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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greybar" data-source="post: 732213" data-attributes="member: 4938">Quick note on army sizes.  While some particularly well documented battles have armies with well known sizes, be very skeptical about claims from pre-printing press (much less illiterate) societies.  If we go back to Greek, Hebrew, or early Roman sources one should assume that poetic license has greatly multiplied the numbers.On the magic/PC front - a lot depends on how much you expect the population to advance in level.  Is your standard warrior in a standing army level 1 or level 5?  Does the army train magic-users to this same level?To use the English Agincourt example from one of the early posts: 5000 men at 20% knights, 20% yeomen, 60% levy.  If that means 60% 1st level commoner, 20% 3rd-5th level archers (warriors&fighter), and 15% 3rd to 5th level fighter/paladin, plus a 5% "elite" of 5th to 10th level PC-types of all classes.I'm not a big fan of the warrior NPC class, so:3000 Com1 (fodder that will break in morale fast)1000 archers -500 Ftr3 (Weapon Focus, Point Blank, Rapid Shot, Far Shot, ...)250 Ftr4 (Weapon Specialization, ...)250 Ftr5 (etc.)750 knights -500 Ftr3100 Ftr4100 Ftr550 Pal5250 special ops -1 Nob4/Ftr6 General, plus a 9 person bodyguard of Ftr560 Magic Special Ops (Wiz/Sor of levels 5-10)60 Healing Core behind the lines (Clr of levels 3-5)60 Front-line clerics/bards (lots of bless spells prepped)60 Line-breaker team of mounted Ftr5 thru Ftr7You can quibble with the numbers, I'm just throwing them out off the top of my head (while drinking wine, no less) so adapt as needed to your world.Hey forget Fireball.  It's flashy and three castings later you're out.  It's the Bless spells and Inspire Courage that will motivate the unit's charge into battle and be castable by even the least trained spellcaster.The high-level spells will be rare just because there is only 1 person in a million that can cast them.  Unless in your world you can't go to a bar and get a beer without rubbing shoulders with an arch-mage.  I hear such worlds exist, I just don't run or play in any of them (thank the Gods).John</blockquote>

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