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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 6393645" data-attributes="member: 1879">1. Calm down. No one is slapping your children.2. Read my post. Then look up any terms you don't understand which apparently includes the word "yeoman."In fact I'll help you:Huh. That last one is interesting. What's a yeomanry force? *click*Interesting, that one. I didn't know about the cavalry force, but that's pretty late historically. Earlier they were more noted as archers. In fact the tiniest bit of effort with google will allow you to learn about the fact that in England freemen (including the farmers you apparently despise as 0-level commoners with clubs) were required by law to own bows and arrows and to practice with them every sunday. So no, they are not unskilled, or unarmed. Or they would be dead, because if you'll read the OP again we are explicitly talking about a border region with hostile monsters.In fact let's examine the 5e NPC. I don't have the MM yet, so I'll turn to the <a href="http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/DMDnDBasicRules_v0.1.pdf" target="_blank">free PDF.</a>The listed NPCs are:Acolyte (2 HD, spells)Bandit (2 HD, armour and weapons)Berserker (9 HD, armour and weapons)Commoner (1 HD, club)Cultist (2 HD, armour and weapons)Guard (2 HD, armour and weapons)Knight (8 HD, armour, weapons and special abilities)Mage (9 HD, spells)Priest (5 HD, spells)Thug (5 HD, armour and weapons)Orcs are also 2 HD creatures with armour and weapons. So the only NPCs they are flatly superior to are the commoners who, I claim, are not the correct model for farmers in a hostile area. Using guards or bandits as the NPC stats evens things out a bit don't you think?Look you have to stop thinking in a vacuum. If there is a community in a hostile area it had to get there somehow. Did the farmers sprout up out of the earth like mushrooms and start growing wheat by instinct? Probably not. More likely they were started as a colony by some established polity, or were a group that fled thay polity for some reason. In the first case there was probably a large expedition which established a stronghold and then withdrew after a few years leaving behind the colony to pay tribute to recoup the investment/hold territory, you might want to look up some Edwardian castles to see exactly what kind of stronghold can be built in 5 years when people know what they are doing, and are in hostile territory. In the latter case they will probably be more scattered and disorganized but they will, rapidly, organize themselves. A wooden pallisade with Motte and bailey can be thrown up in a couple of months, it will be built on whatever hill commands the most terrain. With a view of miles around a staff of only a few men is needed to keep watch and raise the alarm when trouble comes. As to your 9/11 example, did you notice how it was self-defeating? The first few times the hijackers succeeded because the passengers had no reason to think cooperation meant death, it never had before. Sitting quietly was the rational response. Once it was known that wasn't the case the boxcutter were not an adequate weapon and the hijackers had to destroy the plane short of it's target to prevent the passengers from retaking it. There has not been a single successful hijacking since 9/11. Nor will there be because you cannot bring a weapon onto a plane which is sufficent to keep you from getting swarmed in close quarters by people who know they have nothing to lose. All of your examples were of people in safe. civilized societies who are not actually expected to deal with attackers. In fact you can get into trouble in many places for counter-attacking, we have people for that. Police and military. Take a look at your examples, you vacillate wildly between squads of Orc ninja paratroopers who are there to carry off chickens, to massive murdering armies. Pick an example. Raids are small and do little damage, armies are slow and not stealthy. An army is responded to by forting up, a raid is responded to by a counter-raid. And if it's harvest season and they can't spare the man power for a counter-raid maybe they'll hire those helpful wanderers who just came into town.You can complain my world is unrealistic if you like, not that you've ever played at my table, but perhaps your own would make more sense if you didn't assume all NPCs are helpless morons who just stand around waiting to be butchered.</blockquote>

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