We have people today who can "punch away death". They're called doctors. I used the word "punch" because you seem to think that that's all mundane warriors can do.
No I don't think so. However, I know for certain, than even professional authors, who almost certainly have far more active imaginations than any of us here, have severe problems thinking of things for warriors to do besides punching even in the worlds where warrior training explicitly makes you a superhuman. Even in, say,
One Piece uberwarriors basically just punch stuff, only in increasingly over-the-top ways, 95% of the time. In fact, I already stated that as one of the reasons of my negative opinion on warriors without extra sources of power past low levels.
BUt what does a doctor do? It heals, with mundane means. Heals things that normally would be a ridiculous notion to be healed....without magic. Or more literally, there's actually therapies that involve trauma of different sorts to heal. Chiropractors, electro-shock therapy, accupuncture, massage, etc. Open your mind to possibilities, and you'll see a number of "magical" things that can be achieved through mundane means.
See, the problem is - in DnD a 5th level cleric does everything a doctor can do better and faster, while packing a wagon of other abilities. Sure, you can give another character the abilty to heal any wound or cure any disease by 6 seconds of using acupuncture, no problem. But why are you calling this "mundane means" again, if there is nothing mundane about it?
In fact, I want to ask clearly - what do you want to accomplish by sticking this greatly misleading label to characters? To who, I remind you, you're already attaching the "personal enhancement" them, which already can give people all the wrong ideas about what these characters are supposed to do?
Let me put it this way. Nikola Tesla once claimed he could split the earth in two with nothing more than a few well-timed explosions. He actually did use the earth as a conductor to create a 130' lightning bolt. The man was not magical, but he was a genius. There's a man who can survive in freezing conditions easily and actually climbed Mount Everest wearing nothing but sandals and bike shorts. There are people who can channel energy through their hands, making them warm to the touch....burning to the touch, actually, and I'm not talking about myths of the Tibetan Monks or something, this is actually documented. And in real life? We are level 6 at most, most of us are level 2 or 3 by mid adulthood. So just imagine what things a true high-level person would be able to do in real life.
A true high-level person is not a concept from real life. Of course, by definition he will be capable of miracles unthinkable for us. So why call him mundane, again?
