Var
Explorer
The most gamey part of D&D has always been the in universe durability of things required to make it work.
A 300 pound Fighter in Plate has no business surviving straight hits from a 5 ton Dragon. But a 5 ton Dragon probably doesn't like a Ballista into the vitals or a Disintegrate to the face very much either, and won't be able to go airborne after facing a squad of spearmen in a ground skirmish (assuming flight is somehow physically possible for a 5 ton creature). Wing membrane wouldn't exactly have AC24 if someone were to go specifically after it.
Even without 50cal Machineguns available everyone seems to become weirdly durable, when in reality a single good hit could always mean you're dead meat.
PCs surviving direct Fireball bits that should be comparable to grenades is a bit odd. And that's before they drop to 0 HP and just jojo back to action.
Physics just don't work the same in DnD, for all the attempted simulation going on across the editions lvl 20 shouldn't matter considering the amount of kinetic energy rupturing vessels and organs when a humanoid gets hit by a 7 foot weapon wielded by a Giant.
Accepting the excessive durability of pretty much everything in DnD, we have a system that isn't analogue to IRL. Physical parameters like mass are a minor variable sometimes, not the driving factor, which would be Level/CR.
What DnD has been "missing" since 2E or 3E is the mortality that used to be there. You start most campaigns and can reasonably expect to for your PC to fight dozens of battles without suffering permanent consequences like crippling injuries or death. Even in "gritty" campaigns you're still going to be relatively durable or just roll up a new character if you end up biting the it. There's a lack of consequences and threats to your existence because DnD is a game, one with only a single save, so it has to be somehwat easy to get through most stuff on the first attempt.
The opponents the PCs are facing are ultimately facing an inverted scenario. More often than not, they're doomed the second Initiative gets rolled. "Bounded" CR for the usual encounters and lenient DMs being the main factor here. You're just not gonna run into a combat encounter with a CR20 creature at level 7 and simply die. That wouldn't be fun, so those encounters tend to be sneaky or social, with the PCs escaping to return another day when they're ready.
In universe you'd probably be extremely skilled and extremely lucky to make it to Level 5 and it gets exponentially more difficult to succeed first try at everything that could cost your life.
If you're a legendary adventurer with the ability to even attempt to put down an Ancient Dragon you suffered through countless close calls and there's a couple hundred people who were once with you but didn't make it along the journey. Challenging that Dragon would mean you're putting your life, the live of the party members as well of everyone who sent you on the line. You wouldn't know about the precautions the other side made, there'd likely be no guarantee to even find what you came for, you'd be grimly aware at least some of you are dead men walking. The Dragon went through the same thing, but has been at it for a millennium or so. The odds have been in his favor since forever at this point, he doesn't really have any serious threats anymore unless he screws up. He's had 3 dozen generations of your ancestors to prepare for you intruding on him.
Someone can beat that Dragon, no question. But everyone who wants to attempt it might be one of the hundreds or thousands who died trying, those stories aren't really talked about and often forgotten in our campaigns. The ones who came before and failed don't show up in the story about our particular band of misfit superheroes who never ended up in a TPK and saved the world.
A 300 pound Fighter in Plate has no business surviving straight hits from a 5 ton Dragon. But a 5 ton Dragon probably doesn't like a Ballista into the vitals or a Disintegrate to the face very much either, and won't be able to go airborne after facing a squad of spearmen in a ground skirmish (assuming flight is somehow physically possible for a 5 ton creature). Wing membrane wouldn't exactly have AC24 if someone were to go specifically after it.
Even without 50cal Machineguns available everyone seems to become weirdly durable, when in reality a single good hit could always mean you're dead meat.
PCs surviving direct Fireball bits that should be comparable to grenades is a bit odd. And that's before they drop to 0 HP and just jojo back to action.
Physics just don't work the same in DnD, for all the attempted simulation going on across the editions lvl 20 shouldn't matter considering the amount of kinetic energy rupturing vessels and organs when a humanoid gets hit by a 7 foot weapon wielded by a Giant.
Accepting the excessive durability of pretty much everything in DnD, we have a system that isn't analogue to IRL. Physical parameters like mass are a minor variable sometimes, not the driving factor, which would be Level/CR.
What DnD has been "missing" since 2E or 3E is the mortality that used to be there. You start most campaigns and can reasonably expect to for your PC to fight dozens of battles without suffering permanent consequences like crippling injuries or death. Even in "gritty" campaigns you're still going to be relatively durable or just roll up a new character if you end up biting the it. There's a lack of consequences and threats to your existence because DnD is a game, one with only a single save, so it has to be somehwat easy to get through most stuff on the first attempt.
The opponents the PCs are facing are ultimately facing an inverted scenario. More often than not, they're doomed the second Initiative gets rolled. "Bounded" CR for the usual encounters and lenient DMs being the main factor here. You're just not gonna run into a combat encounter with a CR20 creature at level 7 and simply die. That wouldn't be fun, so those encounters tend to be sneaky or social, with the PCs escaping to return another day when they're ready.
In universe you'd probably be extremely skilled and extremely lucky to make it to Level 5 and it gets exponentially more difficult to succeed first try at everything that could cost your life.
If you're a legendary adventurer with the ability to even attempt to put down an Ancient Dragon you suffered through countless close calls and there's a couple hundred people who were once with you but didn't make it along the journey. Challenging that Dragon would mean you're putting your life, the live of the party members as well of everyone who sent you on the line. You wouldn't know about the precautions the other side made, there'd likely be no guarantee to even find what you came for, you'd be grimly aware at least some of you are dead men walking. The Dragon went through the same thing, but has been at it for a millennium or so. The odds have been in his favor since forever at this point, he doesn't really have any serious threats anymore unless he screws up. He's had 3 dozen generations of your ancestors to prepare for you intruding on him.
Someone can beat that Dragon, no question. But everyone who wants to attempt it might be one of the hundreds or thousands who died trying, those stories aren't really talked about and often forgotten in our campaigns. The ones who came before and failed don't show up in the story about our particular band of misfit superheroes who never ended up in a TPK and saved the world.
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