Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="robertliguori" data-source="post: 4167056" data-attributes="member: 47776">Well, that's the thing.  You don't fight a cold war at all with a nation-state that's let you know that they will cheerfully respond to any provocation with carpet-bombing and work up from there; you either keep things diplomatic at almost any cost, or make damn sure you strike first.That isn't to say that the U.S. wouldn't have replied to the hypothetical nation-state representing the abilities and inclinations of high-level PCs with "Hah! You're bluffing." and said execution; it's simply that a pattern of this behavior would be maladaptive for the continued survival of the U.S. and stability of the campaign world.Hero is a term of art in D&D, referring to the nature of levels one has taken and (generally) how many of them a given character has.  The paladin standing up to defend the peasant village and the blackguard besieging it are both heros; the commoner1 who stands beside the paladin to keep him from being surrounded and fight on a little longer is engaging in heroic action (and damn well should end the battle as a fighter1 if he survives) but is not a hero.  This definition does not match up to the generally-accepted real-life definition of heros and heroism.  Terms of art are like that.</blockquote>