D&D 5E Why do cities in Faerun have fortified walls?

[Weiley31]

City: opens gate very slowly to peek out a bit after a knock is heard.

Dragon: I say, sorry to bother you chaps, but I just moved in on yonder from Henchthirst castle and was very curious within the community neighbor greeting customs. looks in book Are you familiar with the offering of the virginal sacrifice as tribute to recently moved in Draconic Welcoming Customs?

City sloooooooowly closes up as a very loud locking and bunch of chains are heard on the city's end. Disappointed with in the city's rude manner, the dragon turns around and begins to walk about, only to be met with a floating Nautiloid five feet away.

Mind Flayer: Greetings neighbor! We just mov-

Dragon: Oh don't bother, they shut the door on me and aren't very polite in their greeting customs.

Mind Flayer: Ah bugger me! Well, I guess might as well not make this a completely wasted trip. Want to see something smashing?

Dragon: Sure. waits for a bit Wow, that's an awfully big Brain you have there. Whatcha gonna d-

 

[Cruentus]

because no one has in the 50 years of D&D has made a campaign world with first thought to be how the world would evolve with magic...

I think that you see these walls and the whole medieval/renaissance skin over the fantasy elements in a lot of the official products - as some have mentioned, walls are there to show a certain aesthetic and define the 'setting', so to speak. They would still be useful against "mundane" enemies such as enemy armies, and what have you, assuming we are not talking about heavy magic use.

I think that in most depictions, a major city would have its own cadre of wizards who would be protecting the city, stopping creatures from flying over the walls or burrowing under them, etc. But that also assumes the normal FR levels of magic, which magic shops on every block and wizards colleges and guilds and such.

In my games, I tend to run a much lower magic level overall, so most people rarely ever see magic or encounter its effects. A King might have one as an advisor, there may be a short list of "well known" wizards out in the wilds, or rumors may swirl about some other entity or threat who wields magical powers. But even those are unlikely to be able to defeat an entire army or a walled city, at least not directly (oh, and of course, there would be that new wizard/spellcaster/whoever) in the party). In this instance, those walls have the same reasons as in the real world - keep enemies out, protect the surrounding lands, give the locals a place to retreat. But then, I also try to have a more grounded and logical world set, including what kinds of monsters would be there or not, would be local or not, or that might need to be defended against.

Dragons being the main threat as far as monsters, but if one did appear, the walls aren't really helping much. They're rare and they're nasty.

 

[S'mon]

My FR game is set in the aftermath of the 10-year Vaasa-Damara war, so the answer seems pretty obvious. Barbarian hordes like Vaasa's are a pretty constant threat, and where they're not there is intra-state and inter-state warfare.

 

[Seramus]

A while back I tried to game out the consequences of a world that had prevalent 5e magic. What I came up with was wizard-run police states (surveillance by arcane eyes and rat familiars, everything perma arcane-locked, perma big brother-esque magic mouths everywhere) that keep all of their important personnel in secure underground facilities, with lots redundant passageways to mitigate passwall and permanent mordenkainen's private sanctums everywhere. Otherwise, it's just too easy for the leadership to get assassinated by flying or teleporting enemies.

If you haven't already, you should look up the Tippyverse!

 

[Oofta]

Well, that's true if you skip the period of western military history from Assyrians to Romans that did have standing armies (or ignore Chinese history since the Han dynasty).

Let me rephrase: many countries did not maintain standing armies but ... yada, yada, yada. Depends on time period and region. The historical period that D&D typically kind-of-sort-of emulates did not generally have standing armies. The takeaway is that you don't need a standing army to have war. People are quite creative when figuring out how to slaughter each other in mass quantities..

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Casually Nude Fridays are a lot less embarrassing when it’s only your neighbors watching

 

[Malmuria]

Behold, Waterdeep, City of Splendors:

 

[Parmandur]

Unless your walls somehow project a mostly transparent magical dome above the city. Which, in a fantasy setting, may very well happen.

Waterdeep does, in fact, have that.

 

[squibbles]

If you haven't already, you should look up the Tippyverse!

Yeah, I have (link for those unfamiliar). It always felt overly rules technical in an unfun way to me--with its create food and water traps--in the same way that 3e is rules heavy in general.

I would love to see something similar for 5e. There have been threads about continual flame and magic missile on these boards but, to my knowledge, nothing as complete as the tippyverse.

Let me rephrase: many countries did not maintain standing armies but ... yada, yada, yada. Depends on time period and region. The historical period that D&D typically kind-of-sort-of emulates did not generally have standing armies. The takeaway is that you don't need a standing army to have war. People are quite creative when figuring out how to slaughter each other in mass quantities..

Yeah, I don't disagree with the point... rather, I couldn't help myself from being an internet pedant and no actually-ing you about it.

 

[Ixal]

Let me rephrase: many countries did not maintain standing armies but ... yada, yada, yada. Depends on time period and region. The historical period that D&D typically kind-of-sort-of emulates did not generally have standing armies. The takeaway is that you don't need a standing army to have war. People are quite creative when figuring out how to slaughter each other in mass quantities..

Depends on your definition of standing.
There were countries which had permanent mercenary retainers. Also, in a feudal society every land holding noble had household guards/soldiers ranging from a few men for lower/poor ones up to several hundred or even thousand. And in the case of a war those were of course used as soldiers, in addition to raised militia and other civilians with military obligations.