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howtofightwrite · 6 months

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I know DnD is not about realism but how accurate is having, say, your heavy armor wearing paladin have 10 dex or even negative dex? Where medieval knights built like The Rock or like The mountain? I’ve seen youtubers saying that you needed a lot of strength to be able to fight like a knight so women and smaller people couldn’t do it.

I think I know which YouTuber you're talking about, and you can pretty safely ignore them. Their personal misogyny takes priority over their (alleged) expertise when they're forming their arguments.

There's two logistical problems with the idea that you need someone like Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson to make up the bulk of your elite forces. The first problem is that they need to consume a frightening amount of food. This isn't as much of a problem in the modern era, when we have the capacity for truly staggering amounts of agricultural production. But, in a medieval society, with serfs responsible for most of the agriculture, the prospect of feeding each of your elite troops 10,000 calories a day would economically destroy most kingdoms. (And, yes, that is what Björnsson reports to consume on a daily basis. Other estimates place his dietary intake somewhere between 3600 and 8000.) And, to be clear, that is an absolutely absurd amount of food. But, if you want to build that kind of mass, you need a lot of energy, which means, a lot of food.

The second logistical problem is, there's only one of him. Okay, that's not literally true, The Mountain was portrayed by three separate actors, Conan Stevens, a professional wrestler, and Ian Whyte, a stunt actor who had previous appeared as a White Walker in the first season. But, Hafthor Bjornsson took over the role in the fourth season, and is probably who you're thinking of when you name drop the character.

Bjornsson is a member of the 2000 pound club, which include power lifters who can lift over 2000lbs combined between bench press, dead lift, and squats. Not many people ever get that far, and Bjornsson is one of the few individuals who can get into the 1000 pound club from a single lift.

Here's a fun name to know, Becca Swanson is also in the 2000 pound club. She credibly claims that she is the first woman to have achieved that, and I'm not sure if there are any other women in the 2000lb club, but it is achievable.

Now, here's the fun thing about all of this, because you're asking about D&D, and D&D players need to know exactly how much their character can lift. The calculation is (STR*30)lbs. (In the Player's handbook p174.) This also means if you have a real person, and you know how much they can lift in the real world, you can reverse engineer what their strength score would be in D&D.

It's 37.

If you wanted to convert Hafthor Bjornsson into D&D, his strength score would be 37.

Dude can fucking arm wrestle the Terrasque and easily win.

Putting that in perspective, it's a little ludicrous to say that if you want a viable martial character (fighters, paladins, barbarians, etc.), they need a Strength score of 37, when it's not normally possible for player characters to exceed 20 base strength. (If you're wondering, Becca would work out to have ~29 Strength. So, on par with most ancient dragons, and a few gods.)

So, there you have a man and woman who are both superhumanly strong according to D&D.

D&D and math have always had issues like this, and it pops up in a few different places here.

The basic concept that your ability to hit, and the amount of damage you deal is based on strength comes from a very, “schoolyard,” understanding of violence. It's okay to step back and abstract it out, where “strength,” is some amalgam of melee combat aptitude in addition to actual strength, but the idea that being stronger means you can hit harder with a sword or dagger doesn't make a lot of sense. It doesn't even make much sense with axes and maces (the force applied has more to do with the mass and velocity of the weapon, rather than the strength of its wielder.)

A paladin with negative DEX is dead. I don't mean that figuratively, and I do understand what you meant to say, but this rule is a little obscure in 5e. If any of a character's physical attributes (STR, DEX, CON) are reduced to zero, the character immediately dies. Ability draining effects used to be far more common, so the rule existed by itself, though, now it mostly shows up when you're looking at a monster with a physical ability draining attack.

What you probably meant was a negative DEX modifier, meaning your paladin is unusually clumsy. Outside the context of D&D, that would be an incredibly bad thing for a front line combatant. In the specific context of D&D, if they're in heavy armor, it doesn't really matter, if they're in medium, then it reverts to being “a bad thing. Specifically, the rules is that light and medium armor add your DEX modifier to your armor class. Medium armor caps this at +2, but it can go negative with either armor type. However, heavy armor in 5e ignores your DEX modifier entirely.

Now, here's the thing about D&D, its concept of armor is spectacularly weird. Unlike RPGs where armor reduces damage taken, either by subtracting a fixed amount from incoming damage or by reducing damage via a percentage, D&D's system is that your armor class grants you a chance to avoid being hit at all. (5% chance per point of AC, if you're wondering.) Narratively, this is often framed as taking a hit, but your armor turned the blade or something similar. This is because sometimes the enemy attack straight up misses, and that's (usually) determined by your dexterity. This is important, because the game is trying to balance two different power fantasies against each other.

On one side you have the players who want to roll in heavy plate armor, and soak all the hits, and on the other you have players who want to go with light armor, and dodge around enemy attacks. Realistically, that's not an option, but D&D permits it, and again, that's fine. The fantasy of lightly armored fighters makes a lot of sense. I'd even go so far as to say that the barbarian's unarmed defense bonus (where they add CON modifier to their DEX modifier while unarmored) is a really good change in 5e even if it does make no sense objectively. It contributes to the fantasy of this brutal fighter who runs around without armor slapping people silly with their weapons, and shrugging off damage because they're too stubborn to die. In (nearly all cases) the ability to deliver the player fantasy of a class is more important than a strict adherence to reality, and that's fine, that's the point, but the realism of D&D doesn't translate off the page in any meaningful way.

If you wanted a more, “realistic,” (and, yeah, that's incredibly loaded in this context), approach to armor for D&D, I'd say gate access based on your Constitution (or Constitution modifier). Sort of like how your equip load in Dark Souls is based on your Endurance attribute. Give armor and weapons a burden value, and if the combined burden on a character exceeds their CON, the character risks taking levels of Fatigue when they're fighting in heavier gear than they're conditioned to deal with. Maybe add a Conditioning feat or skill if you want to add some other attribute modifiers to the mix should you end up with your heavy armor fighters being underequipped. (Then again, I am one of those psychopaths who really liked the D20 Star Wars' vitality system.) So, ultimately, tinker with the balance until you find something you, and the people at your table, are happy with. Roleplayers who have more meaningful build choices tend to be happier, so long as they don't feel like they're being punished for having a character fantasy.

One of the more amusing descriptions I've read of medieval knights is that they were built like methheads. I can't fully vouch for that, because I'm not an expert on the physical appearance of medieval knights, but it's certainly credible. These guys were eating pretty well for the era, and engaged in a lot of physical activity. Depending on what they were doing, that could easily result in some fairly bulky guys, but it could also result in some wiry looking guys who hide their muscles. Just, knowing what I do about the human body, the answer was probably both, depending on their metabolism and diet. But the image of Sir Methhead, Knight of the Realm, and his implausibly clean teeth, still amuses me.

It's worth remembering that a lot of the times I've seen someone say, “they were built like athletes,” they'll drop an image of a bodybuilder. No. That's not what you would get. Bodybuilding is designed to create its own physique, one that doesn't occur unless you're abusing your body in some very specific (and unhealthy) ways. It's probably better to think of someone like a high-school football player. Bulky, but without the carved physiques of a Boris Vallejo painting. (If you don't know who that is, look up his art. It is a bit dated, but it's gorgeous.)

Alternately, if you do want your characters to look like those paintings, it is your fantasy, have fun.

-Starke

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#writing reference #writing advice #writing tips #starke answers #how to fight write #D&D #Game of Thrones #The Mountain #Hafthor Bjornsson #Yeah Dude's first name is Half-Thor #figure he earns it #I can't judge you for using Boris Vallejo art as your character tokens #I'm still using MTG card art for mine

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theshadowrealmitself · 6 months

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I like the idea of Loki being one of the only people who knows Spider-Man’s identity, because Spiderman is the only one who’s been able to consistently trick the trickster god

And he does it once as Peter Parker when it’s a situation where he can’t switch into his costume, and Loki puts it together like “you!”

But because he’s not actually one of Spidey’s rogues, he doesn’t have to really worry about Loki purposely revealing his identity, but he does have to worry about him unthinkingly revealing it, like seeing him when he’s out taking pics for the Bugle and yelling “Man of Spiders!”

#one of my favorite versions of Loki is from the ultimate Spider-Man cartoon #so this is based on that version of Loki #but not really that version of Spiderman #definitely more of an adult version of Spidey who’s avoiding the avengers so they don’t figure out his identity #but now he has to worry about Thor investigating him because Loki keeps hanging around to prove he’s a better trickster #Spiderman #spider man #spider-man #Peter Parker #loki #loki laufeyson #the trickster god

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ikol-cosplay · 8 months

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@ comics Loki: YOU CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS

#Figure out your own haircut 😂#It happened again #Goddess of stories #Loki #Immortal thor #Agent of asgard #Loki cosplay #Moon queen and magic theatre #Loki 616

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mf-headcannontap · 4 months

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MARVEL Headcannon #6:

Everyone knows how Steve (and probably Bucky, let's be real) are technologically inept, right? Well, you know who else would also be technologically inept? Thor and Loki, but not for the reasons you think.

See Steve (and Bucky, but maybe he has some tech training as the WS, I can't see HYDRA not teaching him how to hack, so really just trivial things such as using social media might confuse him) has the problem of literally jumping forward in time. Thor and Loki would have the exact opposite problem.

Asgard is like this super advanced place that has literal magic and stuff. It's more than safe to assume that despite keeping older aesthetic, they are a highly advanced civilization that is a perfect blend of traditional and innovative technology. The technology of the 21st century here on earth would probably be something that predates them on Asgard, like how telegrams predate everyone currently alive.

So, while Steve is coming forward in time, Thor and Loki are going back in time technology-wise. And that's why they struggle. It would be like if teens today tried to figure out how to use a telegram (or a phone booth/rotary phone) when they are so used to touchscreen.

Loki is a very adaptable person and is the literal God of Fake-It-Till-You-Make-It, and Bucky has been trained (conditioned) to observe and learn (hence the staring problem) so those two are better at hiding their confusion with technology, but Steve and Thor? Yeah, those two visibly struggle.

The four of them have a "support group" of sorts, where they're just trying to figure tech out. Honorable group members include Carol Danvers and Peter Quill, who are alien tech whizzes, and yet are still stuck using 80's tech Earth-wise.

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worstloki · 6 months

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Thor showing up @ Loki's cell in TDW shortly after he was informed of their mother's death calling him out on being an illusion bc he's too composed after the news when he, mr repression himself, attended the death and funeral looking like this

#foul behaviour #im telling you all Thor is very manipulative he is just charismatic about it #he's more manipulative than Loki and never gets called out on it ever #Thor knowing Loki would be hurt and taking the revenge angle like surely that's what Loki would want right #Thor 'im allowed to cover up my grief' Odinson visiting his brother like nu uh #though I do think Thor had more of a warning since he figured out the situation and had been heading to the room Frigga died in #Thor at least expected it and knew the circumstances Loki likely didn't get that info since he tried asking Thor about it #Loki watching Thor acting Normal(TM) like their mother didn't die and picking a fight about it #peak #Thor being frustrated about it too and almost hitting Loki but they process stuff differently i guess #neither bro can help each other like that XD

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moiravim · 1 year

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Forevermore

Dad Loki x child/teen yn (gender neutral)

Uncle Thor x teen yn

Just a bunch of fluff <3

Loki had met you on his first trip to Midgard. Although you were just a child, you were working with the avengers. You had powers that could let you heal people, so you worked with the other doctors in the medical wing.

Even though you spent all your time helping them, none of them cared for you like a parent would.

That was until Loki came. It was obvious to everyone that he had a soft spot for you. He watched over you and became the father figure you didn't have.

As soon as he got the chance, he adopted you and took you to Asgard. The two of you live together in the castle.

He'd help you learn lessons and how to control your magic. He made sure you felt like you belonged.

Loki is extremely overprotective of you. If anyone talked bad about you, He'd start yelling at them. No one is going to get away with hurting his child.

The two of you are inseparable. He makes sure you know how much he loves and cares for you.

His love language is quality time with you. If he could he'd spend every single second of his life next to you. Although Loki doesn't often show his love through touch, he holds your hand frequently.

By the time you were a teen, Ragnarok was starting and Loki took you to Midgard. Even if you argue that you can help, he refuses to let you. "I just don't want you to get hurt" he defends himself.

So the two of you go to Midgard anastay in a small apartment Thor had bought. The avengers didn't fully trust Loki yet, so they refused to let him stay in the compound.

Loki's schedule for the day was: make and eat breakfast, drop yn off at school, go to work, pick yn up, and get dinner.

Although he was annoyed by his new lifestyle, He was happy you both were safe and that you got to spend weekends together.

When Thor got back, you all moved to "new Asgard" and lived in a nice house together. Thor was delighted by the fact he was an uncle and treated you like his own child.

He'd take you out for ice cream, would introduce you to all his friends, and would teach you how to play video games.

When Thor was reunited with Jane, you had offered to use your powers on her. After a while of their begging her, she agreed.

After healing her, you were very exhausted and slept for a week while Loki and Thor took care of you as if you really were royalty. To them you were.

The four of you finally got your happy ending as a normal family. Thor and Jane now had each other, and you knew you'd always have Loki.

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