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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SKyOdin" data-source="post: 5968045" data-attributes="member: 57939">You are so completely stuck in a certain game design paradigm that it seems like you can't see outside of it. Why does magic need to be codified into spells? The answer is that it doesn't, that is just an arbitrary choice D&D made at the beginning. There is no necessary reason for magic to quantized into spells where each spell has a particular effect.In fact, real world magical traditions don't really work like that. (Yes, people actually concocted complex magical systems and theories in the real world, obviously they don't actually work.) Amusingly, the 3E Binder is the one D&D class that actually emulates certain real-world magical systems, and it doesn't use spells. The point isn't to assume they are demigods, but to point out their strength is on par with that of the demigods of myth and legend. So, even if a character isn't technically a demigod, they should still be able to match the feats of demigods.There is no requirement to fall back on the laws of physics at all. Ultimately, game rules are not a physics system, they are merely a means of adjudicating player actions. For that matter, most videogames don't emulate physics at all, nor do they create alternative physics. That kind of thing is usually unnecessary, and games always drop physics in favor of what is entertaining or fun.Furthermore, D&D rules generally are not as gritty as you are claiming. For one, where is the rule that granite is harder than talc? I don't recall a "hardness by stone type" table. Furthermore, such real world physics concerns obviously don't apply to 80% of what goes on in a D&D campaign.As has been mentioned several times in this thread, most monsters completely violate the laws of physics. As do alternate planes, magical devices, strange environments, and so on.In fact, in certain relatively common D&D scenarios, such as a party making a jaunt to another plane, the fighter is the only thing in the entire situation that is bound is bound by "realism". Even gravity doesn't care, since many planes use "subjective gravity", which is a ludicrous concept in the real world. In a universe where you can't count on gravity or even euclidian geometry, why should the fighter be bound by real world physics?In most cases, the fighter being bound by real world physics is the exception, rather than magic being the exception.</blockquote>

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