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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 2811005" data-attributes="member: 1879">True for land wars, although a handful of high level druids could probably shut down sea access in a 'New world' scenario. Which shark just dropped a flame strike in your rigging? Or powder room? The flip side to that is the mass/manuver portion of the equation. Nomads can concentrate a much larger percentage of their fighting force in a small area than Agriculturalists can, and can field a larger percentage of their population to boot. Actually hunter/gatherers have more free time per day, on a personal leval, compared to other approches. So you might expect to see more levels and more pc classes in a hunter gatherer band. Agriculturalists and Pastoralists spend more of their day working on food production but can support extra population because of it. That extra population can specialize their entire time in some other pursuit.So perhaps hunter/gatherers have more PC classes as a percentage of population but they will be generalist classes, whereas Agriculturalists and Pastoralists will be mostly commoners, but the PC classed people will be more specialized.As to tools, magic crops up here too. An enchanted item does not wear or break unless struck with an equal or greater item. Given the small and static size of settlements it would not be very many generations before you would expect to see every adult member of the tribe equipped with a hereditary magic weapon. Or communally owned perhaps. Some classes supply their own weapons. Soul knives, Monks, Psi warriors, Incarnate classes, and Druids (past 3rd level) all need no external weapons, and fall under the generalist heading. Is sorcerer a primitve class? Psion?We shouldn't ignore magics impact on food production either. How common can clerics be? If one in 10 people is a first level cleric how many people does that feed? Can druids manage the land to increase yields? The trick here is we are all familiar with the impact of technology on society and vice versa, but we have no feel for where magic falls into it. Did the first cleric have access to the whole cleric spell list?The numbers nod definitely goes to the Agriculturalists and Pastoralists.Also true. I suppose the key question is this: DnD presumes that technological development stalls out at about the 1100 to 1200s. I'm asking if this tech level makes more sense than any other as a stalling point. When Thog has a +2 flaming, shocking, frost burst stone axe is he in awe of the bronze short sword? Do Clerics impress Druids? Conversely, Why does DnD tech stall at the 1200s? Why have the elves not developed one single new thing in their 12000 year history? Why is the tower of the magi not made from cast concrete like Hadrians Pantheon (built in 118 ad)?</blockquote>

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