Board Thread:Suggestions Forum/@comment-4750818-20150208133120/@comment-27723099-20150225231647

The armour makes them stronger but there are less orcs than zombies and skeletons and you don't have to deal with creepers. Friendly NPCs help you too. No, vanilla nights are definitely harder than LOTR nights.

I would generally say that vanillla is harder than LOTR. In vanilla you are only save if you are at home (if you have a home). In LOTR you are completely save in most biomes and absolutely save if you are not hostile to any faction. You will only encounter real challenges if you invade hostile biomes.