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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grog" data-source="post: 2839689" data-attributes="member: 6183">If the village is in orc-raided lands, what are they doing without any warriors for protection? For that matter, what is such a small village doing there at all?Anyway, the combat differences have been explained by others, but I'll take a crack at it too.Orcs: 5 HP, AC 13, +4 attack bonus, damage 2d4+4Commoners: 4 HP, AC 10, +0 attack bonus, damage 1d6 (probably), proficiency with one weapon they may or may not have handy in a surprise raid.So the orcs need a 6 or better to hit the commoners, the commoners need a 15 or better on average (assuming half of them will have the weapons they're proficient with handy and the other half will have to improvise and take the -4 penalty) to hit the orcs. The commoners do an average of 3.5 damage per hit and need an average of ~1.5 hits to drop an orc. The orcs do an average of 6 damage and drop a commoner with every hit.In a mass meele of 25 orcs vs. 50 commoners, it'd go like this:Round 1: 25 orcs swing and get an average of 18 hits (dropping all fractions). 18 commoners down. 50 commoners swing and get an average of 15 hits. 10 orcs down.Round 2: (15 orcs vs. 32 commoners) 15 orcs swing and get an average of 11 hits. 11 commoners down. 32 commoners swing and get an average of 9 hits. 6 orcs down.Round 3: (9 orcs vs. 21 commoners) 9 orcs swing and get an average of 6 hits. 6 commoners down. 21 commoners swing and get an average of 6 hits. 4 orcs down.Round 4: (5 orcs vs. 15 commoners) 5 orcs swing and get an average of 3 hits. 3 commoners down. 15 commoners swing and get an average of 4 hits. 2 orcs down.So the commoners win, but suffer 70-80% casualties or so. Hardly the lopsided battle you've made it out to be. The village has been basically wiped out by an orc raiding party half its size.But of course, that was just a simple example assuming everyone's fighting at once (and assuming everyone in the village can fight, but that's another subject). In a surprise raid, the orcs wouldn't be fighting all 50 commoners at once; they'd be fighting them a few at a time and could kill a significant number before the rest could organize resistance.And the raiding band would have higher level officers who would have a huge impact on the battle, as has been mentioned before. And the orcs would certainly attack at night, so their darkvision would give them an additional advantage. The commoners know the terrain, but the orcs can do things like set the buildings on fire to cause chaos and negate that advantage.The commoners would be slaughtered. So the moral of the story is, if you live in orc-raided lands, a) don't live in such a small village, and b) get warriors for protection!</blockquote>

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