Village defense

[Unoriginal]

But they will still get pillaged. People are afraid of orcs because your average commoner knows he has very poor chances of surviving an orc raid.

Worth noting that by 5e lore, commoners are actually pretty likely to survive an orc raid, because orcs generally raid for ressources and don't care for fights where they can't acquire glory and social status by showing off their might to other orcs.

So the farmer who let the orcs grab what they want unopposed is likely to survive, when the village guards who fight back aren't.

Doesn't make the experience more desirable, though. Just more survivable for non-combatants.

And of course from time to time the orcs aren't raiding for ressources and are actively going to massacre everyone/grab them to kill them later.

[Luccan]

Personally, I'd have the village hire a band of roughly 4-8 professional murderers specialists to clear out the orc problem

[KorvinStarmast]

I think that the inability to see in the dark is an important part of the makeup of the human species. It informs human culture.
Elves, when faced with threats, retreat to their forests. Dwarves do the same in their mountains. Humans, on the other hand, expand and colonise and overcome. Part of why humans are found everywhere is that they are scared of the dark. How do they deal with things that scare them? By attacking them head on,

... and then destroying them so that it doesn't happen again. And if necessary, salting the earth, putting the heads of their leaders on pikes that line the roads to their town/city/settlement, or building a mountain of skulls.
(I've been reading up on history of the Eastern Roman Empire of late, and Tamerlane, so these examples do come from actual humans ... )

How has halfling luck informed their way of life?

It's made some of them stupid bold enough to become killers for hire adventurers.

Life on the border ain't easy.

Or to use another term: life on the frontier ain't easy.

Personally, I'd have the village hire a band of roughly 4-8 professional murderers specialists to clear out the orc problem

All halflings. What could possibly go wrong? (Besides running out of food)

[Bardon]

I would argue that this one of the prime use cases of Continual Flame, which might be pricey in terms of initial investment but hardly unreasonable for a village to afford, and importantly carries no costs over time like regular lamps/torches would.

But magic aside, one or a few watchtowers in key locations ideally set up with bullseye/spotlight style light sources would be more efficient than scattering smaller, undirected lights along the perimeter.
Couple that with an audio alarm system like some hounds and a gong, horn or similar siren and that should be good enough for the occasional raid.

Though you'd still want some defensible walls to get everyone to safety, even if said walls dont necessarily protect any property.

If you're going for Continual Flame then it's worth it to get it upcast to 3rd level, which means that even if the orcs have a shaman/warlock/other spellcaster the Darkness spell won't overwhelm the Continual Flame.

From Darkness: "If any of this spell's area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled."

So with 3rd-level Continual Flame the Darkness cannot overwhelm it!

[KorvinStarmast]

So with 3rd-level Continual Flame the Darkness cannot overwhelm it!

I see that you are not the only person who uses this feature of cast at a higher level for a utility spell.