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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5395423" data-attributes="member: 42582">I agree, and would go further: I don't find the notion of calculating the mechanical threat posed to an Epic Dragon by Heroic Minions to be very worthwhile either in campaign design or encounter planning. The numbers on 4e monsters are mechanical tools for building and resolving combat encounters involving the PCs. I don't think they're intended to be used to engage in this sort of task. Trying to do so gives rise to all the silly questions like How do minions avoid dying when they sneeze if they only have one hit point? or Why do minions not get to do 1d8 + stat damage with their arrows?I find this to be the worst version of this mechanically-guided thinking - we use real world data to calculate the availablity of materiel and equipment, but then turn to the mechanics to get the conclusion that, in wacky D&D land, sharpened wooden arrows are just as dangerous as metal-tipped ones.At least in my campaign world it goes without saying that unless the target has some special vulnerabilities, a metal-tipped arrow will pose more threat to a target than a sharpened wooden one. The fact that this is not reflected in the action resolution mechanics tells us something about those mechanics (eg they're not simply a model of propensities in the gameworld) but doesn't undermine the truism about metal vs wood.If I wanted militia vs dragons to be part of an Epic adventure (or a Paragon one, for that matter) I would build it into a skill challenge. Raising the militia would be part of the challenge, and the outcome of the challenge would determine what (if any) damage the peasant levies did to the dragon, and vice versa.</blockquote>

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