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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 6393802" data-attributes="member: 1879">Like I said, you have to think about it. The answer for King Edward was: You land a large force, pacify the locals and keep your force there dealing with trouble, supplied by ship, until at least the outer walls are up. Then you can reduce your forces in the field to a level sufficient to man the walls. The reason castles were an offensive structure in Edwards time was that they gave you a secure base which could be defended by a tiny force allowing your elite troops to sally out at will to raid your foes in the exact manner of the orcs we are discussing. Defensively they allow you to protect your non-combatants and portable wealth in times of trouble.Now in D&D terms? It depends on who founded the town and what their resources were/are. If you really have an area heavily populated with orcs and worse, and 0 level human commoners try to settle it without support then they all die horribly and there is no town. Ergo, they had support. It could be they were placed there by an Edward who built the castle and expects his taxes to be paid thank you very much. It could be that some high level adventurers 50 years ago liked the view from the hill and decided to retire there and the town grew up around their manor. It could be that a 1st level acolyte had a vision that the Orcs would be off warring with the Hobgoblins during the winter of green snow and that they would have 6 months to get the walls up and be dug in with crops planted before the orcs came back. Since they came back there was a lot of initial trouble but they survived and now they have a well trained local militia and are brokering an understanding with the hobgoblins. It could be the area was an ancient elven/dragon/illithid ruin and a place of horror and legend to the orcs. When the settlers first came the Orcs mistook them for the feared foes of old and stayed clear until it was too late.If you (or the OP) want an undefended farming community without protectors and inhabited only by nameless mooks, then it really cannot be in hostile D&D grade wilderness. If you give them some walls, some balls, and some brains then they'll scrape by. But you're right that they are going to need an elite force to answer the orc raids or trolls to really do well. If you go Medieval on the orcs then it'll be the local lord and his knights and court wizard and priest. If not, it might be up to Our Heros. It might also be little Jimmy and his pet Grey Render or a local druid who has a soft spot for Goodie Whemper and her chicken and currant pie. Remember the Shire was defended from horrors by the Rangers of the North simply because that's how the Rangers kept in shape. But the Halflings, who were about as 0 level farmer as you can get, were still dangerous in their own right and fought off wolves, goblins, Sharky's Bandits and hostile trees on their own.</blockquote>

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