I don't get the arguments for bioessentialism

[Bagpuss]

The examples the OP gives are not a problem. Bioessentialism becomes problematic when two things happen:

1. The essentialism is about being "the bad guy" such that it's ok to kill them on sight (evil Drow, evil Orcs, etc).
2. The way that evilness is portrayed is by using tropes that have historically been used as an excuse to exterminate and enslave other people.

I agree esspecially about it being "problematic", ie just something that is difficult to handle, not something that has to necessarily be avoided completely.

 

[Guest 4770]

This thread has converted me.

From now on, Foxes, Dogs and Wolves all have the same HD.

 

[Umbran]

This thread has converted me.

From now on, Foxes, Dogs and Wolves all have the same HD.

Mod note:
Folks,

Resurrecting a months-dormant thread to get snarky at it doesn't look nearly as cool as you might think it does.
If folks don't plan to continue in a constructive manner, please reconsider continuing at all. Thanks.

 

[Faolyn]

This thread has converted me.

From now on, Foxes, Dogs and Wolves all have the same HD.

In all seriousness, since there's no way to adequately represent real-life damage in a game (simply because there are so many different bits here), yes, they would. In real life, a well-placed shot would automatically kill any of those. So unless real-life people are critting all the time, yes, you could count them as having the same HD. And in some games, they'd just be represented with a single statblock, if that. In Daggerheart, there's a Tier 1 Dire Wolf statblock, but no regular wolf, dog, or fox statblock, because Tier 1 is as low as you can go. If the PCs need to fight one of them, the GM would almost certainly just let the PC kill it.

In game terms, and going back to humanoids, there's also no way to adequately represent any actual physical (or mental) differences between races/species/whatever in a d20 system. A +/-2 to a stat--a 5% increase or decrease--is in no way going to represent the difference between a Small and Medium humanoid. Or a smart and dumb humanoid. You'd need, like, a +/-10 or more. And that is obviously game-breaking.