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Hit Points. Did 3.0 Or 3.5 Get it Right?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 9254571" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>All these points are spot on, but especially the last one. It hits on something that was enormously, incredibly important in medieval (and modern) warfare but that hasn't been modeled in D&D since the TSR days: Morale.</p><p></p><p>Battle is terrifying. It takes a lot of discipline to stand your ground in the face of an oncoming enemy. And if you see your comrades flee, the impulse to do likewise is very strong. (To be clear, this is a rational impulse! If the rest of your army flees, it does no one any good for you to stand your ground. You'll just be killed out of hand and your fleeing army will be down one soldier whenever it regroups.)</p><p></p><p>But what this means is that armies are vulnerable to a cascading effect, where one person panics and flees, and then three other people who were wavering are tipped into doing likewise, and then others follow until the whole army routs. A whole lot of military training is aimed at preventing this cascade of panic*. That is one of the biggest differences between soldiers and civilians in battle, and it's more than enough to let a band of orcs take on a village's worth of peasants. In theory, the peasants have the numbers to overwhelm the orcs, but that doesn't matter when they rout before the orcs' charge.</p><p></p><p>Set aside orcs and look at dragons. In theory, an ancient red dragon can be slain by about 800 commoners with longbows**. So how do we get all these towns burned and pillaged by marauding dragons? Because for those 800 commoners to pull it off, they must hold their ground, wait for the right moment, time it perfectly, and shoot as an immense monster dives down out of the sky, all claws and jaws and iron-hard scales, with fire boiling up its throat. Without extraordinary leadership (supplied perhaps by a high-Charisma PC) and at least some training, that isn't going to happen.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">*And also at triggering it in the opposing army. This is why Sun Tzu advised always to leave the enemy an escape route. You can't rout an army that has nowhere to run.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px">**They all ready attacks for as soon as it gets within 150 feet. Assuming no proficiency and no Dex bonus, 40 of them will roll 19 and score a hit for 1d8, and another 40 will roll nat 20s and crit for 2d8. This deals an average 540 damage. The dragon may survive one volley but will certainly fall to the second; just keep the archers spread out enough that a couple hundred make it to round two without being frightened, wing-buffeted, or incinerated.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 9254571, member: 58197"] All these points are spot on, but especially the last one. It hits on something that was enormously, incredibly important in medieval (and modern) warfare but that hasn't been modeled in D&D since the TSR days: Morale. Battle is terrifying. It takes a lot of discipline to stand your ground in the face of an oncoming enemy. And if you see your comrades flee, the impulse to do likewise is very strong. (To be clear, this is a rational impulse! If the rest of your army flees, it does no one any good for you to stand your ground. You'll just be killed out of hand and your fleeing army will be down one soldier whenever it regroups.) But what this means is that armies are vulnerable to a cascading effect, where one person panics and flees, and then three other people who were wavering are tipped into doing likewise, and then others follow until the whole army routs. A whole lot of military training is aimed at preventing this cascade of panic*. That is one of the biggest differences between soldiers and civilians in battle, and it's more than enough to let a band of orcs take on a village's worth of peasants. In theory, the peasants have the numbers to overwhelm the orcs, but that doesn't matter when they rout before the orcs' charge. Set aside orcs and look at dragons. In theory, an ancient red dragon can be slain by about 800 commoners with longbows**. So how do we get all these towns burned and pillaged by marauding dragons? Because for those 800 commoners to pull it off, they must hold their ground, wait for the right moment, time it perfectly, and shoot as an immense monster dives down out of the sky, all claws and jaws and iron-hard scales, with fire boiling up its throat. Without extraordinary leadership (supplied perhaps by a high-Charisma PC) and at least some training, that isn't going to happen. [SIZE=3]*And also at triggering it in the opposing army. This is why Sun Tzu advised always to leave the enemy an escape route. You can't rout an army that has nowhere to run. **They all ready attacks for as soon as it gets within 150 feet. Assuming no proficiency and no Dex bonus, 40 of them will roll 19 and score a hit for 1d8, and another 40 will roll nat 20s and crit for 2d8. This deals an average 540 damage. The dragon may survive one volley but will certainly fall to the second; just keep the archers spread out enough that a couple hundred make it to round two without being frightened, wing-buffeted, or incinerated.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
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