D&D General Could a real human survive your D&D adventures?

[Horwath]

That's the crux of the problem. We haven't defined what constitutes as "real normal human". Classed systems like D&D, which focus on narrow horizontal growth, are notoriously bad for stating out normal humans. I could make reasonable approximation of my friend group in WoD or GURPS, but in D&D, that's a challenge. Commoners, as stated in pretty much all editions, suck as representation of normal real world human.

1st level commoner, I would say it's an average 13-14 yo teenager.

 

[delericho]

but that is the problem, how do you define "real human" here?

real humans went through decades of war and some of them survived dozens of battles?

Show me a human who can survive multiple life-or-death battles with edged weapons in a single day, have one night's sleep, and regardless of whatever wounds they took the previous day they are restored to full health.

 

[Maxperson]

No. A person from this world landing in an adventure would die very quickly. At effectively level 0, no armor, no spells, and very probably no training in D&D weapons, the first hostile encounter would likely be the last. Even if they survived that one, surprise is a thing, monsters they have no clue about looking for or avoiding are a thing, monsters faster than humans are a very common thing. Traps are a thing.

 

[GrimCo]

Show me a human who can survive multiple life-or-death battles with edged weapons in a single day, have one night's sleep, and regardless of whatever wounds they took the previous day they are restored to full health.

To be fair, D&D characters don't really suffer injuries per se. There are hundreds of pages of discussions on internet, but most agree that HP isn't meat. It's abstract mix of luck, glancing blows, stamina etc. That's why Vorpal weapons are the thing. One nat 20 on to hit, you die/enemy dies. That's it. It bypasses HP and does clean killing blow.

Also, night's sleep to full HP is 5e thing. In earlier editions, you regained hp at much slower rest, sometimes even requiring healer's care while resting. There are rules for d&d, for instand Grim-n-Gritty, where HP are way lower, recovery rate is measured in weeks, there is injury, trauma and called shots. With that ruleset, where lv 20 fighter with 20 con has 40HP, couple of hits with sword an he is down for good.

5e characters are unnaturally durable due to game design shifting more to character driven story telling and moving away from disposable characters on low levels.

 

[delericho]

To be fair, D&D characters don't really suffer injuries per se.

No, but they can be beaten into unconsciousness, spend a night sleeping it off, and be entirely healthy the next day.

5e characters are unnaturally durable due to game design shifting more to character driven story telling and moving away from disposable characters on low levels.

Indeed. That was my point - those rates of healing mean that even 1st level characters are strictly superhuman. And since my adventures unabashedly accept that fact as part of the game, no real human could survive those adventures.

 

[Horwath]

Show me a human who can survive multiple life-or-death battles with edged weapons in a single day,

every medieval soldier on a campaign?

have one night's sleep, and regardless of whatever wounds they took the previous day they are restored to full health.

this is gaming part of 5E, you can stretch low level campaign over several months or even years if you want to factor in healing long term injuries.

 

[Clint_L]

And crucially, among those superhuman abilities are spells like Remove Blindness/Drafness and Remove Paralysis

No.

If it is important for a player to play a character with an IRL disability, then you should let them. Not if they are doing it for laughs, obviously, but for serious reasons. In the situation I described, my student has IRL physical challenges and wanted to play a character who shared those challenges and is a hero anyway.

Because there is no magical cure for my student, and she wants the fantasy of a character who is like her in this regard but able to overcome in the same way that other characters overcome challenges that would be beyond the capacities of all of us. In other words, she wanted to feel that people like her could be represented in the game.

Telling her, "no, a cleric just casts remove paralysis on your character," would be brutal and heartless, and miss the point entirely. Please don't ever do that. She is well aware that these spells exist in the game.

 

[Mistwell]

Could real people survive in the games you've played or DM'd? A party with normal human limits, with no class abilities, magic, luck, divine favor or any game-granted ability that wouldn't be possible in real life. They can't use any modern technology or metagame knowledge, but they can be as capable as a real person could physically be (so 200 IQ Navy Seals are fine), and any magic items a regular party would find along the way are fair game as well.

No. I've thought about this topic. It used to be, when I was young, a common daydream. And after time I concluded they could not. At some point, often early in a dungeon or other adventure, they'd die without magic or superhuman abilities found in classes.

The only adventure I can recall where a normal human would have a decent chance was a zero-level 3e adventure I played at GenCon way back in I think 2008. I don't recall the DM but they were very good. And the challenges were difficult but not impossible for an ordinary well trained human to overcome. But, that was a zero level adventure.

 

[Chaosmancer]

what weapon would the be using?
Medieval or moders?

Even with medieval, I see them having a good chance to clear most of LMoP.
Just take is slow and get cover always.

but that is the problem, how do you define "real human" here?

real humans went through decades of war and some of them survived dozens of battles?

do they fight "real goblins" or whatever that would be?

or are real humans bunch of 20YO with no fighting skills whatsoever?

Skill and such only matters to a small degree. The issue is, and always will be, hitpoints. You mention that "as long as they get cover" they will be fine in Lost Mines, but if memory serves me there is a Nothic in that adventure. Now, maybe it is friendly or non-hostile, but here is the issue that brings up.

A Nothic can trivially deal 10 to 12 damage by looking at you. Canonically, it rots the flesh from your bones with its gaze. Now, this can be completely nullified with a Con save, but in no war in human history have you ever had to face a monster who can turn you into rotted meat and bones with a mere look. And the Nothic is also tough enough that you can't kill it in a single blow. You'd need to get three critical hits in a row with a Heavy Crossbow to drop it.

And yes, people will say "but I would use tactics and planning" but... how? No metagame knowledge means unless you know this monster is in the manor, and how it works, you can't pre-plan anything. No spells means you need to carry any materials, and even if you blind the monster with smoke or something similar, you are blinding yourself just as much.

So, even if you ambush it, unless you ambush with all ranged attacks, all of them are criticals, and you roll high enough to kill it... you are going to end up on a coin flip for someone dying.

And Nothics are not powerful DnD monsters. There are stronger enemies IN the Lost Mines adventure.

 

[delericho]

every medieval soldier on a campaign?

It was an "and" statement. Find me someone who can do both those things.

this is gaming part of 5E

That was my point. Those rates of healing mean that even 1st level characters are strictly superhuman. And since my adventures unabashedly accept that fact as part of the game, no real human could survive those adventures.

, you can stretch low level campaign over several months or even years if you want to factor in healing long term injuries.

True, but I don't. So a normal person couldn't survive my adventures.