So, we’re all aware thatDungeons & Dragonsis pretty unrealistic, right? As one would expect from a high-fantasy game, you may do things well beyond real life, such as casting spells, having access to magical weapons, sleeping eight hours a day, that kind of thing. Combat is no different, as magic plays a key role when fighting around here.
However, as happens with high fantasy, some of this lack of realism can go unnoticed because it looks realistic enough. For instance, with weapons - you just swing them, and you’re good, right? But if you consider how they’re used, it’s still very unrealistic.
It’s worth noting that we’re just listing these as a fun analysis, not as criticism. It’s normal for games to take realism away for the sake of making the game more fun to play.
10Weapons Aren’t That Deadly
Just A Flesh Wound
One thing most of us probably think about once or twice while playing is how tame the weapons are when you stop to consider them. Almost every weapon in this game should kill a person with a simple strike or two, but it rarely does. While those one-shots usually only apply to poor commoners and their low health, they should apply to almost everyone.
Alas, the game would be boring if you could one-hit-kill everyone with a shotgun, especially when the NPC takes a weapon and does that to you or one of your allies. There is a reason health bars exist in the first place.
9Your Exact Hit Points Don’t Matter
One Hit Point Is All I Need
Going a bit further on the topic of health bars, it’s also funny how there are no repercussions relating to the amount of health you currently have.The bloodied conditionreturned in the new D&D 2024 rules, but even then, it’s only a trigger for specific attacks.
Overall, you can fight as efficiently with one percent of your health bar as you can with your full health bar. It doesn’t matter how many cuts, shots, or spells you took; you can fight as amazingly as ever.
8No Lingering Wounds
Unless It’s Narrative Or Homebrew
This one is understandable, as adding this type of mechanic is a recipe for disaster. However, it’s noticeable that D&D doesn’t offer any consequences for sustained attacks or wounds that would usually leave a permanent scar.
All wounds you sustain will be healed by eight hours of rest, and there are no official, mechanical possibilities for someone stabbing you in the eye, chopping an arm off, or something similar. That can happen during narrative moments, and things like that can be added via homebrewing, but they’re not here as part of the core rules.
7Reach Is Rarely A Factor
Every Weapon Should Have It
Reach is a property among specific melee weapons that allows you to hit people a bit further away than you would usually be able to. This property applies to glaives, halberds, lances, pikes, and whips.
The thing is, every weapon gives you an extra reach - that’s one of the points of using a weapon for combat. Even a dagger will increase your reach compared to just punching, and just trying to get close to someone with a sword is already a nightmare.
6Space Should Matter
An Open Room And A Small Corridor Work The Same
Slightly opposing the previous point with something that actually benefits us, the game doesn’t consider how much space you need to use weapons. you’re able to still masterfully wield a greatsword or a polearm, even if you’re in a narrow hall.
However, just like some weapons are deadlier than others, since they’re not balanced in real life, they also work better or worse depending on the situation, and larger weapons need more room than others to work. Except in D&D, thankfully.
5Gear Size Should Matter
I, The Orc, Will Loot This Dwarf’s Armor For Me
The game also ignores the size of the equipment. D&D 2014 used to give disadvantage to small species when using heavy weapons, but even that didn’t make much sense and is now gone. If you forgea greatswordfor a halfling, it should work normally.
That said, each weapon in reality needs to be of an appropriate size for its wielder. For instance, most greatswords need to be the same size (or slightly taller) as their wielder, so a greatsword for a goliath and a greatsword for a dwarf would already be different.
And that’s not even considering armor; they’re custom-made and tailored to one’s specific body size and shape. So how can a dragonborn loot a halfling and steal their gear? All of that would ruin looting enemies, though.
4Bows Should Need Strength
You Need Muscle To Shoot
A popular inaccuracy in this game and many others is having your dexterity be responsible for the damage with bows. That’s a nice way to simplify things when building your character, so you don’t need both high strength and dexterity to use them.
Realistically, however, you need to be strong to use a bow. Their pull can be extremely heavy, to the point that archaeologists can recognize real-life archers from the past through their skeleton structure. Funnily enough, the strength requirement for bows was a thing in older editions.
3Monks Should Need Strength
Agility Is Only One Part Of Punching
Using the same logic as above, monks have a feature that allows them to forgo strength completely and use any melee weapon they’re proficient in with dexterity, including their unarmed strikes. While monks do need to be fast, the idea of dumping your strength is unrealistic.
This comes from a common trait in RPGs where their mechanics make you choose between being strong or fast, but never both, when, in fact, a good fighter needs to be both strong and fast to beat their opponents.
2Weapons And Armor Rarely Break
What Kind Of Metal Is This?
A common thing in real life - that some games even adapt - is weapon durability. There are only so many times you can hit your sword at hard things until the blade breaks, after all. Not to mention that bladed weapons can also lose their edge and even armor breaks after so many hits.
Even something as simple as weapon maintenance is ignored - blood can make them rust, for instance. Still, like everything here, that would add many extra things you’d need to do that aren’t particularly fun and break the game’s pace.
1A Weapon’s Damage Type Rarely Matters
Or How One Weapon Can Deal All Three
There aremany damage types in D&D,and unless the weapon is magical, their damage types will be either bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. Most enemies who are resistant to weapon attacks are resistant to all three or none of them.
Because of that, it doesn’t really matter which of these three your weapon causes, except in very specific situations. There’s also the fact most weapons can theoretically deal with all of these types; a dagger, for example, can both slash and pierce, and its pommel can do bludgeoning - as hitting people with the back of the weapon isn’t uncommon. Weapons are versatile, you know?
