qarbone

The book gives you examples of how DCs should translates to the world. Is this vaulting a head high wall, climbing a crumbling 2-story building, or scaling the outside of a tower in a storm? That need to know the number is only a problem when the table lets numbers replace story.

"You back up to get a running start and trip on a misplaced cobblestone just before you reach the wall." = you rolled a 2 and failed

"You latch into the crevices between bricks and skillfully clamber up until the window is within sight. There is only a one, last leap to make, when the brick beneath your anchor leg crumbles and gives way. You landed winded, but someone else might now chart a better route." = you rolled an 18 and only just failed

"You built as much speed as you could and manage to launch up against the rain-slick tower but your fingers fail to find any purchase, and you scrabble helplessly back to the ground." = You rolled a 19 and weren't even close to a success

Yeah, people that want to be their D&D characters are probably skewed by happy memories of a world that might occassionally challenge them but ultimately wants them to enjoy themselves and be the hero/protagonist.

That is to say, a fantasy world.

Stick to your day job, m8. The jokes ain't landing especially when the whole "joke" is a weak-ass personal attack.

Do better. Or better yet, give up.

Really? You use the meme that basically says "you're dumping a lot of irrelevant info in the wrong place" and have the audacity to get pissy when they hit you back with...a different meme?

The gall to call someone "emotionally damaged" when you immediately read an attack from an exchange of memes.

Yeah but what about the remaining 94 to 83% of regular people who rightly judged their ability to judo-chop a bear to death? Or does having the self-awareness to know you probably can't win against a bear make you abnormal? I didn't miss the point, I scaled the challenge. Because a bear is much less threatening and dangerous than a 20 ft giant.

Listing that stat is just assuming that adventurers are mainly pulled from the 6% group who, once they get their hand on a bit more power, would try something even dumber. I don't think that is reasonable.

And the backgrounds in most RPGs are so varied that you can't map it on to any amount of training. A background as a soldier might mean you spent years fighting and then you start as a level 1 fighter, so it took you decades to reach level 2. Or you could be a farmhand and then, after a couple weeks of travel later, you're now a level 2 sorcerer. A year of serious BJJ training is rather generous.

Wasn't familiar with "Touch of Death"; I don't play clerics often. But it's just a smite.

Assuming average HP on level up and +3 CON mod: Barb: 25; Fighter: 22; Cleric: 19.

And Touch of Death does +9 damage at level 2.

I'm only breaking out numbers to get a better idea of what the users of the ability would be seeing, and what level of lethality they would come to expect from repeated usage. And that's not killing anyone with a touch except commoners, and level 1 wizards and sorcerers.

My only point is: people who have had to risk their life to even get to level 2 (unless they're reckless or an idiot) probably wouldn't have an overly big head over middling magical abilities. They might be feeling themselves and think they can fight a group of thugs at 4 to 1 odds but it's bonkers to pretend a normal adventurer would need some ex machina explanation to warn them off fighting something like a giant or a dragon at level 2.

Again, if you want to play a character that doesn't think well, that's fine. But 6% (or even 17%) is not a majority of people and when a person sees something taller than most houses looming over them, I assume the average person would correctly adjust their chances of success.

This is about the need for a GM to establish for PCs that they can't engage a giant in combat. Most people don't do a year of BJJ and think they and 3 mates can wrestle down an elephant. I just have a higher opinion of people's self-preservation instincts, especially when they haven't been as far removed from nature as most people on the internet are. People used to be afraid of forests and the wilds, and I think that level of society is closer to RPGs than we are.

Yeah, but you're not that at level 2.

Kinda hard to stay fat when you're on the move all the time, both marching around and fighting for your life. It'd take a conscious effort to overeat (and/or a relatively sedentary work situation) to stay fat.

If you're playing a character that foolhardy to see a creature anywhere from 2x to 10x their size and think tbey can fight it, then let them die. It's not metagaming to see something large and make the reasonable assumption that it could crush you.

Can you beat an orca in a fight? How can you assume that without metagame knowledge of its stats?

Edit: quite a few people have very low opinions of a reasonable person's self-preservation instincts. Or assume every PC is the type of internet person that says they could fight a lion mano-a-mano.

I like the idea of some kind of fighter who fights with a variety of cursed weapons.

Not the only negative, "this blade is everdull and gives you bone-itis" type of curse. The "you can cut through anything but you need to bleed before you can sheath it" type curse.

They kept a hand on its scruff for most of the wash