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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6627363" data-attributes="member: 7006">This is a prime example of the eternal dichotomy found within Dungeons & Dragons.  Fantasy versus Reality, Magic versus Physics, Story versus Gameplay.  Every single player falls at different points along each of those spectrums, and there's no real discussion capable of being had about what is correct.  Thus every player and table just focuses on one thing, while handwaving something else away.In this regard... the "massive creature" combat scenario... every DM at some point will handwave something away.  Usually I think it tends to be the "realty" of the game world in order to allow for the game part of D&D to have focus.  The easiest way to show this is that most game statistics for ancient dragons don't include stats for dragons jumping up and landing on the PCs.  Because if they did, the "reality" would be instant death by crushing damage or suffocation, or at the very minimum the PCs would be pinned and unable to do anything for the entirety of the combat... thus rendering the game part of D&D moot.  Many DMs realize that despite how natural and logical that kind of action would be for an intelligent, several-ton creature... that pretty much ends encounters.  So gameplay takes the focus and that kind of logical action of an ancient dragon never seems to be taken with any frequency.  Instead, the dragon flies around breathing on people or trying to bite them instead.By the same token... we have the arguments as to how "magical" or "nonmagical" the non-spellcasting classes are.  Is the 17th level Fighter "magical"?  Should those PCs only be able to accomplish things that can be explained by "real-world" physics?  Some players say Yes, some say No.  As a result, should a Fighter of any level that is "mundane" (and beholden to real-world physics) be able to do *any* damage whatsoever to a massive creature just by stabbing it with what is essentially a toothpick?  Some DMs will say no... and some will handwave away the physics at that moment in time just to actually make the encounter interesting or possible.  Even right after arguing Character A can't do X, Y or Z because they don't have the capability to do that in "reality".  A Warlord Fighter can't be allowed to "shout someone's wounds closed"... but then is allowed to spend rounds hacking away at the foot of an ancient dragon and eventually killing it.Everyone has differing temperments about that kind of stuff.  And there truly is no right or wrong.  Because one person's questioning as to why so many people die and stay dead despite the ubiquity of resurrection magic, or why reality hasn't been uncharacteristically altered due to the prevalence of Wish spells at some people's disposals... is another person's questioning how a game construct like 'Hit Points' is meant to align with a story construct of 'each hit causes a physical wound', wherein an accomplished swordsman is thus somehow able to take seven to ten wounds from an actual greataxe, and yet still not die.It's handwaved.  Every single one that doesn't align to the player's fantasy of how their game world is supposed to behave.</blockquote>

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