Celebrim said:
Can they? That is, can you as a general rule claim that the vast majority of assumed inhabitants of any prior edition had characteristics superior to 1st level PCs? Did a 1 HD orc have any attributes superior to a 1st level fighter?
Vast majority? We don't know that humanoid monsters make up any kind of "vast majority" in world demographics. But, we do know that D&D has always had quite a few upscaled humanoid monsters that could wreck cities with just half a dozen strong.
I mean, a tribe of frost giants is ~25 individuals. How long do you think they could rampage before somebody stopped them? That's not even considering the ogres, hill giants, and other assortment of giants that apparently make up the world.
Do you think my observation that something has change is really dismissable by noting that ancient red dragons have always existed, and as such, for example, that ordinary orc warriors have +14 base attack bonus is nothing new to the game? Lets leave aside a judgment of whether thats good or bad (I have), I'm just noting that its new. Do you agree or not?
I don't even need to go into the amazingly powerful creatures that have always existed that could rule the world, but don't because... well, it would make a bad game. The shadow anyone? And so on and so forth.
But, I don't think its terribly new to have warlike cultures that could stomp on cities if they had the inclination. Take demons: in 3.5, they can get to the material plane with just a
plane shift, they could overrun the world. There are an infinite number of them after all, and really it would only take some mid-tier creatures to rampage until some high level characters caught wind of it. In that time, they could do more damage than these orcs. And, in 4e I believe they have rules preventing demons from showing up in the World, which is even better, right?
If you want something a bit more mundane than demons, though, you can't go wrong with an ogre magi leading a bunch of ogres and trolls, can you? I mean, what does the common man do to kill a troll anyway? Those torches do less damage than the troll regenerates per round. They might kill one eventually, but
dang, that casualty count is high!
I think people look at the darkness in the Points of Light conceit as some kind of death trap waiting for people when they leave the light. Instead I like to think of it as the unknown. There are large tracts of nothing too dangerous, leaving your home isn't suicide. But, its dangerous, and sometimes things emerge from there to attack. So maybe every decade some orc raiding parties show up, a village is lost, some adventurers fight them away, and the orcs retreat to start this all over when their population has returned.
But, this is hardly a huge number of 9th level monsters. If the humans pushed back, maybe they could even wipe them out, but they don't know where the orcs are or how to get at them, and if they did they're probably too afraid until they're higher level (and then have bigger fish to fry as always seems to be the case). So, there are a few hundred orcs, most noncombatants, in their own point of light about fifty miles away. Hardly an epic army that can take on humanity and wipe them out.
And, there are some more scattered tribes. But they can't work together, except in the rare case where they recognize each other as of the same tribe. And, they generally fight against each other just as much as the humans. And there are other races. Goblins, ogres, frost giants. And they're all in the same boat, too, I guess. Whatever reason you used in prior editions to explain why fire giants aren't obliterating kingdoms will work here just as well as it did before.
Do you really think that is the only possible conclusion?
I really do.
