I think it's quite a leap to go from "adventurers wandering the countryside have a 10% chance of an encounter" to "monsters attack farms twice daily." Even if a monster attack only had a 1% chance of killing one person, monsters would kill seven people per year. Real raids, which you'd expect to kill multiple people, would wipe out a 1,000-person community in a few months.
Not when there's 9th level commoners, 8th level warriors, a bard, a cleric, a druid, 2 fighters, and a barbarian to handle them. And that's if none of the others pop up.
These people have XP. These people have levels. They have healers. Much of the time, they wound the goblins, beat up the gnolls, and let them maybe raid a barn in exchange for their lives. They have losses, but at that 1% chance, those 7 people/year, those are more than made up for by the births in the community.
You are overlooking how powerful Cure Minor Wounds is when used on commoners with d4 hit points. The 2nd level cleric has access to 2 CLW and 4 CmW. A CmW spell will stabilize someone who is dying. Thus the cleric could hit the guy run over by a horse with CmW and use normal healing to bring him back up to normal health. In a pinch, he can stabilize 6 wounded people till morning.
The peasants fighting off the hordes don't have 1d4 hp. They've got 9d4 (still small, but significantly better). They've got 6d8. They've got the occasional 2d6. CmW is useful to stop death, CLW is useful during the thick of those nightly raids.
Also, this priest needs an 11 Wis to cast 1st level spells. Wouldn't a good percentage of 2nd level priest have a slightly higher Wis? Some of these thrope and hamlets have a 2nd level priest with a 12 Wis and thus he can do 3 CLWs a day.
No, they wouldn't. 'average' NPC stats are 10's or 11's, plus racial modifiers. No race in the PHB has a bonus to Intelligence, Charisma, or Wisdom. All spellcasters, even those with PC classes, are limited to 1st level spells. A few (maybe 5%) might have 'elite' stats, but all those really do is make him better at keeping the militia alive. The real benefit is the scrolls of
cure light wounds that he can produce, since those give him extra castings of the spell for emergencies, for tough encounters, etc.
Right, because after casting a spell, or channeling energy the cleric is exhausted (-6 str/dex). Er, no, maybe fatigued (-2 str/dex), er no again. He has a penalty to his next action. Er, no, none whatsoever.
Well, weapon-weilders don't get those penalties either, but it's pretty exhausting swinging around a 6' hunk of sharp metal all day, isn't it? Just because there is no mechanical penalty doesn't mean that they're as hale and healthy as when they started...
If so much of the population is as poor as this thread assumes, where the heck do all the critters get all their magic items and treasure from? Assuming you use the treasure tables in the DMG. Surely they get that kind of treasure by raiding normal towns. Are there that many adventurers that lose their stuff to the baddies?
They don't get treasure from towns, though they may get food...they get treasure from their lairs, namely, the dungeons. That's where the Ancient Cities kept their stuff, but if the Ancient Cities fell, then they're just chillin' there with all that magic waiting to be harvested...monsters collect this not to buy things, but to consoslidate power.
First, I decided that the smaller communities are basically unsustainable on their own. They simply cannot survive, as the first random hostile creature to pass through will wipe them out. In addition to the physical danger posed by hostile creatures, there is the economic factor. How can a thorp produce all the goods and services needed for long-term survival? The inhabitants simply don't have the skills.
The little magic the town does have is 100% dedicated to making the town sustainable, I think....+1 to your Profession (farmer) roles isn't a bit of extra, it's a nessecity when beasts strike.
Just because he uses a pitchfork everyday does not mean that he can't use without minus one simple weapon. sickle, dagge, mace,club, short spear etc.
So what would happen is even the village is getting attack twice a day. There would be a bump in xp for all adults responsing to the goblin gong. And after a while it would have arguements or fights about who gets first shot at the goblin. Papa Piratecat would cry the teenagers and Astreix took more than their fair share last attack.
It a great begining. and Does point the pcs and npc start out as the college grads of the universe and become the rock stars, donald trumps of the world.
Indeed, the militia will probably have clubs, spears, quarterstaffs....and the knights the king says in will be even better equipped.
And I don't think peasants (or anyone in the campaign world) are very aware of XP as a tangible effect. All they know is that Toothless Joe has survived more goblin attacks than any of the whippersnappers out there, has got the scars to prove it, and obviously isn't a pushover, even though he's never done anything but farm beets his entire life.
