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| #1EdymnionAug 08, 2007 11:04:27 | Before I begin, I want to thank Justin Alexander for his article, “D&D: Calibrating Your Expectations” for inspiring me to write this. You may find the article HERE. I will be using several of his examples, as well as examples I made in a previous article in an attempt to put an even more widespread focus on the way D&D mechanics are indeed quite realistic as written, if one merely takes the time to actually look at what the rules say instead of making assumptions. How D&D Gets it Right Anyone that has spent time in the D&D gaming community, especially in the online communities, will have at least heard claims that the D&D system does not accurately portrait real life, and that it should not be attempted to try to use it for that purpose. They will point to different things, such as the plight of the penniless commoner that cannot afford to eat because of how much things cost, to the high levels “normal” people would have to be to accomplish normal activities, or how much physical damage a human can take in combat before dying. Almost all of these things can be disproven by simply sitting down and reading the rules, and avoiding exaggeration and extremes, as any argument will invariably break down or become absurd when taken to extremes. As such, this article is divided into three main sections; Birth, Life, and Death. Birth covers all material relating to the creation and realism of characters, Life covers the day to day living and professions, while Death covers topics such as hit points and the true meaning of what being “hit” actually means. So please, feel free to skip to the section that interests you most, but be aware that each section may reference statistics or facts from the previous section on the assumption that it has already been read. Birth The rules put forth two arrays of character ability scores that are meant to cover the vast majority of people alive in any given game world. The “standard array” is intended for normal people, the commoners and craftsmen and the overall bulk of the population. The “elite array” represents the much smaller fraction of people that go above and beyond normal human limits. These are the professional athletes, the prodigies, and in many cases, the player characters. These arrays are as follows: Standard Array: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8 Elite Array: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 However, both of these arrays overlook the same basic principle, that a score of 10 is considered to be the human normal average. That, if you were to pick any random person alive today, and look at any of the six ability scores, the odds are more than likely that they would have a 10 or 11 in that ability. Again, this is normal, this is what the person is supposed to have. Hence, the third undocumented array would be: Normal Array: 11, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10 For the purposes of this article, when referring to an average person, it will be assumed that they have the Normal Array. There is no area that they are better in, or worse in, than the average person, as they are the average person. When referring to a specific individual, they will be using the Standard Array, to reflect that people are naturally better and worse than others in different areas. The Elite Array will be reserved for those characters deemed exceptional, that can be relatively easily agreed upon that they are hands down better than the average person. The next fact that needs to be acknowledged is that almost everyone that has ever lived has been a 1st level character. Even the greatest real world heroes, the brightest of minds, and the greatest of adventurers are at most 5th level. While this may shock some people, it is true. The important thing to remember when trying to do a conversion between D&D and real life is not to exaggerate someone’s abilities, and quantify only what they actually can do. To give an example, lets use on of the greatest minds in mankind, and convert him over to D&D, Albert Einstein. Being one of the greatest minds to ever live, he would actually deserve an 18 in his Intelligence score. After all, he was not just unusually intelligent, he was Einstein. Since he was one of the greatest men to ever live, we shall assume he was at the height of human ability, 5th level. We shall also assume that Einstein devoted as much study and learning to the topic of Physics that a man can devote. As such, we get the following: Skill Ranks: +8 Ability Mod: +4 Skill Focus: +3 Einstein, therefore, has a +15 bonus to his Knowledge (Physics) checks. Now, let us look at the PHB and actually see what the DCs for knowledge checks are, and what they mean. The DCs are as follows: DC 10: Easy Question DC 15: Basic Question DC 20: Hard Question DC 30: Very Hard Question Remembering that it is possible to Take 10 on Knowledge checks, our 5th level Einstein would be able to routinely answer a DC 25 question on the topic of Physics without fail. And while it would appear that his maximum skill check would be a DC 35 (if he rolled a 20), this is not the case. DC 35 is the highest check he could make off the top of his head, as it were. Were he actually trying to research a topic properly, and push the boundaries of Science, it would be silly to assume that he would do so while sitting on his front porch sipping a glass of tea. No, he would be in a laboratory, surrounded by the latest scientific journals and research papers (+2 circumstance bonus for access to a Library), with the aid of at least one competent research assistant (+2 circumstance bonus for Aid Other), and the very latest in scientific equipment with which to test his theories (+2 bonus for masterwork tools). At 5th level, a determined Einstein can now answer DC 31 questions about Physics without fail, and is capable of making up to DC 41 Knowledge checks, which puts his capabilities at the point they could revolutionize the field, which he did. If given a full research team to Aid Other with, he could make Epic level Knowledge checks while researching Physics. At the same time, being a 5th level Expert of Old Age, and given low rolls, Einstein could easily have only 5 hit points, meaning that he can easily be incapacitated (0 hp) or even killed (negative hit points with no one to help him stabilize) by being stabbed once with a knife by someone of only slightly above average strength. For a more average in-game example, lets look at the humble blacksmith, using the Normal Array. We’ll assume he spent the 13 in Strength to swing the hammer, and the 12 in Intelligence for the craft check. This is also a trained professional, he’s studied his entire life to be a Blacksmith, not anything else. So, at first level, his craft check has the following bonuses: Skill Ranks: +4 Ability Mod: +1 Skill Focus: +3 That’s +8 to his Craft (Blacksmith) checks. However, blacksmiths almost always have apprentices, which would hold the metal, prepare the fires, etc, which constitutes an Aid Other bonus, giving him an additional +2 for a total of +10 to his checks. When crafting a Masterwork item, the Masterwork property is calculated and checked for separately from the base item, at DC 20, meaning this Blacksmith can, with the aid of his assistant, Take 10 and reliably craft Masterwork goods at level 1. Using the same setup, a first level Weaponsmith can reliably make Masterwork Exotic weapons at level 1 (DC 18 for the weapon, still DC 20 for the Masterwork). Even the “legendary” heroes from stories such as Lord of the Rings remain within this level 1-5 range. Aragorn is often depicted as being a high level character, yet if we look at his achievements as presented in the stories themselves, they are not beyond the ability of our standard 5th level hero model. He leads 4 hobbits through the wilderness, while keeping them fed. The DC for this check is 10 + (2 per additional person fed) There were 4 hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin), meaning he needed to make a DC 18 check to succeed. At 5th level, he would have +8 to his Survival check from skill ranks alone, and could Take 10 on the check, giving him exactly 18. In the mines of Moria, he kills about a half-dozen orcs in one encounter, which in D&D are base CR ½ each, a relatively easy feat for a 5th level Ranger. And as Aragorn was supposed to be one of the most remarkable men of the age, that puts everyone else in the same level 1-5 range, with the only exception being Gandalf, who was not a man but a demigod. Many of the supposed realism flaws in D&D evaporate when one realizes that being realistic means being at most 5th level, and everything that entails. Life Many of the “problems” that are assumed to exist in the day to day living of “normal” people (aka, the commoners) revolve around money. Of those, most stem from two misconceptions.
However, commoners do have skill points and feats, the same as the PCs. A generic commoner would have (2 + Int Mod) x 4 skill points at first level. A human commoner would have an additional 4 skill points, and an additional feat. First, we will look at a casual farmer, and then a dedicated farmer. Each will use the Average Array, and will assume they put the 13 in Constitution, 12 in Strength, and 10 in Intelligence. That gives us a strong, hearty commoner of standard intelligence. We will give each farmer a small family, including a wife, son, and baby. Casual Farmer Profession (Farmer): 4 Ranks Intelligence Mod: +0 Skill Focus: +0 Total: +4 The casual farmer has learned a good deal about farming, but has not made it his true passion. Because of this, his Profession check isn’t as high as it could have been. We will also assume that both the wife and the son use Aid Other, and that between them one always succeeds, and one always fails, for a net +2 to his Profession (Farmer) check, for a total of +6. The casual farmer takes 10 on his check, for a total of 16, or a net profit of 8 gp per week. Over 52 weeks in a year, the casual farmer makes a profit of 416 gp. Remember, this is the total profit from his farming endeavors, and already accounts for consumables required to farm, such as seed and feed for livestock. Dedicated Farmer Profession (Farmer): 4 ranks Intelligence Mod: +0 Skill Focus: +3 Total: +7 The dedicated farmer has put forth the extra effort in learning the little secrets of farming. With the same assumed Aid Other from his family as the casual farmer, he has a total check of 19, which gives him 9.5 gp per week, or 494 gp per year. However, it is important to remember that this does not mean that the farmers have 400-500 gold coins per year. It means the value of what they produce is 400-500 gp. Most of this “money” will be in the form of trade goods, such as livestock, backs of flour, dried goods, etc. It also does not take into account that no farmer is going to sell 100% of their produce to outsiders, and then buy food back at full price. The assumption is that much of what the farmers grow will be consumed by them and their families. Look in the PHB, and you will find the following prices for “Meals (per day)”: Good: 5 sp Common: 3 sp Poor: 1 sp A common meal is listed with the example of “bread, chicken stew (easy on the chicken), carrots, and watered down ale or wine”, while a poor meal may be “bread, baked turnips, onions, and water”. We shall assume that each adult (the farmer and his wife) consume the equivalent of 2 common meals and 1 poor meal per day, while the son gets 3 poor meals (this does not mean he eats worse than his parents, just that he is not old enough to eat as much as they do), while the baby consumes the equivalent of 2 poor meals per day. This means that the family consumes 7 + 7 + 3 + 2 = 19 sp or 1.9 gold of food per day. At normal market price, this means the farmer’s family consumes 693.5 gp worth of food, while only producing 4-500 gp. At first glance, this would seem to support the idea that commoners cannot make enough money to feed themselves. However, once again, reading the rules tells us that this is the value for the finished meal, if bought. As I said before, it is unrealistic to think that these farming families would essentially be going out to eat for every meal, they would of course be preparing their own. Even if the wife spent max ranks in Profession (Farmer), which is unlikely, she would still have ample skill points left over for Craft (Cooking). When crafting, you use 1/3 the value of the finished product in raw materials, the rest of the value of the item comes from the time you spend making it, and the skill you put into making it. Once we take that into account, each family now consumes only 231.16 gp worth of food per year. This leaves the casual farmer with 184.84 gp worth of goods and coin in “profit”, while the dedicated farmer walks away with 262.84 gp of profit. Even if we wish to give these commoners a local lord that levies taxes of 30% off the top, casual farmer pays 124.8 gp in taxes, leaving him just over 60 gp in profit for the year, while dedicated farmer comes out with 114.64 gp of profit for the year. Is this a stellar amount of money? No, its not, but it is ample money for things such as saving up for masterwork tools, a new donkey, or even keeping enough “in the bank” to afford a healing potion or a casting of Cure Disease in an emergency. And once more, this does not mean the farmers have that much money in coin. It is highly unlikely that they would so much as see a gold coin, much less own one. Wealth would be in trade goods, with a sack of potatoes being traded for a new iron tool from the blacksmith, or a chicken in exchange for fixing a wheel on the wagon. Some actual coin could come from brewing hard cider or ale to sell to the tavern on the side, but given the price of ale and that they would be selling it at half market value, they would still be seeing mostly copper and silver coins. It is also important to remember that the rules do not cover things such as not being able to grow crops during the winter. This does not mean that a farmer would only be able to work for half a season, and hence make half the money, it means that Profession (Farmer) must also include non-crop related produce, such as milk, eggs, etc, or possibly that the entire year’s worth of profits are generate at one time, during the harvest, and the weekly profits are just the final total averaged out over the course of the year. And while each family would have additional expenses due to needed goods, they also have additional skill points that can be used to meet those needs. Many tools as well as furniture and eating utensils/plates/bowls/etc can be made with a Craft (Woodworking) check. Craft (Clothing) can produce shirts, pants, dresses, cloaks, and other vestments. A basic one room house has a market price of 1,000 gp, which can be crafted using only 300 gp of materials, which is within the grasp of even the casual farmer if he saves for it for several years, and can be crafted quickly with the help of the rest of the community using Aid Other for a “barn raising” type event. The other major issue some people have with “realism” is that they try to assign a value to something in game using the current price of gold. They work out how much each gold coin weighs, checks the current market value of an ounce of gold, and then declare the game unrealistic because the goods end up costing thousands of dollars. This is not a game mechanics flaw, but a common sense flaw. The value of a coin is in what it can buy, not the value of the metal that makes it up (for example, the metal in a US penny is actually worth more than 1 cent, but you can still only buy 1 cent’s worth of goods with it). If one insists on trying to find a common conversion rate between a gold coin in D&D and a unit of real world currency (I will use the US Dollar), one must compare the price of something in game to the price of an equivalent item in the real world, while at the same time remembering that you need something that works most of the time, ignoring extremes. After doing comparisons on almost all of the normal items in the PHB, I have discovered that the closest conversion rate is that 1 sp = $1 US. While I will not give an exhaustive list, I will provide below a healthy sampling of common goods using this conversion rate for evidence. Backpack Cost in Game: 2 gp Projected Conversion Cost: $20 Actual Cost of Clear Backpack from Target: $19.95 Accuracy: 99.75% Chalk, 1 piece Cost in Game: 1 cp Projected Conversion cost: $0.10 Actual Cost of Yellow Chalk from Staples: $0.79 for 10 Accuracy: 79% Rope, hemp Cost in Game: 1 gp Projected Conversion cost: $10 Actual Cost of Sisal rope from Ace Hardware: $10.49 Accuracy: 95.33% Shovel Cost in Game: 2 gp Projected Conversion Cost: $20 Actual Cost of Ames Kodiak Round Point shovel at Ace Hardware: $22.99 Accuracy: 86.99% Tent Cost in Game: 10 gp Projected Conversion Cost: $100 Actual Cost of Coleman Exponent Kraz X1 tent from summitcampinggear.com: $97.95 Accuracy: 97.95% Flint and Steel Cost in Game: 1 gp Projected Conversion Cost: $10 Actual Cost of Magnesium Bar with Flint Striker at Walmart: $7 Accuracy: 70% Dagger Cost in Game: 2 gp Projected Conversion Cost: $20 Actual Cost of Dakkar Dagger from weaponmasters.com: $21.95 Accuracy: 91.11% Longsword Cost in Game: 15 gp Projected Conversion Cost: $150 Actual Cost of Battle Ready Dagesse Sword from weaponmasters.com: $155.00 Accuracy: 96.77% Shield, Heavy Steel Cost in Game: 20 gp Projected Conversion Cost: $200 Actual Cost of Burnished Charlemagne Shield from weaponmasters.com: $184.66 Accuracy: 92.33% So, while not precise, this conversion ratio is accurate enough to be used as a general rule of thumb. While there are instances of glaring inconsistencies, such as a night’s stay in a common motel costing only $5, or ten feet of chain costing $300, but it is at least roughly correct for the bulk of the items found in the PHB. As of the time of this article, the value of gold is $42.22 per troy ounce. There are 14.58 troy ounces to the pound, giving a pound of gold a value of $615.70, which would give one gold coin (which weighs 1/50th of a pound) a value of $12.31, which is actually still fairly close to the value of a D&D gold piece as calculated by buying power within the setting. So, in actuality, we have proven that the value of a gold piece in D&D is roughly equal to $10 USD, both in terms of comparative buying power, and by the current exchange rate of the gold that makes up the coin. So we have proven that even commoners can make enough money to not only survive on, but also enough to save fairly large amounts over time, and we have proven that, in general, the prices of gear and equipment as presented are accurate as well. And when taken into consideration with the fact that “normal” people are level 1-5 (with the accompanying character wealth by level), it turns out that the D&D economy works surprisingly well. Death Perhaps the greatest bastion of D&D being “unrealistic” is the hit point system. And to an extent, this is true. After all, having a crossbow pointed at you, ready to fire should be just as dangerous to everyone, regardless of level, as a shot through the heart is a shot through the heart. However, even on the normal human scale, a 5th level fighter with average hit points (32) has little to fear from 1d8 damage. Even a maximum damage critical hit would do little more than bring him down to half hit points, leaving him fully capable of fighting back. This is where the single most common misconception comes into play. Hit points do not reflect a character’s ability to absorb physical damage. In fact, D&D only has three states a character can be in; Alive, Disabled, and Dying/Dead. Regardless of how many hp of “damage” a character has taken, as long as they have at least 1 hp, they are capable of fighting just as hard as they could at full hit points. The character is not hindered in any way, which surely anyone who’s body had taken massive amounts of damage would be. Hence, loss of hit points must relate to something besides actual physical damage. Hit points could represent skill at defensive maneuvers, skill at dodging or parrying blows, or simple dumb luck. The more “damage” a character takes, the more tired they get (and hence less likely to successfully defend against an attack), or the more of their luck they use up. It is not until the character drops below 1 hit point that they have actually taken significant physical damage. At 0 hp, the character is badly wounded and incapable of continuing the fight without causing itself further injury. At less than 0 hp, the character has actually fallen unconscious and is bleeding to death. To use a popular example from the movies, the Stormtroopers from Star Wars are often laughed at for their inability to hit Luke Skywalker or Han Solo from relatively close range. In D&D terms, odds are that many of those storm troopers did indeed “hit” the heroes, and did damage to them, but because of the abstract hit point system, none of the hits was enough to drop their hp to 0 or less, hence they were not visibly hit. Another example would be from Return of the Jedi, as Han Solo and Princess Leia attack the Imperial base on Endor. They make it through a good deal of combat, and then Leia is actually hit by a blaster round. In all likelihood, she had actually been taking hit point damage repeatedly during the encounter, and the blaster hit at the end was the one that finally took her to 0 hp, and put her out of commission. --- So, in conclusion, D&D as a mechanical system is realistic, at realistic levels. Do things begin to fall apart, realistically speaking, when characters start throwing fireballs and traveling to different planes of existence? Yes, they do, but by that point you have already left the realm of the realistic character and have moved on to having characters that are super-human, the kind of characters that will go down in history books and have legends told about them for centuries to come. You’ve left the realm of realism and entered into the realm of legends, and legends are rarely realistic. |