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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4157930" data-attributes="member: 32164">Only if you want it to fail. Maybe the character's skin is leathery enough from exposure to weather that it resists easy penetration. Basically, the PC spends so much time shirtless, that, like the 3e Barbarian, he has a certain degree of resistance to penetrating cuts. So the harpoon can snag on his skin without actually puncturing his flesh severely.Such a thing is decidedly unrealistic (albeit plausible) except that for a character who constantly goes around with no shirt, a certain amount of "skin-toughening" from exposure to the elements is realistic - especially in that "Conan the Barbarian" sense. Before people start claiming that human skin doesn't work like that, I'll mention that I saw a shao-lin monk put a spear point to his throat and bend the haft to almost a 90 degree angle by leaning against it, without taking any injury. Then he did it with 6 spears, so be a little careful when you make pronouncements about what kind of punishment the human body can withstand...Think "the harpoon hooked over his shoulder and the barb is digging into his scapula" - unpleasant to be sure, but far from a lethal injury.Injuries, for the most part, don't leave holes in the human body. Major organs deflect (to the extent that they can), minor tissue is damaged and the wound seals shut. If an arrow can go through your leg without leaving a gaping hole in it (a common fantasy trope), so can a harpoon.It's possible that this is a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. Medical professionals accept that D&D's system is patently unrealistic, and they're okay with that, 'cuz realism sucks. Somewhere near the med students, you have people like me, who know something about injury, realize the system is unrealistic, and are okay with it because we prefer the cinematic reality to the real reality. At the other end of the spectrum are the people who don't realize the system is unrealistic, and wonder what people's problem is. Then there are people who aren't medical experts but believe you can come up with a more "realistic" system for tracking injuries - thinking that such a thing will be more believable, without really wanting true "reality.""Long-term injury with no performance penalties in the interim" is one example of the latter attempt to inject an absurd kind of "realism" that isn't the slightest bit realistic. Thinking of a wound that heals fully in three days as a "long-term injury" is another.</blockquote>

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