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Originally Posted by JRRNeiklot  The heroes in D&D are gone do to the increasing power creep of the game. It's not heroic for an Eladrin to run out on a 3 inch wide ledge to rescue a child, after all, if he falls, he'll just teleport inside the building to safety. In 3e, a pc with a +30 swim check diving in a flooded river to do the same is still not heroic, he'll make the check on a one. It's just a stroll in the park to either of these guys. If it's a simple task, with little or no personal risk, there's nothing heroic about it. A hero is not Superman, he is a normal person, who manages to rise above the common folk due to courage. He may be a bit more skilled than the average Joe, but not amazingly so. That's the difference between 3e and later games and AD&D. A 1e first level character had a couple more hit points than a farmer, but otherwise, they were pretty much the same. He was a HERO because he chose to be, not because his hd was bigger. The mechanics nowadays don't support heroes. When pcs are just exponentially better than everyone else, it's not heroic to face down an ogre, it's just being mercenary. |
See, here is a problem with this mentality; it doesn't work the minute random probability (IE) dice work into the equation.
PCs face the lion-share of dice rolls; attacks, saves, etc. They will take more critical hits, fail more saves, and fall into more pit traps than any monster, farmer, or creature the DM runs. If these people are little-better than the farmers they're defending, you end up with the other end of D&D; kleenex-pcs that step up to the ogre, get killed in 1-2 blows, and are replaced by an equally disposable PC. Those superheroic bonuses (be it spells, superior ability score, or even the virtue of levels) are guards against the random power of the d20, who has a nasty habit of failing at dramatically appropriate moments that would turn a heroic act into a pointless waste.
If heroism is defined in the act, then yeah, my fighter with a +2 to swim is more heroic for jumping into the river to save a drowning child than a fighter with a +30. In a good fiction story, he'd rescue the kid by sheer luck and determination. In D&D, he's more likely roll poor and drown alongside the kid.
Meh, I'll take my Supermen. I get to play them longer.
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