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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7587492" data-attributes="member: 6775031"><p>Beowulf did some pretty epic swimming, IIRC. Whenever a non-magical character does something that's far beyond the capacity of normal people, that pushes them into epic territory. A more traditional example for D&D would be the DC 45 mechanical lock, which requires a legendary burglar to pick.</p><p></p><p>Magic can complicate matters. Magic needs to be very powerful, before anyone starts to notice that it's far beyond the capacity of normal wizards. And it's hard to tell when you should be impressed, if someone does something that's physically impossible but magically trivial.</p><p>At low levels, you get to experience the sandbox when high-level characters trounce you due to their superior capabilities. You probably want to give them a wide berth. </p><p></p><p>You'll need to find an area without those sorts of people, anyway, if you want to do anything impressive. There's no point in trying to be a level 1 hero in a city where level 14 heroes can solve all of your problems in a few minutes. That's the old Superman + Green Arrow teamup problem.</p><p>Unless the GM is taking very firm control over where the party goes and who the party interacts with, the point of scaling DCs is that you only rarely encounter challenges of your exact level. That aforementioned DC 45 lock is amazing because it can keep out anyone with a skill check bonus smaller than 25 <em>and</em> that includes the overwhelming majority of individuals who might come against it. It would be significantly less impressive if everyone within a hundred miles of it was level 20, and the average thief (from the subset of those who actually come across it) was capable of bypassing it after a few tries.</p><p></p><p>Scaling DCs become superfluous when you've contrived all encounters to only take place against challenges of an equal level. In that case alone, the specific numbers are meaningless, and you could accomplish the same thing with Bounded Accuracy. That's kind of a degenerate case, though; it doesn't describe a believable world.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7587492, member: 6775031"] Beowulf did some pretty epic swimming, IIRC. Whenever a non-magical character does something that's far beyond the capacity of normal people, that pushes them into epic territory. A more traditional example for D&D would be the DC 45 mechanical lock, which requires a legendary burglar to pick. Magic can complicate matters. Magic needs to be very powerful, before anyone starts to notice that it's far beyond the capacity of normal wizards. And it's hard to tell when you should be impressed, if someone does something that's physically impossible but magically trivial. At low levels, you get to experience the sandbox when high-level characters trounce you due to their superior capabilities. You probably want to give them a wide berth. You'll need to find an area without those sorts of people, anyway, if you want to do anything impressive. There's no point in trying to be a level 1 hero in a city where level 14 heroes can solve all of your problems in a few minutes. That's the old Superman + Green Arrow teamup problem. Unless the GM is taking very firm control over where the party goes and who the party interacts with, the point of scaling DCs is that you only rarely encounter challenges of your exact level. That aforementioned DC 45 lock is amazing because it can keep out anyone with a skill check bonus smaller than 25 [I]and[/I] that includes the overwhelming majority of individuals who might come against it. It would be significantly less impressive if everyone within a hundred miles of it was level 20, and the average thief (from the subset of those who actually come across it) was capable of bypassing it after a few tries. Scaling DCs become superfluous when you've contrived all encounters to only take place against challenges of an equal level. In that case alone, the specific numbers are meaningless, and you could accomplish the same thing with Bounded Accuracy. That's kind of a degenerate case, though; it doesn't describe a believable world. [/QUOTE]
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