D&D General The rapier in D&D

[Umbran]

A T-Rex is just a giant chicken. Unlike what Jurassic park would have you believe, they are just animals. Meanwhile our ancestors did hunt things like wooly mammoths which were about as massive.

A wooly mammoth clocked in at around 4.5 to 6 tons, while modern estimates for average T-rex is between 5 and 8 tons. So, the T-rex was probably a bit bigger.

Obviously no human has ever fought a T-Rex, but we are quite efficient at killing pretty much every animal we've ever encountered. I see no reason a T-Rex would be any different.

Note that no single human likely won out against a healthy adult mammoth either. Mammoths were hunted by larger groups of humans who planned and equipped specifically for that activity.

To specifically return to the original point about stone age weapons and killing megafauna - the most likely weapon-based way to kill mammoths was with grounded pikes, which you drive the animal onto, rather than by any weapons held in human hands. And that's fine if it is hunting season, and you and two dozen of your closest friends have spent a couple days along the migration route of the animals preparing a site.

But, if the animal comes along a foursome of folks with pointy sticks wandering through the woods? You probably aren't winning that fight. If the animal can also fly and breathe fire or somesuch... there's a reason why they are in a fantasy game, y'all.

 

[AlViking]

A wooly mammoth clocked in at around 4.5 to 6 tons, while modern estimates for average T-rex is between 5 and 8 tons. So, the T-rex was probably a bit bigger.



Note that no single human likely won out against a healthy adult mammoth either. Mammoths were hunted by larger groups of humans who planned and equipped specifically for that activity.

To specifically return to the original point about stone age weapons and killing megafauna - the most likely weapon-based way to kill mammoths was with grounded pikes, which you drive the animal onto, rather than by any weapons held in human hands. And that's fine if it is hunting season, and you and two dozen of your closest friends have spent a couple days along the migration route of the animals preparing a site.

But, if the animal comes along a foursome of folks with pointy sticks wandering through the woods? You probably aren't winning that fight. If the animal can also fly and breathe fire or somesuch... there's a reason why they are in a fantasy game, y'all.

I was just responding to the theory that any human not armed with a howitzer would stand no chance against megafauna - whether that's a T-Rex or a dragon. Jurassic Park has given us the impression that the dinosaur could just ignore fully automatic assault rifle damage from close range and not even notice it which is far from true. Meanwhile how powerful a dragon is varies from good ol' St George where it looks to be not much bigger than a large dog to world-ending monsters that cannot be stopped.

We know that in D&D a dragon can be killed by weapons because characters have been killing dragons in D&D for half a century.

 

[pawsplay]

I definitely feel like the swashbuckling pirate, upon encountering the dragon, should feel a little under-dressed and under-armed. Maybe stick with the musket pistol during that encounter, if you can get someone to play forward.