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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bramadan" data-source="post: 4218317" data-attributes="member: 1064">An awesome saying - I think of Cadfan's - comes to mind here.Lots of folks have internalized the DnD mechanics so deeply as to mistake them for the way world works. One stab wound will usually incapacitate or kill a person - no matter how skilled or experienced they are. Blade penetrating more then an inch into the body will throw human into shock which is for all intents and purposes indistinguishable from the 0HP state in DnD.Falling into 10' pit unexpectedly tends to break limbs with similar results. Suffering 3rd degree burns, taking crushing blows with a mace, being savaged by a bear... all those will either kill or incapacitate anybody in "real life" with rare and insignificant exceptions. Keep in mind that "incapacitate" specifically does not mean kill - even in DnD. We already know that 0HP for non PCs is entirely open to interpretation by the DM and that shock or broken limbs are as valid interpretation (if narratively relevant) as death.If you are cut open in the bar fight you may not be dead, you may not even be in shock, but you are, likely as not, holding your wound and crying Uncle. If you are not, if you are shrugging it of and fighting on you are most definitively not a minion.Things that deal HP damage in DnD are as a rule lethal or incapacitating things - it is therefore not at all surprising that a significant number of creatures in DnD world will be killed or incapacitated by those things. Things that do not kill or incapacitate - falling in showers, being punched with a fist, being stung by a bee etc... - by definition do not deal HP damage. If you want your DnD realistic - then all characters, PC and NPC are "minions" in the sense of having 1HP (and potentially high defenses due to their skill etc). Where the realism is sacrificed for "gamism" is not in the minion rules but in the HP rules for non-minions. DnD - wanting to simulate heroic fantasy - wants to give heroes and some antagonists multiple leases on life through a mechanic that incorporates things like morale, grit, divine favor, luck and sheer awesomeness factor. If you are interested in any level of "simulation" in DnD then HP do not represent ability to sustain physical damage because human beings are simply not able to sustain the physical damage of being hit by a sword - even once - even by a novice swordsman. That is why Warlord shouting encouragement can "heal" HP, that is why Cleric muttering prayers can "heal" HP, that is why (a heroic character) can "pull themselves together, take a deep breath" and heal HP. That is why most non-heroic folks have 1HP - they are simply regular Joes who do die or get injured when hit with deadly weapons.In many ways minion rules make it possible for much more "realistic" campaign worlds. If anything, capable individuals no longer have to be PC-like larger then life figures who laugh at crossbows pointed at them. They still can be - but there is no built in game expectation that they are. Finally to answer the question - what happens when two minions fight each other: same thing that happens when two people fence in real life. There is a few rounds (for a given value of round) where their attacks get parried or deflected by the opponent (due to miss) and then one gets a lucky break and skewers the other - this can only sound unnatural to someone whose entire perception of the world is colored by DnD.</blockquote>

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