What Level is a Guardsman?

[S'mon]

Um, wasnt Gondor under constant attacks and had lost cities already?

Those were battle-hardened veterans and way above level 2 or 3 IMO. At least level 4 of not 5.

Depending on the edition a bit, but 2nd or 3rd level PC-class is usually well into 'battle hardened veteran' territory. According to 1e, typical soldier is F0. In Basic, mostly F1. In 3e, DMG says War-1. So Fighter-3s are much tougher than average; they're a fair match for an Ogre!

If you have green troops as Ftr 2s though then obviously veterans will be higher level.

 

[Snoweel]

If you have green troops as Ftr 2s though then obviously veterans will be higher level.

You wouldn't make them fighters; that would make them elite soldiers.

In 4e you would just make them normal soldiers. Minions at higher levels.

 

[Betote]

It really depends on where and how is the town. For your standard village in the middle of nowhere, just 1st-level warrior with a couple 2nd-3rd-lvl warriors and a 4th-level fighter as sheriff.

In big cities, mostly 1st-2nd level fighters with a 4-th level fighter/rogue as sergeant.

In places where a tough elite garrison is expected (a frontier keep or the palace guard), I'd have 4th-6th level fighters and a 8th-10th level captain.

I'm frontally against balancing background NPCs depending on the power level of the PCs.

 

[Delta]

Those were battle-hardened veterans and way above level 2 or 3 IMO. At least level 4 of not 5.

See, one of the funny things is that if you look at Classic D&D (OD&D, 1E, BXCMI), a battle-hardened "veteran" is literally used as the definition for someone being a 1st-level Fighter.

So at least in those rulesets you have to be radically redefining what levels even mean if you think bodies of mercenaries (army soldiers, city guard, whatever) are going to be above 1st-level.

 

[haakon1]

Typical in 3.x for me is a Warrior 1.

In AD&D, a 0 level warrior type.

 

[S'mon]

OD&D/Classis 1e, AIR:

Fighter 1 - Veteran
Fighter 2 - Warrior
Fighter 3 - Swordmaster (I replace with Axemaster etc as appropriate)
Fighter 4 - Hero

 

[Shades of Green]

With good gear, teamwork, and defensive positions, wouldn't even level-1 warriors be able to defeat a goblin/orc/kobold/zombie/hobgoblin etc gang even if the said gang outnumbers them a bit?

 

[Jack99]

I know we've had this out before, but I still can't figure out why PCs over 10th level are wasting their time fighting city guards ...

If Paragon-tier PCs want a good encounter maybe they should go find some giants to fight.

I play 4e and I agree. This is one 4e rule that I have chosen to disregard.

 

[Allister]

See, one of the funny things is that if you look at Classic D&D (OD&D, 1E, BXCMI), a battle-hardened "veteran" is literally used as the definition for someone being a 1st-level Fighter.

So at least in those rulesets you have to be radically redefining what levels even mean if you think bodies of mercenaries (army soldiers, city guard, whatever) are going to be above 1st-level.

Which I disagree with.

The soldiers of Gondor were under CONSTANT attack and we;re constantly being pushed back.

How can they be considered 1st level? Otherwise, this leaves no room for the those guards from non-warfare entrenched cities to be statted.

 

[Starglim]

With good gear, teamwork, and defensive positions, wouldn't even level-1 warriors be able to defeat a goblin/orc/kobold/zombie/hobgoblin etc gang even if the said gang outnumbers them a bit?

Well, yeah, if the guards enjoyed all of those advantages and were not too badly outnumbered, that would very likely be true, though with their low attack bonuses and hit points it wouldn't be a foregone conclusion.