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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ipissimus" data-source="post: 4044116" data-attributes="member: 41514">Ask a paramedic how arbatrary it is who lives and who dies. Looking at it as a whole, statistically speaking, there's not much connection between physical prowess and the will to live. A young guy in the prime of youth who works out and eats right might pop off where the old guy who smokes, drinks and never did an honest day's work in his life soldiers on.Now, PCs aren't ordinary people. You have to be a certain blend of crazy and stupid to fight nameless legions of horrors on thier home turf. They wouldn't do the job without driving reasons to do so. In recovery, the old saw is true, ask a doctor whether they'd put their money on the patient who wanted to live or the patient who's already given up. Odds on, they'll bet on the one who never gives up.So, getting back to the question at hand. A 100hp damage attack is stronger than a 50hp damage attack? Why? If you accept that HP is an abstract concept then you have to accept that damage is just as abstracted. A giant swings a tree-trunk and can shatter fortifications with a single blow while a guy with a rapier and a few good feat/class choices deals the same or more damage. How exactly does one 'turn aside' a blow from a tree trunk? Or does one simply dodge the blow? If the barbarian with Dex 10 'dodges' the tree trunk rather than being crushed, why can't the elf mage with Dex 20 'dodge' the same attack more effectively? Ok, so we have AC for that, but then what does AC represent?Like the plot of any movie, if you pick apart DnD's mechanics (most of which are pretty abstract) your suspension of disbelief will shatter. Example, remember the first Lord of the Rings movie? The troll fight? Does it really make any sense for Aragorn to survive being bashed in the chest and flung across the room? No, his internal organs should be the consistency of jelly. Do you believe it in the moment? Probably, and if so it is because you wish to believe it.</blockquote>

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