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<blockquote data-quote="NoWayJose" data-source="post: 5501883" data-attributes="member: 84810">The Hulk's strength is at least explained by gamma-induced mutation. Enough people &quot;buy&quot; into that justification enough to enjoy the comics and movies with some suspension of disbelief.&nbsp;If a fantasy warrior cut a mountain in half without context or explanation, it would come across as too surreal or mythical.&nbsp;Taking that point a little further, if a fantasy warrior could summon the herculean strength to smash the peak off a mountain, but he can't smash down a stone door or cut the head off a giant, that kind of glaring inconsistency greatly detracts from believability.&nbsp;That would be like giving the Hulk a &quot;Hulk Smash: Mountaintop&quot; feat but a strength of 18 for Str checks, or a scenario where he has one &quot;Hulk Smash: Mountaintop&quot; power but already used up his 3 x &quot;Hulk Smash: Earthquake&quot; and &quot;Hulk Smash: Wall&quot;. (Permerton and Hussar would say there's always some believable justification for these gross inconsistencies -- I'd say that's bending over backwards to point of snapping your spine in half to claim that Hulk can smash the top of a mountain but he can't smash the wall because he already smashed 3 walls that day.)&nbsp;So if a fantasy character is going to violate the laws of physics as we're comfortable believing in a fantasy world, it helps to have an explanation/justification, and it helps to be somewhat consistent when applying that explanation.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="NoWayJose, post: 5501883, member: 84810"] The Hulk's strength is at least explained by gamma-induced mutation. Enough people "buy" into that justification enough to enjoy the comics and movies with some suspension of disbelief. If a fantasy warrior cut a mountain in half without context or explanation, it would come across as too surreal or mythical. Taking that point a little further, if a fantasy warrior could summon the herculean strength to smash the peak off a mountain, but he can't smash down a stone door or cut the head off a giant, that kind of glaring inconsistency greatly detracts from believability. That would be like giving the Hulk a "Hulk Smash: Mountaintop" feat but a strength of 18 for Str checks, or a scenario where he has one "Hulk Smash: Mountaintop" power but already used up his 3 x "Hulk Smash: Earthquake" and "Hulk Smash: Wall". (Permerton and Hussar would say there's always some believable justification for these gross inconsistencies -- I'd say that's bending over backwards to point of snapping your spine in half to claim that Hulk can smash the top of a mountain but he can't smash the wall because he already smashed 3 walls that day.) So if a fantasy character is going to violate the laws of physics as we're comfortable believing in a fantasy world, it helps to have an explanation/justification, and it helps to be somewhat consistent when applying that explanation. [/QUOTE]

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