NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Mahdi" data-source="post: 5566153" data-attributes="member: 59506">Because in the real world, that is what determines strength.  There are different types of muscle fibers that do different things, most specifically slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers.  Dexterity and efficiency of a muscle is determined by both the mass of that muscle and the efficiency of it's neural connections to and within the brain.  But strength is almost purely determined by mass.  An equal amount of muscle mass/density in a man or a woman would have exactly the same strength capability (excluding skeletal structure, metabolism, etc.).  Muscle fibers do not get stronger from exercise, they develop more muscle fibers due to exercise.  Testosterone levels do not make a muscle stronger (though they can help one produce more muscle mass).  Men are typically stronger than women because of a higher average mass and density of muscle.  Not because of physiological differences in the muscles themselves.  In most D&D campaigns/premises, you'd likely be correct.  But not all D&D campaigns have such premises.  Some very specifically do not have things like "Gods" or "Destiny".  Some are purposely set in a real-world environment, where allowing such premises would stand out as inappropriate or absurd. Just as Vanilla isn't the only flavor of Ice Cream, so standard fantasy is not the only flavor of D&D.  Nope.  Since I prefer a real-world analogy and realism based premises in my games, I'd assume that the Barbarians Rage Ability is due either to Adrenaline or an introduced chemical substance (translation: Drugs<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />) - just like real-world Berserkers. If I was playing in a supers-based D&D game, then I'd find "Hulking Up" as a perfectly okay explanation. If I was playing straight fantasy D&D; divine intervention, innate magic, or pretty much anything else will work just fine.  When I play a game based on pure fantasy, I don't have a problem with this. I have and do play in many different D&D settings, not only the ones with standard D&D assumptions. Different strokes...your mileage may vary...etc., etc., etc. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification