Re: OT: Narf has gone looney and wants to GM.
D&D sound mechanics don't make sense; really, they don't:
A battle has a base DC of -5. At 260 feet, the "average person" can't hear it at all (DC 21). At 300 feet, only wise individuals or those who have spent the time to learn to listen can tell it's there (and even then, only rarely - DC 25). At 400 feet, almost nobody can hear it (DC 35 - for a 20 to work, you need +15 in modifiers; 18 Wis and 11 ranks - an 8th level character!)
A lightning bolt strikes the ground. The thunder can be heard quite reliably and recognizeably in real life for miles. Assuming a base listen check DC of -1000, an "average" D&D character can hear it while sleeping on a roll of 1 at a distance of 9,910 feet. An awake character on roll of 20, 10,200 feet. A sound that has just traveled for well over a mile goes from waking everyone up to barely perceptable by someone extremely lucky in the space of 300 feet. A 20th level Cleric with Wisdom 30 and max ranks in Listen (+33 to check) can't hear it at all (roll of 20 fails) after 10,540 feet.
I'm not quite ready to start house-ruling it yet, though.
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Of course, by the time I finish this post, it will already be obsolete. C'est la vie.
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