Some unrelated questions

[limejuicepowder]

1) What rules exist/have some of you DM's used to determine damage from getting hit by a car? This could potentially be a common occurrence in a modern game.

2) At risk of making myself look like someone who vastly overestimates their own abilities, I call nonsense on both carrying capacity and hold breath. According to the table, the average person should be able to lift 100 pounds over their heads. That is a lot, and there's no way the average person could do it.

Similarly, an average person should be able to hold their breath for 2 minutes automatically - only after that do they have to make constitution checks to go longer. Again, this is nonsense.

Does anyone else feel both of those are a little skewed (especially hold breath?)

3) Can creatures without a Bite Attack make a bite attack? Especially in a grapple this could be an important desperation move.

[Flickerdart]

1) What rules exist/have some of you DM's used to determine damage from getting hit by a car? This could potentially be a common occurrence in a modern game.
No rules for this. d20 Modern probably has some.



2) At risk of making myself look like someone who vastly overestimates their own abilities, I call nonsense on both carrying capacity and hold breath. According to the table, the average person should be able to lift 100 pounds over their heads. That is a lot, and there's no way the average person could do it.

Similarly, an average person should be able to hold their breath for 2 minutes automatically - only after that do they have to make constitution checks to go longer. Again, this is nonsense.

Does anyone else feel both of those are a little skewed (especially hold breath?)
It's a game about heroes doing awesome things. Lifting heavy stuff and holding your breath for a long time are things you often see in action movies, so they're modelled that way in D&D.



3) Can creatures without a Bite Attack make a bite attack? Especially in a grapple this could be an important desperation move.
No. Such a creature would use Unarmed Strike.

[limejuicepowder]

It's a game about heroes doing awesome things. Lifting heavy stuff and holding your breath for a long time are things you often see in action movies, so they're modelled that way in D&D.

Still though, if the average scores are supposed to represent average people, then what those scores allow should reflect that. Have it scale up faster or something so the above average people can still do their heroic stuff.



No. Such a creature would use Unarmed Strike.

I guess you could just refluff it to be a bite if you wanted. A +2 circumstance bonus might not be amiss either.

[ddude987]

1) What rules exist/have some of you DM's used to determine damage from getting hit by a car? This could potentially be a common occurrence in a modern game.

2) At risk of making myself look like someone who vastly overestimates their own abilities, I call nonsense on both carrying capacity and hold breath. According to the table, the average person should be able to lift 100 pounds over their heads. That is a lot, and there's no way the average person could do it.

Similarly, an average person should be able to hold their breath for 2 minutes automatically - only after that do they have to make constitution checks to go longer. Again, this is nonsense.

Does anyone else feel both of those are a little skewed (especially hold breath?)

3) Can creatures without a Bite Attack make a bite attack? Especially in a grapple this could be an important desperation move.

Respoonding to 2) I consider myself quite average and I can life 100 lbs over my head. I also can easily hold my breath for 2 minutes. Now whether I can do it longer I don't know. I don't quite know what average is, I think in the real world it really depends on your area. In America I definitely see people that probably can't life 100 pounds every day but that doesn't mean that on a larger scale that isn't average.

[limejuicepowder]

Respoonding to 2) I consider myself quite average and I can life 100 lbs over my head. I also can easily hold my breath for 2 minutes. Now whether I can do it longer I don't know. I don't quite know what average is, I think in the real world it really depends on your area. In America I definitely see people that probably can't life 100 pounds every day but that doesn't mean that on a larger scale that isn't average.

Now you're making me feel bad xD

I'll be honest I strain to hold my breath for 1 min, giving me a 5 con. While I've never tried with free weights, I have used a weight machine and 100 lbs, perhaps a bit more, is about where I am with the overhead lift.

Body weight exercises are a bit harder to judge by, but I can do 100 push-ups, 30+ chin ups, easily climb ropes using only my arms, and bench over 200 (I weigh about 160). Still though, that probably is about average for a working, active society (i.e., not modern America)

5 Con (ouch), making me one sickly dog. Despite being able to run 7-8 miles in an hour, almost never getting sick, and going to the gym regularly. I just don't buy it.

[GoddessSune]

1)Damage 1d6 per 10 MPH is what I have used.

2)I sure think the average, healthy blue collar worker type guy can lift 100 pounds over his head. Guys like construction workers, soldiers or garbage men. Though I seriously doubt a single guy from the IT or HR departments could do it.

And I doubt almost any woman could lift 100 pounds over her head. I know i can't. I can't even lift a car battery(and they weigh less then 100 pounds right?) Heck, I can't even lift a full box of copy paper(I have to push the box along the floor).

And I'd say the average person can hold there breath at least two minutes. That is not such a long time. In Swim Class we had to sit under water and hold our breath for five minutes to pass the class (Right before we had to float in the deep end of the pool fully clad in a street clothing for forty minutes.)

3)Yes. But a creature with no bite attack does not do much. The bite of say, a human, just does not do much damage.

[limejuicepowder]

And I'd say the average person can hold there breath at least two minutes. That is not such a long time. In Swim Class we had to sit under water and hold our breath for five minutes to pass the class (Right before we had to float in the deep end of the pool fully clad in a street clothing for forty minutes.)

Maybe I just suck at holding my breath.



3)Yes. But a creature with no bite attack does not do much. The bite of say, a human, just does not do much damage.

I almost added this part to the original question: how should exceedingly painful but not especially damaging attacks be handled? A bite from a human (or zombie) would fall in to this category.

[TuggyNE]

2) At risk of making myself look like someone who vastly overestimates their own abilities, I call nonsense on both carrying capacity and hold breath. According to the table, the average person should be able to lift 100 pounds over their heads. That is a lot, and there's no way the average person could do it.

I believe I have a very nearly average Str score, and I can definitely lift 80 lbs over my head (feed sacks); straining, I could probably manage 100 lbs, though not for long. So if you assume I'm Str 9 or Str 10, that seems to work.

Of course, I don't necessarily have the best handle on average scores, so that might well be off.


Similarly, an average person should be able to hold their breath for 2 minutes automatically - only after that do they have to make constitution checks to go longer. Again, this is nonsense.

Yeah, that one I can't figure out. It's possible (I'm given to understand) for someone to learn to hold their breath for two minutes, but it requires a great deal of training and practice, and arguably they're making Con checks for the last 20-40 seconds of that.

I believe I have an average or slightly elevated Con, and I'm not sure I could make it 30 seconds. :smalltongue:

(Of course, I never learned how to swim, either, so put that one down to "untrained Swim checks give a -4 competence penalty to effective Con for holding breath" or something like that.)


3) Can creatures without a Bite Attack make a bite attack? Especially in a grapple this could be an important desperation move.

Not that I know of.

[GoddessSune]

Maybe I just suck at holding my breath.

Well, remember 'average' is like 25% can do more, 50% can do it and 25% can't do it. So to take 100 people: and 25 can hold their breath for more then two minutes easily(like me), 50 can hold their breath for just about two minutes, and 25 can barley hold their breath even for a short time(like you).





I almost added this part to the original question: how should exceedingly painful but not especially damaging attacks be handled? A bite from a human (or zombie) would fall in to this category.

Well, the d20 rules don't really cover 'pain' at all. And compared to say a sword strike to your abdomen, a bite from a human would cause no pain at all.

[Flickerdart]

I guess you could just refluff it to be a bite if you wanted. A +2 circumstance bonus might not be amiss either.
Why would there be a bonus? If it were a real bite attack, it wouldn't give you a bonus, nor is biting people actually an effective combat tactic. If anything, you'd get a big honkin' penalty.

[The Viscount]

3. No, a human is not allowed to make a bite attack, even in desperation. For example, see the Tainted One template as printed in several locations, including Races of Faerun, IIRC. The tainted one can only make a bite to inject poison when it has its opponent pinned, and even then the damage is all from the poison, none from the bite itself.

[lsfreak]

I almost added this part to the original question: how should exceedingly painful but not especially damaging attacks be handled? A bite from a human (or zombie) would fall in to this category.

As normal. Hit points represent pain, fatigue, luck, and will to keep going at least as much as they represent how much physical damage you can take.

[The Viscount]

I almost added this part to the original question: how should exceedingly painful but not especially damaging attacks be handled? A bite from a human (or zombie) would fall in to this category.

Depends on the effect. Wrack incapacitates. I've seen a few other effects that deal nonlethal. I'd suggest a penalty of some sort, maybe half of the sickened penpenalty

[Ashtagon]

1) What rules exist/have some of you DM's used to determine damage from getting hit by a car? This could potentially be a common occurrence in a modern game.

d20 Modern has rules for this.

http://www.12tomidnight.com/d20modernsrd/CombatVehicles.php

Typically 4d8 hp, DC 15 Reflex save halves. This might not seem like much, but it's typically enough to force a massive damage check under d20 Modern rules.


2) At risk of making myself look like someone who vastly overestimates their own abilities, I call nonsense on both carrying capacity and hold breath. According to the table, the average person should be able to lift 100 pounds over their heads. That is a lot, and there's no way the average person could do it.

Similarly, an average person should be able to hold their breath for 2 minutes automatically - only after that do they have to make constitution checks to go longer. Again, this is nonsense.

Does anyone else feel both of those are a little skewed (especially hold breath?)

I never tried the lifting thing. But, BEFORE I moved to the big city and screwed up my lungs with air pollution, 2 minutes of breath holding would not have strained me at all. We tend to underestimate just how bad air quality in modern cities actually is. It was much worse 100 years ago than now, but now is still horrid compared to 1000 years ago. Our lungs suffer for modern life.

My health in other aspects has never been high enough to say my Constitution score is particularly high.


3) Can creatures without a Bite Attack make a bite attack? Especially in a grapple this could be an important desperation move.

Without a stated-up bite attack, "biting" is just another form of "unarmed strike".