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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2055219" data-attributes="member: 1129">For me, the first and foremost thing in my mind, is that it's a game. It's not some psuedo fantasy Europe but a game where characters can (rapidly) advance to near epic levels.I have no problem with most rulers having some sort of power that goes beyond the social. If they didn't, they'd quickly fall prey to something else.Now that something doesn't have to be an adventurer. There are thousands of monsters, many of them quite good, at stealing people's identies, abilities, etc... If every king is a 3rd level aristocrat, you've not playing D&D as those people would be dead and taken over by some shape changer.In highly civilized areas where people don't just go swinging their swords, sure, it might be possible to have long bloodlines where nobility or merchant houses rule, but even then, you'll probably have a 'power' behind the throne. Look at Waterdeep. It's got some of the most powerful characters around.If the game is like Grim Tales or Black Company, low magic and possibly high fatality in combat due to even a chance hit of a cirtical passing the Massive Damage Threshold, then yes, I can see where even standard guards become dangerous. In standard D&D, nope.Now Eberron takes a different path and it'll be interesting to see how that works long term after a few years go by and RPGA characters start hitting the epic levels but for now, it works.</blockquote>