D&D 5E What Does a Strength 20 Look Like (In Real Life)?

[GMforPowergamers]

In 5e with their shooting...no, it does not.

They only get a proficiency bonus between +2 to +6. That's a +4 difference, and EVERYONE gets that proficiency bonus.

I am not a cop, I am not a soldier, saying I have ANY special training in weapons is laughable. However I have played with water guns and paintball guns a fair amount (not in the last 4ish years though). I for sure don't have a high dex. If you compair me to my half brother who is marksman level military trained (that doesn't mean what most of you think it does) there is a HUGE diffrence in our skill levels... but 'in game' we both have prof bonus + dex mod....the d20 will ALWAYs matter more.

 

[Garthanos]

And why would one have to make an athletics check for a running (or standing) long jump?

The rule itself is interesting in that it would have given my High School self different strength depending on whether it was standing, running, or high jump.

Each of which I could do 100% of the time, so it was not something that I "failed" at that age on a skill roll, or was incredibly lucky.

Running Long Jump generally was 22 feet, though sometimes I could get a tad longer. (22 STR)

cannot even guess on that one. It seems to take more skill where as a standing jump seems straight forward. I probably wouldn't even try if failure had implications unless the distance was something I could do standing.

Standing Long Jump normally was a little over 9 feet, barely. (18 STR) [Could occasionally jump further, but that was unpredictable on how far and when. 9 Feet was what I could always jump whenever tested, every time at that age].

mine would have been 16... and my athleticism was only ok.

 

[Flamestrike]

or completely not.... and there is no guidance for doing so.

Yes there is. There is an entire manual for that. It's called the DMG.

no equivalent for a melee combatant.

Precise strike battlemaster manouver.

once people are taking about the 4 points of advancements I assume they are talking about paltry skill advancement not combat advancement necessarily. I mean multiple attacking obviously expresses advancement in general there is no multiplier for other arenas of skills.

Expertise doubles your skill so there is that.

There are also things like Steady eye, Fast hands, Vanish, Cunning Action, Eye for Detail, Ear for Deceit, Second story work, Hide in Plain sight, Remarkable Athlete, Silver tounge, Reliable talent etc etc etc which are class features that speed up skill use (making them bonus actions), or provide new ways to use those skills, or result in you never rolling under a 10 again, in addition to feats like Keen Mind, Athlete, etc etc etc.

 

[Vaalingrade]

because casters rule and martial drools

They used to at least try to be on the down low about it.

"No, see fighters get feats and at some point, we'll release good ones."

Now it's like

"You will take rolling twice and maybe I will bother allowing you magic items and feats -- but you are NOT allowed to count on them, pleb."

 

[Flamestrike]

"No, see fighters get feats and at some point, we'll release good ones."

Fighters already get all the good ones.

The most commonly banned feats are GWM, Sharpshooter and PAM.

This goes hand in hand with DMs implementing other HR's that nerf fighters (exhaustion at 0hp, fumble rules, insta kills for lava, or falls) etc while simultaneously ignoring the Adventuring day recommendations, allowing the 5 minute work day, imposing the Guy at the Gym fallacy (seen in this very thread) then logging on here to complain how sucky fighters are.

 

[ad_hoc]

The way I see it, Hathor has a Strength of 18.

When your PC fighter has a Strength of 20, he's even stronger than Hathor, which is the way it should be.

Going about it the other way, is simply condemning your PC Fighter to the 'guy in the gym' fallacy, where despite being an epic hero of legend, he's always coming up short against some meathead down the gym.

30 years ago we would be saying that Arnold is the best real life model for 18/00 strength.

30 years ago the strength of today's strongmen wasn't possible.

People are lifting more now than they have ever done before and it is not even close.

 

[Garthanos]

Yes there is. There is an entire manual for that. It's called the DMG.i

imagine what the guy down at the Gym can do and decide based on that the difficulty?
No wait let someone cast jump on you because adventuring without magic is 10 times as hard the players handbook even says it is supposed to be.

nnPrecise strike battlemaster manouver.

archer has that too... are you taking it away? The +2 applies to all attacks.

 

[Garthanos]

, imposing the Guy at the Gym fallacy (seen in this very thread)

It seems encouraged by the system

 

[Garthanos]

Reliable talent etc etc etc which are class features that speed up skill use (making them bonus actions), or provide new ways to use those skills, or result in you never rolling under a 10 again, in addition to feats like Keen Mind, Athlete, etc etc etc.

Do any of those give 4 times the results? Vast majority of your examples are Rogue only.

Fighters already get all the good ones .The most commonly banned feats are GWM, Sharpshooter and PAM.

Cant argue against that but he was referring to 3.x feats at that point in the convo I think.

Well feats are an every man resource IF feats are allowed at the table having some be op is seen as affecting the desirability of other feats reducing things to a bit of a solved equation is how I have heard it expressed and something similar called Feat Taxes in 4e.

Level Up perhaps ironically made GWM... aka Powerful Attacker better. The also made two weapon fighting better.

 

[Garthanos]

I am not a cop, I am not a soldier, saying I have ANY special training in weapons is laughable. However I have played with water guns and paintball guns a fair amount (not in the last 4ish years though). I for sure don't have a high dex. If you compair me to my half brother who is marksman level military trained (that doesn't mean what most of you think it does) there is a HUGE diffrence in our skill levels... but 'in game' we both have prof bonus + dex mod....the d20 will ALWAYs matter more.

The random chance mattering more than in any other edition (unless you cast spells then sometimes it wont) is definitely true