Quote Originally Posted by Denaes
In that case D&D 2e was broken because my whole group hated it :D Just kidding
No problem, I loathed it as well, which is why we played edition 1.5 (a mix of 1 and 2). Oh and the sap was in 1st ed Unearthed Arcana. I cant remember it in 2ed, though it may have been in one of the fifty billion 'powers books' they cranked out. :P

D&D is a heroic RPG, not grim/gritty. It's about kicking in the door and taking names, not going down in one hit because of a low level character with a sap is attacking you.
Not so much grim and gritty I would say as the difference between suspension of disbelief and breaking it.

For example by the rules its entirely possible for a strong fighter to jump of a 2000 foot cliff, hit the ground leaving a crater, get up and then smite a horde of goblins singly handedly with a fork. An extreme example of course, but quite possible with enough hit points. The worst example I ever saw was a fighter shot at point blank range by a tank (it was in a _very_ short lived planer / cross campaign game). He didnt even flinch and then proceeded to chop the tank to bits with a battle axe (players walked out after that, me included).

Heroic? Definetly not. It's Roadrunner vs Coyote stuff.

KO rules, overbearing and grappling give the heros a sharp wakeup call they are not gods, without having to throw more super monsters at them (resulting in more ill gained XP and magic items). A mob of rampaging peasants can quickly bring down even a epic level fighter by sheer numbers if he pushes them too far.

Of course it can be taken too far the other way where heros cant walk down the street without dozens of sap wielding thieves rushing out at them, or where heros try to KO a dragon with a club.

I look for a happy medium.