saying it was a rat probably wasn’t the best move, because they are probably going to get hit with a full rabies panel. That said, congrats on the engagement.
What a cute and fun story. I mean- ultimately any ruling is at the DM’s discretion regardless of what the the rules say or what even makes sense. And ultimately the human bite can be a very damaging or deadly attack- but so can fists, and other unarmed strikes. Most editions of D&D have rules on how to handle bites. Generally in modern D&D a human bite is an unarmed attack. Base damage is 1+strength mod. To give 1d4+st would already be very generous as a base because using a D4 for unarmed attacks generally requires a feat or class/racial ability etc such as Tavern Brawler or a monks unarmed skill.
Keep in mind a dragon born needs dragon hide to get the ability to use claws and ACTUAL DRAGON CLAWS deal base 1d4. The base damage roll for a common DAGGER is 1d4. A single bite 99.9% would not pierce internal organs, and I would hate if this newlywed couple got in an argument that a dagger should do 1d20 of damage ended up back in the ER or worse.
The damage rules of D&D aren’t perfect and don’t always make perfect real world sense- but it’s also a world where people can shape shift and where there are bags with near infinite space and such. Many game rules are for balance or gameplay reasons, LV 1 or LV40 there isn’t much chance that any human being could take a well placed critical hit from an arrow and not be reduced to incapacitated or dead instantly- but it wouldn’t be fun for most people of their lv 15 character was instantly killed by a lv 1 kobold that got a lucky shot from the bushes.
In the end it is DM’s discretion- but the rules already set bite damage and without training or other modifiers 1d4 bite damage would already be rather generous when you look at what else uses a d4 as a damage roll. At 1d6 a human bite is more powerful than a magic missile spell and as strong as a base javelin or hand axe.
Keep in mind a dragon born needs dragon hide to get the ability to use claws and ACTUAL DRAGON CLAWS deal base 1d4. The base damage roll for a common DAGGER is 1d4. A single bite 99.9% would not pierce internal organs, and I would hate if this newlywed couple got in an argument that a dagger should do 1d20 of damage ended up back in the ER or worse.
In the end it is DM’s discretion- but the rules already set bite damage and without training or other modifiers 1d4 bite damage would already be rather generous when you look at what else uses a d4 as a damage roll. At 1d6 a human bite is more powerful than a magic missile spell and as strong as a base javelin or hand axe.