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[Lex Talionias]

i am building a new fort, well actually an above ground city. it's next to a river and i wanted to know if i would be safe living next to a big old river with no wall to on that side? i intend to be walled off but do i need to bother with the river or am i safe?

[ikkonoishi]

Okay I want you to look at the river, and then look at me. Now look at the river again, and back to me. Now look at the river, it is full of angry alligators and all your dwarves are dead.

Many creatures can cross rivers, but they are safer than nothing.

[Lex Talionias]

fair enough but goblins? elf armies? those kinda threats?

[rephikul]

river is very, very bad. It give you the illusion of safety then suddenly a FB swim through it then you are like OHFFFF-!! The only thing that guarantee safety is total wall in.

[Mystery]

I find rivers useful if they have no path leading down to them, like a giant reverse wall. It think they call that a moat. 

[Tai_MT]

I had a fort next to a river one time.  I still walled off the sides that touched the river, and eventually walled myself into the map...  But, the bridges I built over the wall did force land animals to path across the heavily trapped and marksdwarves guarded paths.

The problems with a river arise when you start encountering flying or swimming creatures.  Some goblins arrive with these, and then they just bypass all your traps and can sometimes go around your archery defenses...

A river provides safety from MOST ground creatures, but nothing more.

In previous versions it could be much safer (like where flying didn't work correctly so creatures like Dragons simply pathed on the ground instead of up and over a wall).

But, this is Dwarf Fortress, and it's never intended to make you COMPLETELY safe from ANY threat.  Enough of something show up, and your defenses will be worthless.  Although, its relatively quickly that your river becomes worthless as defense.  Usually after the fourth siege or so.

[Greiger]

Marksgobs will also happily fire their arrows over the river if they see somebody.  I don't trust rivers.  Just like how I don't trust trees.

[Fancy Admiral]

Also, if you have a biome which might freeze, that river becomes a huge liability in wintertime.  I've had a couple embarks where I consider the river "good enough" for the first couple of years while I'm building enough stone block walls to outline what will be a grand city, only to have the river freeze over at the end of the second year and ... Ambush!  I really would love to know the temp.  This should go on the z-stocks window, cover the whole month on average, and be vague ("Cold", "Almost Freezing", "Freezing", "Mild", "Hot", "Scorching").

But yeah, rivers are great in conjunction with walls right next to them.  Your marksdwarves atop a 2-high wall won't have things getting too close to hit, and the water is close at hand so a small bit of engineering brings some oft-needed (flowing!) water into your fort.  Just don't rely on them for everything.