D&D General What does the mundane high level fighter look like? [+]

[pemerton]

It also sounds like a barbarian decent at archery with the brawler feat.

A werewolf in 5e D&D has 58 hp. I would assume a were-hyena to be similar.

Where are the actual play examples of 5e D&D fighters taking down 20 were-hyenas with bow, sword and bare hands?

 

[Oofta]

A werewolf in 5e D&D has 58 hp. I would assume a were-hyena to be similar.

Where are the actual play examples of 5e D&D fighters taking down 20 were-hyenas with bow, sword and bare hands?

I make no correlation between any fiction and D&D. As far as we know they were just regular hyenas with demonic rabies. For that matter if this comparison had been made 10 years ago I would have called them minions.

 

[pemerton]

I make no correlation between any fiction and D&D. As far as we know they were just regular hyenas with demonic rabies. For that matter if this comparison had been made 10 years ago I would have called them minions.

Re the bolded: we know that they are sailors transformed into terrible beasts by magic. That's part of the story.

Re "I make no correlation between any fiction and D&D" - that principle, taken seriously, would in my view kill D&D stone dead given that its inspiration for theme and trope is precisely fantasy fiction.

And 4e D&D absolutely can handle the fighter taking down 20 were-hyenas, via the minion rules and/or the swarm rules. But as far as I know these are not part of 5e D&D.

 

[Oofta]

Re the bolded: we know that they are sailors transformed into terrible beasts by magic. That's part of the story.

Re "I make no correlation between any fiction and D&D" - that principle, taken seriously, would in my view kill D&D stone dead given that its inspiration for theme and trope is precisely fantasy fiction.

And 4e D&D absolutely can handle the fighter taking down 20 were-hyenas, via the minion rules and/or the swarm rules. But as far as I know these are not part of 5e D&D.

I'm just saying that we can't say "this monster in this piece of fiction is this monster in the MM". Do what you want, but to me it makes no sense to do so. I agree they have demonic rabies and are perhaps more intelligent, more vicious than normal hyenas. Doesn't necessarily give them 58 HP in a book where HP isn't even a concept.

 

[Vaalingrade]

So gnolls.

They're probably where the idea of gnolls was nicked from. Which is technically better than the original were hyena stories...

 

[Fanaelialae]

Re the bolded: we know that they are sailors transformed into terrible beasts by magic. That's part of the story.

Re "I make no correlation between any fiction and D&D" - that principle, taken seriously, would in my view kill D&D stone dead given that its inspiration for theme and trope is precisely fantasy fiction.

And 4e D&D absolutely can handle the fighter taking down 20 were-hyenas, via the minion rules and/or the swarm rules. But as far as I know these are not part of 5e D&D.

Officially no, but the minion rules in Flee Mortals look pretty good. I was planning to test them out last session, but wouldn't you know it, my darn players talked their way through every encounter.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

So gnolls.

They're probably where the idea of gnolls was nicked from. Which is technically better than the original were hyena stories...

Yeah, those sound like gnolls to me. Still pretty hard to oneshot, but not outright impossible.

But ultimately hit points are weird, and they lead to combats working differently than in a lot of fiction (or reality) if you focus on blow to blow descriptions, but I'm not sure that really is worth worrying about too much.

That being said, I didn't hate 4e's multiple weapon damage dice attacks, and I think it would be fine if 5e martials could somehow make such.
5e chose to just work with extra attacks and I get it, mathematically it doesn't matter if you slay the foe with two weaker attacks or one more powerful one, but it feels different.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

And 4e D&D absolutely can handle the fighter taking down 20 were-hyenas, via the minion rules and/or the swarm rules. But as far as I know these are not part of 5e D&D.

Minion rules always seemed just designers giving up. "We want our heroes to be able to oneshot foes, but the normal combat rules we have designed and the hit points we are assigned to the enemies don't allow it. Well, lets just say that sometimes enemies arbitrarily have one hit point, problem solved!"

And it didn't feel satisfying to me as player either. It didn't make my character feel powerful, it just felt the system cheating for me.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Minion rules always seemed just designers giving up. "We want our heroes to be able to oneshot foes, but the normal combat rules we have designed and the hit points we are assigned to the enemies don't allow it. Well, lets just say that sometimes enemies arbitrarily have one hit point, problem solved!"

And it didn't feel satisfying to me as player either. It didn't make my character feel powerful, it just felt the system cheating for me.

Yeah, minion rules did not have the desired effect for me or my players. It felt cheap, like I was playacting the combat and scoring a hit was the director telling an extra to lie down.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Minion rules always seemed just designers giving up. "We want our heroes to be able to oneshot foes, but the normal combat rules we have designed and the hit points we are assigned to the enemies don't allow it. Well, lets just say that sometimes enemies arbitrarily have one hit point, problem solved!"

And it didn't feel satisfying to me as player either. It didn't make my character feel powerful, it just felt the system cheating for me.

Worked fine for me. Especially since they can still hurt you, they just can't take hits.