">Regarding normal/average men in OD&D[1974] (three brown books):<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In general, they have 1d6 hp.  Contrast with a Veteran (1st level) Fighting Man, who has 1d6+1 hp.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">All normal weapons do 1d6 damage.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stats are 3-18, like PCs, but <a href="http://www.philotomy.com/#bonuses" target="_blank">stats don't affect combat, much</a> (no bonuses from Str, Con gave you +1/HD at best, Dex didn't affect AC)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">They have the same attack values as 1st level Fighting Men</li> </ul>In OD&D, The big difference between a normal man and a Veteran Fighting Man isn't the slight bonus to the Veteran's hit die, but rather the Veteran's status as a greater than 1HD combatant.  This is significant because it prevented high HD enemies from engaging in non-fantastic melee against him, which would give them <a href="http://www.philotomy.com/#multiple_attacks" target="_blank">a number of attacks equal to their hit dice</a>.  (Fantastic vs. non-fantastic melee is a concept from Chainmail that carried over into OD&D, and even into AD&D in a modified form.)For example, if an evil hero (4HD) attacked a group of merchants (all normal men with 1HD), the villain would get 4 attacks each round.  However, throw a veteran guard (1+1HD) into the mix, and now the evil hero can only attack once.  Similarly, if a PC Hero (4th level) is fighting a group of goblins, he would get four attacks each round, but if the goblins were led by a hobgoblin (1+1HD), the PC hero would only get a single attack.</blockquote>

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