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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue Orange" data-source="post: 8297608" data-attributes="member: 7025997">They most definitely did! If anything 1st ed had some of the most baroque leader tables under the character-type entries. Here's elves:"For every 20 elves in a band there will be one with above average fighting ability (2nd, or 3rd level). For every 40 elves encountered there will be one with this fighting ability plus 1st or 2nd level magic-user ability. If 100 or more elves are encountered there will be the following additional figures: a 4th level fighter/ 8th level magic-user, two 4th level fighter/ 5th level magic-user elves, and a  4th level fighter/ 4th level magic-user/ 4th level cleric. If over 160 elves are encountered their leaders will be a  6th level fighter/ 9th level magic-user, and a 6th level fighter/ 6th level magic-user/6th level cleric; and these leaders will have two special retainers each -4th level fighter/ 5th level magic-user, 3rd level fighter/ 3rd level magic-user/3rd level cleric.  These are also in addition to the group indicated. If encountered in their lair there will also be these extra figures: a 4th level fighter/7th level magic-user, a 4th level fighter for every 40 elves in the group,  a 2nd level fighter/2nd level magic-user/2nd level cleric for every 40 elves in the group, a 5th level fighter, a 6th level fighter, and females and young equal to 100% and 5% respectively."You can just see the 1979 DM trying to figure out if he should use the miniature with the wizard hat to represent the 4th level fighter/8th level magic-user or the 4th level fighter/4th level magic-user/4th level cleric.Or more likely saying "there you go again, Gary" and ignoring it.2e was pretty similar and in many cases had the same text. (For elves it was almost the same except that it dropped the figures at the end 'in lair', and noted that elven women were equal in combat and 5% of elf groups had 10-30 female fighters riding unicorns.) By 3e they had started whittling it down a bit. We get three sizes of group: company (2-4), squad (11-20 + 2 3rd level sergeants and 1 3rd-6th level leader), and band (30-100 plus 20% noncombatants plus 1 3rd-level sergeant per 10 adult, 5 5th-level lieutenants, and 3 7th level captains), with the note that most elves seen outside are fighters but leader-types are most often wizards. "Wait, you mean I don't have to remember if there's a 5th-level fighter/4th-level magic-user or a 4th-level fighter/5th-level magic-user anymore?"  4e had eladrin standing in for the original elves with nominal elves being the wood elves (and coming in 2nd level archer and 2nd level skirmisher), but the eladrin gives us the wonderfully poetic fey knight (level 7 soldier), twilight incanter (level 8 controller), bralani of autumn winds (level 19 controller), and ghaele of winter (level 21 controller). Much as everyone likes to complain about 4e they really do sound like creatures of the woodland who weave magic into their war like they do into everything else.5e has standard stat blocks for grunts and leader-types, which loses some of the flavor of "the monsters are just like you" IMHO but is probably much easier for DMs.</blockquote>

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