D&D 5E What Does a Strength 20 Look Like (In Real Life)?

[CleverNickName]

(A fitness/athletics appreciation thread)

According to the Player's Handbook:
When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot before the jump. This rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn't matter, such as jumping across a stream. No ability check, no dice rolls, no feats or proficiency bonuses or anything. Distance = Strength score.

So here's Mike Powell completing an 8.95 meter (29.4 foot) long jump. This is what a Strength score of 29 looks like in real life:

Incredible.

How about we consider a more obvious real-world analog: the amount of weight a person can lift. According to the Player's Handbook:
Your Strength score determines the amount of weight you can bear. You can push, drag, or lift a weight in pounds up to twice your carrying capacity, or 30 times your Strength score. Again, no checks needed, no dice are rolled, no bonuses are applied. Strength = Pounds lifted/30.

The world record for deadlift is 501kg, or 1104.5 lbs., set by Hafthor Bjornsson (1104.5/30=36.8) So here's what a Strength of 37 looks like in real life:

Awesome. A Dragon Turtle only has a Strength of what, 25? Pathetic.

This kind of paints my Mountain Dwarf Barbarian in a completely new light.

 

[Willie the Duck]

So here's Mike Powell completing an 8.95 meter (29.4 foot) long jump. This is what a Strength score of 29 looks like in real life:

I mean, literally not. That's someone making a DC 30 Athletics check. You can jump your Str in feet after 10' movement without making a roll. However, There are additional Jump rules in the Athletics section of the using ability rules:
"Athletics
Your Strength (Athletics) check covers difficult situations you encounter while climbing, jumping, or swimming. Examples include the following activities:

• You try to jump an unusually long distance or pull off a stunt midjump."

How about we consider a more obvious real-world analog: the amount of weight a person can lift. According to the Player's Handbook:
Your Strength score determines the amount of weight you can bear. You can push, drag, or lift a weight in pounds up to twice your carrying capacity, or 30 times your Strength score.

The world record for deadlift is 501kg, or 1104.5 lbs., set by Hafthor Bjornsson (1104.5/30=36.8) So here's what a Strength of 37 looks like in real life:

This one is a little trickier, as there aren't specific extra-lifting/dragging rules (despite every DM I've run into doing so, since Athletics covering being able to tip over a statue or keep a boulder from rolling but not pushing the statue not-over or rolling a boulder when you want to seems odd). Here though, the formula overall seems out of whack on many levels, not just the maximum Str 20 can achieve. Someone can routinely walk around with at only a 1/3 speed reduction (max carrying capacity) half of the max they can push, drag, or lift*? That seems off. I doubt Bjornsson can walk around for hours at a time with 250 KG of gear disbursed across his body.
*I'm also not convinced that this corresponds to a deadlift, but that's neither here nor there.
**I also think Bjornsson, if rendered in D&D terms, would have Powerful Build somehow. Also neither here nor there.

Awesome. A Dragon Turtle only has a Strength of what, 25? Pathetic.

I'll agree that D&D in general and 5e in particular have chosen a number of... interesting conceits in the interest of playability. However, this is expecting a formula meant for a range and judging it well outside of that range. All it tells me is that Dragon Turtles and other large monsters maybe ought not be measured with the same scale as PC (or some massively multiple levels of Powerful Build should be mentioned to square the circle on their carrying capacity).

GURPS 3E was a good example of the dangers of trying to force these concerns as being important -- high level strength, like all attributes over a certain point, cost 25 points per attribute point (but the lifting formula was static). Thus trying to build superheroes with reasonable lifting capacity meant thousand point characters with nothing but a high Str score. Enter about five different fixes, none of which were very satisfying. 5e's 'don't look too closely/think about it too much' solution isn't great, but it's better than hyper-focusing on it for such an edge case.

 

[Cruentus]

How about we consider a more obvious real-world analog: the amount of weight a person can lift. According to the Player's Handbook:
Your Strength score determines the amount of weight you can bear. You can push, drag, or lift a weight in pounds up to twice your carrying capacity, or 30 times your Strength score.

The world record for deadlift is 501kg, or 1104.5 lbs., set by Hafthor Bjornsson (1104.5/30=36.8) So here's what a Strength of 37 looks like in real life:

Awesome. A Dragon Turtle only has a Strength of what, 25? Pathetic.

This kind of paints my Mountain Dwarf Barbarian in a completely new light.

Talk about ability score inflation. The 2e Players Handbook lists 1,130lbs Maximum PRESS as a Str 23. So if Mr. Bjornsson can get that over his head and hold it, he'd have a 23...

Continuing, anyone in 2e can Jump (Broad Jump) with the non-weapon Jumping Proficiency. To get to that distance, you'd have to roll 2d6 + Level to get the number of feet for your broad jump. So Mr. Powell is either 17th level and rolled boxcars, or is 22nd level and rolled an average of 7. But apparently strength had nothing to do with it, just proficiency and being high enough level...

And while I'm joking, both of those are amazing human accomplishments

 

[CleverNickName]

Talk about ability score inflation. The 2e Players Handbook lists 1,130lbs Maximum PRESS as a Str 23. So if Mr. Bjornsson can get that over his head and hold it, he'd have a 23...

Can't comment on the jump though. That's crazy far.

I KNOW RIGHT?! That's bananas!

And while I'm joking, both of those are amazing human accomplishments

The point of the thread wasn't really to make fun of the game mechanics (too easy of a target, IMO). I wanted it to be an athletics/fitness appreciation thread. Hafthor's record-breaking lift somehow looks even more impressive when compared to imaginary dragons.

 

[Cruentus]

The point of the thread wasn't really to make fun of the game mechanics (too easy of a target, IMO). I wanted it to be an athletics/fitness appreciation thread. Hafthor's record-breaking lift somehow looks even more impressive even when compared to imaginary dragons.

He'd be super helpful getting the hoard away from the Dragon's lair too...

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The lift and other feat of strength math is completely bonkers. One would imagine that some epic fantasy badasses could at least match the accomplishments of completely mundane real life athletes, but no, not even close!

 

[Zubatcarteira]

Mike Powell could have a feature similar to Step of the Wind, that doubles jumping distance.

Bjornsson probably has the Powerful Build feature, so around 19 strength makes sense.

 

[pukunui]

The real question is: Can Mike Powell jump that far while wearing full plate and carrying a backpack full of supplies, a small arsenal of weapons, and the party halfling on his back?

 

[CleverNickName]

And while we're on the subject, how about Constitution?

The Player's Handbook says you can hold your breath for a number of minutes equal to 1 + your Constitution modifier. Without training, most of us can manage about 90 seconds underwater before needing to take a breath...so most of us have a Constitution score of 10-13, which sounds about right.

Well. On 28 February 2016, Spain's Aleix Segura Vendrell achieved the world record for breath-holding, with a time of 24 minutes. That's a Constitution modifier of +23, which means his Constitution score is at least 56.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

I was gonna say he's very clearly a lizardman in disguise, but even they can only hold it for 15 minutes, so he really got me beat there.