I think you misunderstand what I was getting at, Damon. I'm thinking of Orc tribes similarly. I said in *human* or *demi-human* societies, you have 1st level leaders and lots of more powerful people running around who aren't the leaders.
In ORC society (or theoretically many Chaotic Evil societies), it doesn't work like that. The leaders are the MOST powerful, because they've fought their way to the top. And yes, they keep fighting once they get there to maintain their position.
So I was saying that in Orc society, higher level orcs are the tribal leaders and the warband leaders. And yes, they have some more powerful underlings. But I'm thinking that the underbosses wouldn't be TOO powerful, or they become a threat to the leader, and then the big boss has no qualms about squishing them to a) prove his own prowess and right to continue being the leader, and b) eliminate potential or actual challengers.
But unlike regular "structured" societies, like the early germanic tribes you mention, I'm not sure the highest level orc necessarily attracts others due to his fighting prowess and "largesse".
In a Chaotic Evil society, the biggest strongest orc rules as a despot, by intimidation and violence mostly. When that violence is mostly turned outward, on humans or demihumans, the tribe gets stronger, with less infighting. But let that outside threat diminish, and it's right back to regular, if not constant threats to the established pecking order.
The promise of raiding and pillaging will pull in other powerful warriors, but only so long as there's actual raiding and pillaging. If there's a long enough lull (prob not too long either), then those other warriors either leave, are made to leave, or start infighting to establish dominance.
Now you can have a semblance of order imposed by a sufficiently powerful leader, ala Turrosh Mak. But lets say that he's 20th level. How many 18th level orcs are there? a dozen? a score? How many of them think that, 'hey, if grak and hruk and rtar and bob and i gang up, i bet we can kill turrosh mak. and then we could all be big chiefs. and then i'd kill grak in his sleep and kill hruk with poison ...' and so on. Or how many of the 18th level guys say, 'hmmm, if i kill hruck and grak, then there are only 2 others as powerful as i am. that means i get more and better stuff. i know we're not supposed to fight each other too much but if i look cross-eyed at grak, he'll HAVE to fight me to the death!'.
So, to skip ahead a few steps, the relative power of orcs found 'out and about' depends on how powerful the top orc is. And that top orc better be significantly more powerful than his closest warlords, to prevent them from getting uppity. And so on down the line.
So you might have something like:
20th level - 1
17th level - 5
15th level - 15
12th level - 25
10th level - 35
8th level - 75
6th level - 100
Now the numbers are just for example, so don't get hung up on them.
What I'm checking though, is that everyone buys into and accepts that you guys *could* run into lots of groups of 10-12th level orcs, and you don't think it's goofy or too powerful or "that's not the way it would work, bob".
capish?
Lars Porsenna wrote:In such a society, the most powerful will naturally become the leaders, as they have the greatest fighting ability. Additionally, the strongest, most powerful will attract the best fighters in the neighbourhood, attracted to his strength and largesse.
So no, I really don't see tribes of orcs lead by 1st level chieftains. In such tribes that 1st level heir to the current strong man (orc?) would have to prove himself fast, or find his position usurped by a challenger or his tribe melt away to neighboring tribes. Instead, I see tribes lead by high level orcs, with slightly less powerful warbands, and the vast mass made up of those 1-3rd level mooks...