Guards.... what level to have them at?

[Bellberith]

So what level guards would you have for your city?

what level guards would you have for the king of a city or region? Like the "royal guard" or something.

And what level would the king himself be? (varies based on societies of course. ones ruled by strength vs ones ruled by politics/bloodline)

If there is something in the books that details this aside from personal preference please link/quote.

[Pan151]

Well, what setting are you in and what kind of city is that?

Because if we're talking something like a major city in Forgotten Realms, even Epic-level fighters are not out of the question as far as guards are concerned...

[OldTrees1]

Guards should be a level that is reasonable for what they encounter.

So what do these guards face?
Are they the personal wartime bodyguards that have to fend off the invading army's champions?
Are they the guards that have to hinder assassinations?
Are they the guards that have to protect the keep from orc raids?
Or are they the guards that have to watch out for hot soup?

I prefer legendary (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/legendLore.htm) Royal Guards and legendary (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/legendLore.htm) Royalty. So I have the Guards be ECL 11 and the King be ECL 15. However this is with non-casters being the baseline. An unbalanced caster would need to be much lower level in order to be equivalent.

[nedz]

This is largely Game and Setting dependant — though there are many circumstance factors too.
They can be any level from 1 to Epic — depending on context.

[JellyPooga]

Personally, the only City Guard I ever actually bothered to stat out fully was actually a number of mercenary companies employed by the four ruling merchant families of the city to keep the peace, via a shadowy and ambiguous character who kept them all in line through various intrigues and plots which the PCs were meant to become involved in.

Each company was set over a separate district in the city and each had to comply with certain regulations regarding the law, recruitment, etc. Other than that, they had free reign to enforce the law whatever way they wished. Obviously, should a company start thinking itself too big for its boots, the leader (I forget his name now, which is really bugging me!) would set several other companies against it to beat it back into submission. Fear of such reprisal kept any one company from becoming too strong.

Using this kind of system, you can have city guards be a variety of strengths and styles; perhaps one company is made up entirely of monstrous races; low level, but physically powerful. Or another have an excellent, if rigorous (and lethal) training program, leading to small numbers but highly professional (well built and high level). Another yet could enforce the law through manipulation of information; no visible presence on the streets as such, but a plethora of spies to gather blackmail material and such. The sky's the limit.

[jjcrpntr]

Guards should be a level that is reasonable for what they encounter.

So what do these guards face?
Are they the personal wartime bodyguards that have to fend off the invading army's champions?
Are they the guards that have to hinder assassinations?
Are they the guards that have to protect the keep from orc raids?
Or are they the guards that have to watch out for hot soup?

I prefer legendary (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/legendLore.htm) Royal Guards and legendary (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/legendLore.htm) Royalty. So I have the Guards be ECL 11 and the King be ECL 15. However this is with non-casters being the baseline. An unbalanced caster would need to be much lower level in order to be equivalent.

I agree with this. In my campaign the PC's got to a city very early (level 3) that was under attack by Orcs. One of the players suggested that they could just take over the city and find whatever it was the orcs were looking for and then kill the orcs and get the xp for that AND end up with the special thing the orcs were looking for. Not bad for a party of non-evil players right? Anyway, the player was talking to the other players and telling them that town guards are only lvl 1, usually only have 10-15hp and they could easily take it. Thankfully they didn't try it. If the PC's are encountering cr5 monsters in the wilderness around the town then the guards need to be at least high enough level to hold the monsters back. If the guards are all level 9 then to the PC's it just looks like they are lazy and they don't to deal with the monsters. If the guards are all level 1 then it doesn't make sense why the monsters haven't just rolled in and killed everyone yet.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

DMG page 139 has tables for determining the highest-level locals in a settlement of a given size. There are always twice as many at half the level of the highest-level, twice as many at half of their level, twice as many as the previous group, etc. For odd-numbered levels, I round one up and one down, so a 5th level NPC results in the next group being one 3rd and one 2nd, and that 3rd level NPC results in one 2nd and one 1st. Typically the town guard and/or militia is made up of most of the community's warriors, while the remaining warriors work as bouncers, bodyguards, thugs, etc. Note that NPCs with levels of Fighter and similar classes will most likely fill leadership roles within the guard/militia.

Half of the NPCs with levels in PC classes should be of a sufficient level and strength as a group to take on just about any wandering monsters that may happen upon the community, given the region's EL. If this is not the case, then consider that maybe this community would have been considerably larger, but its citizens are often killed due to living in such a dangerous area, and use a higher community modifier for the highest level NPCs. The town guard/militia is responsible for policing and protecting the community's own citizens from each other, and from plunderers such as orcs and goblins. The occasional strong wandering monster should be beyond their capabilities, forcing them to call on the powerful and capable heroes within the community.

[I3igAl]

So what level guards would you have for your city?

what level guards would you have for the king of a city or region? Like the "royal guard" or something.

And what level would the king himself be? (varies based on societies of course. ones ruled by strength vs ones ruled by politics/bloodline)

If there is something in the books that details this aside from personal preference please link/quote.

Normally Warrior lvl 1-2.

If it's some feared Barbarian tribe or some other special culture, like dark Elves up to lvl 4.

In some Planar I'd obviously be the fitting outsiders. Barbazu's make great devil guardsmen.

Then there are special elite units like the royal guard, who would be anything from lvl 4-16 depending on the kingdom's size and the unit itself.

The king can be any lvl really. While weak kings don't really work out well mechanically in D&D- due to a lack of social skill ranks etc - useless kings are too often in fiction to just be ignored.

[Cicciograna]

It depends from the level of threat they have to face on a daily basis, which in turn can be related to the general alignment of the population of the city they are stationed into, and of the main power that are at work in said city.
If the general alignment is Lawful-ish Good-ish then guards have to face little trouble, then they won't have many chances to gain experience: thus their level would be quite low, 1st or 2nd top.
If, OTOH, the population is prone to break the law and commit acts that go against the well being of the city, the guards wil have to be both more reactive to face the challenges and proactive to prevent them: this means that their level is going to be higher.
Moreover, even if in a generally Lawful Good city there's an enclave of thieves led by a cruel Assassin; a dark cult of an Evil God whose aim is to corrupt the souls of the citizen; and a secret cell of monsters guided by an Aboleth who wants to enslave the citizen, then the guards are going to be VERY busy, which means that their level will skyrocket.

Okay, this last example is more in the league of a band of POWERFUL adventurers than in the one of a city guard, but it's just to explain my point: the level of the guards is related to their environment.
In my games, small, quiet cities sponsor low level guards, 1st or 2nd level, and 3rd for the sheriff/leader of the militia/wathever. The city guard of a town with a mid to high crime rate would be at around 4th or 5th level. The guards in a sprawling city with many power centers (many of troublesome alignments) with a high organized crime level, maybe in an area subject to pirate attacks or the like, they could be even 9th to 10th level, but that is the exception.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Low level, but the ones who have to deal with stronger threats are optimized. A low-mid level bard watch captain with a dozen warrior meat shields and a few score commoner slingers can wreck most random things coming out of the woods.

[Vogonjeltz]

So what level guards would you have for your city?

what level guards would you have for the king of a city or region? Like the "royal guard" or something.

And what level would the king himself be? (varies based on societies of course. ones ruled by strength vs ones ruled by politics/bloodline)

If there is something in the books that details this aside from personal preference please link/quote.


I'd usually default to the standard levels. But, if the party for no reason at all decides to go GTA on the place, I might start sending in higher level opponents to provide more of a challenge. (i.e. the local Wizard or Adventurer's Guild takes an interest in someone wrecking up the place).

Details on world building and NPC levels are provided in the DMG, and if I recall correctly, Cityscape has information on guards, Heroes of Battle information on armies (which includes elite units).

[Andreaz]

I'd usually default to the standard levels. But, if the party for no reason at all decides to go GTA on the place, I might start sending in higher level opponents to provide more of a challenge. (i.e. the local Wizard or Adventurer's Guild takes an interest in someone wrecking up the place).

Details on world building and NPC levels are provided in the DMG, and if I recall correctly, Cityscape has information on guards, Heroes of Battle information on armies (which includes elite units).

Given player characters tend to be exceptional, they'll often be above the level of the guards around (guards, to be useful, are strong enough to deal with the region's daily threats!)
So if the friendly neighborhood murderhobo decides to stop being friendly, there's a legitimate chance he or she will thrash the place around.
Let them. Survivors will report, an entire town goes missing? If it was small enough to be little more than a ghost town, that's what it'll become. If it was big enough to matter someone will investigate.

And send groups to hunt them down.


And of course that's just the threat.
WHY would a character act in such manner?

[Eldariel]

Depends on the world, as everyone has said. If the world has a sufficient aggressive Dragon population (or Illithid or Mind Flayer or whatever) to require the cities to need enough power to scare them away or straight-up defeat their attacks, the guard will have to be extremely powerful. This leads to PCs having less power-work and more finesse-work in city (city guard can't really get involved in certain types of politicking for instance, not officially anyways), and then jobs outside the city (nobody sends the city guard to look for that crypt in the mountains, particularly if the city is at a constant risk). A more Eberron-like world will survive with a much lower overall level. Either way, in my books it's just a factor of what's necessary for the game world to make sense. Your players can find work no matter what, so it's mostly up to simulating the kind of world the game makes sense in.

Of course, it's worth noting that for non-casters, level doesn't mean all that much. A level 16 Fighter isn't significantly different from a level 9 Fighter aside from the magic items, which you can of course give heedless to any limitations since you're the DM so that difference doesn't really even exist beyond the individual characters' histories. For casters, it's a much bigger deal of course and indeed, the presence or absence of (even a small number of) high level casters shapes the world.

[Umbranar]

As most above say, it depends on the setting and the kind of game your playing.
In the campaign I am currently running (War of the Burning Sky which is high magic and has many higher level characters) most standard soldiers are level 4 fighters or similar. The Royal guards of a king are about level 10 with descent magical gear. The elite troops of the elves are level 13 (fighter, wizard, eldrith knight).

There is not much need for a descent city guard to keep my players in check since they work together with these people to fight a huge army. My PCs are now level 19 and near the final climatic battle.