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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5487554" data-attributes="member: 2067">Well, it kind of does. Astrophysicists and basketball players don't slay goblins or cast Magic Missile. A level 1 character in any D&D game, regardless of class, is already above and beyond the capabilities of anybody in reality. That's kind of the motif of the fantasy genre. King Arthur isn't just a talented ruler, he's a legend, capable of things no one else could do. Merlin isn't just a smart cookie, he's an immortal amorphous creature of ancient mystery, a primordial trickster from a half-remembered pagan past. Even Frodo, though a "humble hobbit," was uniquely superior to every other entity on that planet. Luke Skywalker wasn't just a farm boy (though he didn't always know it!), and Han Solo was no ordinary scofflaw (though he frequently tried to resist it!), and Achilles and Agamemnon weren't just random Achaeans. They were all exceptional, unique, unprecedented individuals. Even the mere mortals among them (Odysseus or Han or Sam, Merry, and Pippin) were not just random mortals, but people with specific and unique roles to play in the heroic legend, with traits that make them stand out from others, things that only they could have done.This is a well-worn trope that D&D sits snugly in.As awesome as Stephen Hawking is, he's not a fantasy hero. That's why D&D doesn't assume your fantasy character is going to be Stephen Hawking or Prince. It doesn't think they're going to be level 1 commoners, or ordinary humans with d6 hit points. As exceptional as Michael Jordan is, he's still a normal human being by all standards. Fantasy heroes are not. Fantasy heroes are above and beyond.  The only case I'm really making is that D&D, by RAW, assumes that your fantasy hero isn't just a normal person, or even an especially talented normal person. In older editions, they are closer to "normal," but even in the earliest, they are superior. By the most recent, they are clearly an entirely different class of being. What follows from this is that D&D characters need not be tethered to ideas about what actual people can do. This is important, because while spellcasters have never been tied to ideas about what actual people can do (magic breaks reality), characters without access to spells *have* been (there are swords in reality!). And that sucks for anyone whose choice of class doesn't have access to those supernatural things.One response to give those nonspellcasters access to supernatural things. Let them be dipped in the Styx, let them cut the tops off of mountains, let them eat the hearts of dragons, let them build or be given magical gear without having to depend on the DM to drop it for them.This answer is supported by the idea that D&D characters have always been as fantasy heroes typically are -- exceptional, extraordinary, uniquely powerful individuals with special traits that they share with no one else in the world.Such as a god's favor (Odysseus) or a powerful bloodline (Luke) or a nearly suicidal love (Samwise), or, maybe, the ability to forge magic swords themselves (hypothetical D&D fighter).</blockquote>

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