D&D characters In Real Life : Levels 1-10

[ArlEammon]

So let's see, I've heard that it would take a near optimized level 5 Monk to fight and defeat Mike Tyson. Really? How powerful would a level 10 Monk be? I'm really looking for this thread to discuss in depth what levels 1-10 level characters from D&D/Pathfinder/D20 look like in real life.

[JBarca]

How powerful is a 10th level? Well, everything I've read has stated that the most impressive, the smartest, strongest, most athletic humans to ever live would have topped out at, at most, 5th level.
6+ is superhuman abilities. 10th is Legendary, mythic scale. Above that, we're talking the gods of myths, essentially.

[dascarletm]

Well lets look at this from the perspective of your example. A 10th level monk vs Mike Tyson (or any other real human on earth). For my example I'm not going to used too optimized of a monk. Straight 5 or 10lvl monk with the elite array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8)
I'll allocate these points as such (after a bump to str at lvl 4 and a bump to dex at lvl 8):
Str: 16
Dex: 14 (13 at level 5)
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 14
Cha: 8

Let's see what he can do:

First is HP, which is a touchy subject. I've seen many DM's see it more as near misses until you actually get hurt, almost like luck. So... I'll ignore HP because I find it too far of an abstraction of real life combat to get into. The average HP would be ~60 HP @ lvl 10, and 33 @ lvl 5.

Second is AC, this again is an abstraction, but this guy's AC (no magic items) is 16 (10 +2 Monk, +2 Dex, +2 Wis) @ level 10, and 14 (10 +1Monk, +1 Dex, +2wis) @ 5. This would equate to this monk being roughly 30% harder to hit than a stationary dummy and 20% harder to hit and a stationary person.... sounds pretty silly....... take it as you will.

Damage, finally something to go off of. The base damage of a 10th lvl monk is a d10, or a bastard sword, halberd, etc. A 5th level has a base damage of 1d8, or a longsword, battleaxe, etc. The regular unarmed damage for a human is 1d3 nonlethal (lethal if imp unarmed strike is taken, which I assume Tyson would have some sort of similar ability... maybe also a bite attack...) This is 2+str on average vs 4.5+str or 5.5+str. This is more than double. This is less than the DMG's listed damage for a flintlock pistol. (Ouch).

I could get into run speeds and skill checks like jump, but I'm pretty sure Tyson is beat. (unless his bite attack is optimized).:smalltongue:

Well back to work!

[Ansem]

Lvl 1: Bad luck Bryan
Lvl 10: Chuck Norris (with epic feats!)