The Implications of Biology in D&D

[Maldin]

Who says healing injuries does not involve net gain in matter. Have you looked at the swords some people wield?

Ouch!!! Fortunately my 2E campaign still uses 2E swords and 2E armor.

I would say that there is no conservation of mass in D&D worlds.

I'm joking, of course, with this line of discussion (as I think everybody would immediately recognize). However this is a good example of why a purely real world interpretation could never work (and wouldn't be much fun) in a typical fantasy RPG game. Although... something that converts an adventurer into a monster from the inside might make for an interesting opponent. Ever see the epically-bad (considering some of the well-known actors in it) movie "The Stuff"?

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com

 

[Scribble]

Who says healing injuries does not involve net gain in matter. Have you looked at the swords some people wield?

I would say that there is no conservation of mass in D&D worlds.

wait... what's the matter with that sword... HAH! Matter!

 

[Maldin]

Scribble, I now completely understand your avatar.

Denis, aka "Maldin"

 

[Umbran]

If it is "magically created" matter, then Dispell Magic should make that new limb disappear.

Not if the creation of matter is magical, while the resulting matter itself is not. You might have an argument that dispel magic should halt the regeneration process for a while, but not that the matter already created should disappear.

Who says healing injuries does not involve net gain in matter. Have you looked at the swords some people wield?

I don't see how this follows. "The object depicting in this artwork is very large, therefore mass is not conserved in the fictional universe?" I'm not sure that's a strong argument, especially given how infrequently artists refer to physics in conceiving their imagry.

 

[pawsplay]

I don't see how this follows. "The object depicting in this artwork is very large, therefore mass is not conserved in the fictional universe?" I'm not sure that's a strong argument, especially given how infrequently artists refer to physics in conceiving their imagry.

Yeah, by that logic, Michaelangelo's David must be a monstrous humanoid or something.

 

[Maldin]

I think the missing, implied, tongue-in-cheek reference in ardoughter's link is that damage caused by such ridiculous swords in 3E art involves the hacking away of large chunks of flesh. Hence, healing those wounds requires the 'replacement' of said missing flesh.

Denis, aka "Maldin"

 

[Raven Crowking]

Perhaps in a D&D world, all healing adds mass (including non-magical healing), which disappears from the earth in random areas, spontaneously creating dungeons?

 

[Coldwyn]

Perhaps in a D&D world, all healing adds mass (including non-magical healing), which disappears from the earth in random areas, spontaneously creating dungeons?

On a more serious side, now we´re back at dnd cosmology with the elemental planes and positive energy plane... so the mass comes from the elemental planes, unfused with positive energy....
And for the discussion, we´re back at square one.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I think the missing, implied, tongue-in-cheek reference in ardoughter's link is that damage caused by such ridiculous swords in 3E art involves the hacking away of large chunks of flesh. Hence, healing those wounds requires the 'replacement' of said missing flesh.

Denis, aka "Maldin"

xp to you good sir, I think you are the first on this board that has got my admittedly odd sense of humour

 

[Raven Crowking]

@ Umbran: One wouldn't have to feed hippgriffs dwarves in a D&D world. Create Food type spells could be used to feed the hippogriffs, if the GM desires a hippogriff cavalry in the world. In this case, the cost of housing the necessary clerics is less than that of the feed stock previously mentioned.

However, even in the real world, not all creatures reproduce well in captivity. If the GM should choose to disallow a hippogriff cavalry, there is a logical basis for his as well. Indeed, the high price of hippogriff eggs is a logical extention of their inability to reproduce well in captivity -- if you could farm them like chickens, they'd be "cheep"er.


RC