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Message: <blockquote data-quote="robertliguori" data-source="post: 4391395" data-attributes="member: 47776">One legion devil vs. one wizard.  Let us assume that the wizard has Cloud of Daggers.The minion attacks.  The minion is incapable of slaying the wizard in one blow.The wizard uses Cloud of Daggers.  The minion's defenses are bypassed, it takes a point of damage, and auto-expires.  It's not a 1-in-20 shot, it's a certainty of victory if the wizard has a particular power.Nor is the average case getting hit by a sword and expiring immediately.  Most battle-deaths were from infection or blood loss, not trauma.Have you ever had to joint a cut of meat?  Ever try to put steel (even sharp, heavy steel) through a bunch of flesh and bone?  It's not easy; try it once, and you'll be much more forgiving of the possibility of failure in Coup de Grace, especially when you factor in skin, armor, and the fact that warriors are not bred for tender meat the way domestic animals are.Of course, I am not a trained warrior, I do not have 16 Str, and I'm wielding a meat cleaver and butcher knife, not an axe or greatsword, and I certainly do not have powers available for use.  Moreover, I don't practice it; I expect that even absent all these things, a training regimen (with optional montage bardic music) could greatly increase my capacity to put a weapon through flesh and bone, either on the cutting block or the battlefield.I don't like the fact that D&D4 cannot represent me.  I don't like that my choices are either hero or extra, and that there is no room for 'can take a realistic amount of abuse before expiring'.  Really, if the goal was to simplify damage tracking, I'd prefer to give minions toughness saves, a la Mutants and Masterminds; the minion makes a save with DC of some constant plus damage dealt at a bonus (or penalty) according to level.  If they make the save, they live, if they fail by less than 5, they're bloodied and stunned for a round, and if they fail by more than 5, they're out.  You get one extra condition with two possible states (bloodied or unbloodied, with 2x bloodied equaling defeat) per minion to track.</blockquote>

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