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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kalendraf" data-source="post: 1593709" data-attributes="member: 3433">I agree with this line of thinking.  However, almost anything is possible under the right situation...I would assert that it is possible to have an army of mostly 1st level commoners/warriors, but there would need to be a specific cause for this.  For example, suppose there has been 1000 years of peace and no one has fought in a war for a very long time.  Suddenly, an enemy invading army arrives, and people have no choice but to form their own army to repel the invading force.  The only people with any combat training at all would likely be:A) Rich aristocrats who have the time to practice the long-lost arts of fencing, etc.B) The few the town guards who've been forced to do some arms training as part of their jobs.C) AdventurersSuch an army would be ill-trained.  Most soldiers would lack any combat feats or skills whatsoever.  There would be just a few high level commanders to oversee the whole army, and they'd be badly overwhelmed with the task.The above does not match an army described as being well-trained and given special training with specific weapons, or one that is part of an on-going standing army, kept up for many years.  One of those kinds of armies would surely have many experienced soldiers.  As a rough guess, lets say that each year of service adds 1 level to the soldier and each campaign/war they've participated in previously adds 1 level as well.  Thus, a veteran with 5 years of service and 3 prior battle campaigns under his belt would be 9th level.  The only 1st level soldiers would be the green recruits, which would likely be 50% or less of the overall force.   Quite a few others would be 2nd, 3rd and so forth.  Looking across the entire roster, I suspect the level breakout would probably look something like this:40% 1st level25% 2nd level15% 3rd level10% 4th level4% 5th level3% 6th level2% 7th level1% 8th level or higherThings that can affect these numbers would be the length of the general enlistment period (2 years, 4 years, life, ?), how bad the losses have been in the past (lots of casualties = fewer high ranking soldiers left, low casualties = more high ranking ones left) or what kind of prestige soldiers garner (seen as heros by the general populace = willing to stay in the army longer, seen as bloodthirsty villains = get out as quick as they can).</blockquote>

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