Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kichwas" data-source="post: 188706" data-attributes="member: 891">Actually, from what I was told when I went through my military history course in Basic...A Vietnam soilder just getting off the plane and starting his tour would be a level 1 commoner with NO weapon proficiencies. He'd likely have even less than a 13th century French serf.This was in fact one of our major failings in Vietnam; we didn't give them gun training because we assumed 'any good ol' boy learns how to shoot a rifle on the farm'. Problem being that American was no longer a rural 'good ol' boy' nation...Otherwise. If I was fielding an army in a 'typical fantasy setting' I'd expect this:Knights: level 3-6 fighters.Infantry: level 1-3 commoners.Bowmen: level 1-3 warriors.and some low level mages and clerics.Paladins only enter the equation if it's a holy war or I'm fielding Joan of Arc style nationalists.Use the minimum level above for any young soilder who has never been in battle. The other levels are for older people.Your first battle is all it should take to level. Anyone who surives their first battle should get a level of warrior or their previous class.So even a fresh faced 16 year old pikeman who has lived through one battle would be a level 1 commoner, level 1 warrior.After the first battle level progression would be slower.But if a troop was there through the majority of the battles of his unit throughout an entire war he'd likely muster out 4 to 5 levels higher than her mustered in. However this individual is rare in war. Most people don't survive their first battle. Fewer survive their second. Reinforcements are what keeps an army's numbers workable.As for joe shmoe's level, I'd say for every (2 * current level * (racial lifespan/human lifespan)) years after their 'starting age' they ought to be one more level up.Assuming they have not been actively engaged in 'life altering challenges'.I prefer running and playing in games that start at level 1. But I also prefer the characters in such games be young, or have explainations as to why they are level 1.I look at level 1 as the guy who just finished secondary school, apprenticeship, or similar.You meet a 30 year old village woman in my game and she's probably a level 4 or 5 commoner just from life experience (14-adult, 16-2, 20-3, 26-4, 34-5).People in my group often wonder why I'm playing a 'little 16 year old girl', but they forget that in her society she's already a few years into adulthood and if she hadn't run off to be an adventurer she'd probably already have one babe on the knee, one on the bosom, and a third in the oven (assuming they and she survived - pregnancy is more dangerous than a pack of well trained Kobolds...).</blockquote>

Verification