Quote Originally Posted by Kish View Post
Most people are really, really breakable compared to D&D adventurers. That real-world person who was in the newspaper for surviving a lightning strike, translated into D&D, is probably somewhere between a first-level commoner (1d4 hit points before Constitution modifier) and a fifth-level expert (5d6 hit points before 5x Constitution modifier).
I'm guessing that guy would count as having made his saving throw. It's hard to imagine a real person going through the fluff of a failed save vs. lightning, so to speak, and not getting roasted. On the other hand, people have survived falls from terminal velocity, which is far deadlier in D&D than the lightning bolt. Maybe the system just doesn't calculate relative forms of damage well.