Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 3976140" data-attributes="member: 2067">How many times has Rambo died? How about King Arthur? How vulnerable was Achilles? How fragile was Beowulf? How unrealistic are Bilbo and Sam's exploits? How much does Conan fear death?HEROES are immune to death, by and large, unless it directly affects the plot. That is ENTIRELY in the genre of D&D, the language of myth and legend and epic. D&D characters are not town guardsmen and lucky gardeners. They don't survive the harsh winter by the skin of their teeth, they don't cower in front of a goblin invasion, and they stand their ground when confronted by a dragon's supernatural fear. D&D characters do not simulate Average Joes of Fantasy World #7. They are the main characters in a narrative. Hero's arrow deflections are in a more mythic mode. The Musketeers are more in a, let's say, heroic mode. D&D accomplishes (or tries to accomplish) both. At 1st level, the characters might be more Muskateer. Still very capable very heroic characters, but more "prime of humanity" than "above humanity." By 10th level (maybe), we're starting to see some mythic. By 30th, we're slaying gods.The Muskateers could never hope to slay a god.I don't think that any D&D character will be able to accomplish Hero-style wuxia at first level, but I don't think any D&D character will be able to jump through a window unharmed or fall out of an airship and catch themselves or kill 30 goblins at 1st level. But by 10th? By 20th? ABSOLUTELY. And they'll be able to do it without wizardy mumbo jumbo.Because 20th level D&D characters are CLEARLY more powerful than Muskateers. They will be, probably, forever, and they have been in all earlier editions. By that point, we've left the world of mortal limitations behind, but we're still not in the realm of the Weave, because everything we do we do under our own inherent mortal power.Well, ability scores is neither here nor there. In 3e, NPC's didn't have ability scores exceeding 10 unless they were somehow heroic themselves -- JoeBob the Town Guard had 10's across the board. So even an 18 is SUPERHUMAN. Heck, a 12 is superhuman -- that's what the racial bonuses get you. No mere mortal has a +1 ability score bonus!More philosophically speaking, fundamental humanity isn't defined by your ability or inability to do amazing things that no other human can do. Rambo and John McLane and Indiana Jones are fundamentally human, but they're doing stuff I can't imagine any human doing. Heck, I just watched Jurassic Park and the kids in that movie survive falling down ravines, getting electrocuted, surviving for for days in the wild without food or fresh water, beating up Velociraptors......and they're freakin' PUBESCENT! You or me, in those situations, we'd die right quick. Those are low-level D&D characters. And by the time we're hitting the double-digit levels, we're entering the territory of more superlative abilities, and thus more mythic stylings. JoeBob can maybe survive an encounter with one goblin, if he got a head start. Low-level D&D characters can kill a half-dozen before they're starting to tire. High-level D&D characters can pretty much wipe out a village. 30th level D&D characters might do that ACCIDENTALLY, while trying to slay Maglubiyet. It's the nature of a level-based system that it is going to get MORE and BETTER. The difference between JoeBob and Regdar is already pretty huge, and it just gets bigger (it doesn't stay in the same place).</blockquote>

Verification