I’ve used tons of geometry in games. I've heard it's useful IRL but I never go to there.
this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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No he cannot. I don't even need to use the theorem to figure that out. He's already at the maximum range by being 30ft in the air. Unless the party is directly under him, he can't reach.
I would argue that this explanation still requires a working knowledge of the Pythagoras theorem, even if you don't employ the formula directly. Specifically the knowledge that the hypotenuse must be longer than either of the sides unless the angle of the non-90 degree sides are 180 and 0, essentially making it a line.
You deducted the hypotenuse must be longer than 30 since they weren't aiming directly at the ground. Believe it or not, that's not common sense.
I watched (some) of a History of Mathmatics documentary, and what struck me was how many of the theorems ancient people came up with were just common sense. But they wrote it down: that's what made it noteable.
There were some theorems/axioms that i had trouble getting my brain to accept, but generally it came down to me not "getting" their number/tally system or simply having no context for why they needed that math in the first place (ie: it wasn't common sense to me). For example. I'm not an ancient accountant who needs to be able to calculate grain taxes and -- at the same time -- be able to assure a farmer (who can't read my number system) that i'm taking the correct amount of his food, so their method of long division using different colored stones seemed needlessly convoluted to me.
Note, too, that there is value in being rigorous about "common sense" assertions.
Some of the most exciting discoveries happen when something everybody assumed they knew turns out to be wrong.
Very true! I wish I could upvote you more than once, so i'll write a long-winded comment instead...
Quantum mechanics is the least common-sensical realm of science and math, and yet it is excedingly useful and has expanded our understanding of the universe tremendously. But to get here, many someones had to keep asking "why" without stopping at common-sense answers.
Ok we need to have a word on what counts as real life
I knew it! Feet are not real! Nobody is using such unit in real life!
(Sorry, not sorry 😛)
I thought feet were an invented unit only used in DnD
It’s a meta-unit invented for flavor to provide a reference to the normal size of cubic creatures.
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You could always just use the rules for diagonals on page 252 of the DMG
Range 36? I'd give it to them, unfortunately, Google tells me bless is range 30.
As a long-time DM, this sort of loosey-goosey handling of basic math in D&D is how Flight makes it into 1st level games... ie. "What could go wrong?" is the epitaph for the vast majority of games killed by shenanigans. 😜
Big fight in dire straits, but the group has been having a session that's helped you flesh it all out more and they've been doing deeds in alignment with the cleric's deity? Shenanigan. Maybe you pass a note to the cleric later to entice them with a quest. Troubling dreams, seek out a shrine, the whole party has the same dream.
Same situation but they earned a bit of a walloping and should have the resources to win or the intellect to run? Shenanigannot.
I'll see your Pythagorean Theorem range question and raise you a Feramt's Last Theorem based magic puzzle/lock/trap (laughs in maths)
(laughs in maths)
D&D math jokes? Let's go!
Q: What phases through stone and is equivalent to the axiom of choice?
A: Xorn's Lemma
I used to make CS:S maps in middle school and when I had to make a rail for stairs I felt like a genius whipping out Pathagora. I really havent had to use it after that butttttt I did use it in my real life at one point.
In school you think trig is worthless and calculus is the big shit but in the real world it's the other way around.