How can heroes teach farmers to defend themselves in typical

Hectopeasants.

>>52820823
Just like real life,

Spears, trenches, anti horse stakes, chokepoints, fire and bows.

Don't need much more.

So let's assume my character is a match for young dragons in this scenario, at least when part of a team. A Young Green Dragon is CR 8 or a challenging encounter for 4 level 6s.

Unless we're in 5e or another non-D&D bounded accuracy system it's not really about training the villagers. The amount of training the villagers need to be a match for the dragon is far too much for training to take a reasonable amount of time. What we need to do is find those among them who are already higher power, be them NPC classes or PC classes.

Let's say this is a size able town, some 600 people live here. Likely among them there are NPCs around level 4-6 and at least 1-3 people with PC levels.

We take those and train them. Narrowing it down helps us train them faster and more effectively. However unlike normal training we're just going to take them into live fire practice. We locate the closest area of interest, be in a goblin warren, basilisk nest, or otherwise and set about having the PCs and the NPCs eradicating it.

We repeat the location of interest busting until we think they can take the green dragon or at least deter it from attacking. Not only are there now less monsters near the town but they are more able to defend themselves.

This is of course speaking from the perspective of an adventurer, there would be better ways as a governmental body.

>>52820823
The right of conscription.

>>52820823
It basically comes down to being more hassle than they're worth.

If a Dragon or an army or something like that wants some random village dead, sucks to be that village. That said, "some random village" is probably not going to be of particular interest to something/someone like that.

If some bandits want free food, then you get into situations where training the villagers becomes relevant.

If your setting has a ton of high level threats wandering around murderfucking villages, there are only a few possibilities.
1: the small villages all get wiped out
2: the army or some sort of hero-types beat the monsters back so the villages can survive
3: the villages consolidate into fortress-cities (or at least larger fortress-towns) and use fortifications + numbers to keep the high level stuff away.
4: hero-types might get into the habit of living in these small villages and protecting them, either during their adventuring careers or after retirement

In all situations except #2 the regular bandits would probably get murderfucked too, so they're not really an issue if villages have to regularly deal with Dragons and whatever.

Train them in Spears and formations. Since Archery was good for hunting and common sport,
in certain kingdoms enforces, you should also plenty of archers around. Don't bother with teaching them swords or more complicated weapons unless you got 4 years of training in your hands.

>>52820823
When in doubt, mace.

If there's enough dragons and liches to routinely harrass villages, then any village that's survived this far already has a decent bunch of leveled characters. Just gather those guys together, give them some of the magic items since you're of course carrying so many of those, come up with some plan, then wait for the villain to show up.

>>52820823

>Teaching farmers to fight.

Why? That's what knights and feudal lords are for.

>>52820960
>Train them in Spears and formations. Since Archery was good for hunting and common sport,
Fortifications don't protect you from a dragon because it flies.

>>52820986
Could be that there is one dragon who demands tribute every so often and is bleeding the village dry. It would make sense if it was a LE dragon like a Blue or Green.

>>52821028
>It doesn't work against dragons so it's useless

Infantrymen don't protect against nukes.
It doesn't mean you don't want some.

>>52820896
this is basically how it works in Seven Samurai, get one or two bandits on their own, then mob and stab them

Barricades, pits, anti-cav spikes, pike and crossbow formations

Have a line of pikemen/spearmen/pitchforkmen/long pointy stickmen in front, behind a barricade, with long knives/axes/clubs as backup weapons. Behind them place a line of alternating pikemen and crossbowmen or bowmen, who can fire point blank at the enemy, and the secondary pikemen can cover gaps where the front line men are killed.

Congrats, you taught your peasants the best medieval warfare strategy in existence. The only problem is if you are flanked or attacked from the rear, but barricades should be used to guide enemies through a narrow alley thermopalye style where they will be most vulnerable.

If there are dragons or monsters routinely attacking villages in your setting, there will either be higher leveled npcs in the villages that survive, or people would have flocked into walled cities for protection.

>>52823220
Seven Samurai also addresses disincentives for teaching this to commoners; it works better on adventurers than anybody else. Also how a village plausibly gets the equipment they're offering.

>>52820823
Well, if we're assuming a feudal system than there should be a fucking local militia established already and the able-bodied men should have some training, yes?

From there it's just making sure the non-coms know what to do and giving leadership to the militia.

And what >>52820896 and >>52823382 said