Health, hardiness -- translating RL to DnD

[mmadsen]

The only way you'll get a 195lbs person onto your shoulder with one arm is if you bend down, wrap your arm around their waist, and stand up, or some variation on that - basically, getting your shoulder under their center of gravity and using your back to lift, or possibly using momentum to swing them around.

Agreed.

Like it's been said, grabbing someone who's standing up and throwing them over a shoulder or even lifting them above your head is a lot easier than picking up the same amount of dead weight up from the ground.

It's much, much harder to press a weight overhead than to lift if off the ground. Granted, in a competitive deadlift (or clean), the bar itself isn't on the ground -- it's just below knee height -- but a "strong" guy who can press 200 lbs can typically clean 300 lbs from floor to shoulders, or deadlift 400 lbs or more.

 

[mmu1]

Agreed.
It's much, much harder to press a weight overhead than to lift if off the ground. Granted, in a competitive deadlift (or clean), the bar itself isn't on the ground -- it's just below knee height -- but a "strong" guy who can press 200 lbs can typically clean 300 lbs from floor to shoulders, or deadlift 400 lbs or more.

That was badly worded - I meant it's much easier than if you had to do the same thing but starting with a dead weight on the floor (as opposed to a standing person).

 

[JDJarvis]

2. The only way you'll get a 195lbs person onto your shoulder with one arm is if you bend down, wrap your arm around their waist, and stand up, or some variation on that - basically, getting your shoulder under their center of gravity and using your back to lift, or possibly using momentum to swing them around.

3. Like it's been said, grabbing someone who's standing up and throwing them over a shoulder or even lifting them above your head is a lot easier than picking up the same amount of dead weight up from the ground.

2. (actually asked the wife about this and she didn't hit me or get mad) i was running and probably slightly hunkered down becasue of this, she was running, I grabbed her by her belt and the back of her pants which knocked her off balance and kind of spun her up onto my shoulder while i kept going ,much slower and for about a dozen or so paces because i was being boxed in the ears (she was "fighting back" but it wasn't a real fight just goofy horseplay).

3. they aren't dead weight when they are trying not to be picked up and are hitting you. Agian however she wasn't really trying to hury me and I wasn't trying to hurt her.


I think D&D portrays differences in strength and actual capacities poorly.

Can a lion in D&D jump on you and run away with you in its mouth for a mile or so without breaking stride? Real ones can.

 

[Driddle]

Can a lion in D&D jump on you and run away with you in its mouth for a mile or so without breaking stride? Real ones can.

True. I had that happen to me once.

 

[mmadsen]

Can a lion in D&D jump on you and run away with you in its mouth for a mile or so without breaking stride? Real ones can.

Well, a D&D lion is a Large creature with a Strength of 21. Large creatures can carry twice what Medium creatures of the same Strength can carry, and Large quadripeds can carry three times what a Medium biped can. From the SRD's Carrying Capacity Table:

               Light          Medium         Heavy
Strength       Load           Load           Load
--------       -----          ------         -----
21 STR         up to 153 lb.  154-306 lb.    307-460 lb.

If we triple those numbers, then, yeah, a human is easily a Light Load for a lion.