D&D General How has D&D changed over the decades?

[tetrasodium]

They're also usually being ridiculously hyperbolic. At most, non-magical D&D characters are in the category of pulp adventure characters of the higher end. You can make weird arguments about mages, but even there, as noted, D&D characters have a limited tank, something extremely rare with superheroes.



And nothing suggests level 3 looks anything like a superhero.



It doesn't matter whether you do or not; the fact the things some supers use are equipment-like exists only in the sense of an occasional plot device. You almost never see a superhero out scrounging for more gear (and if you do they're very much at the bottom end of the scale and/or its a one-off plot event).



There's a fine line here. When you're looking for a fix for problems, using optional rules and house rules is one of the first places you should go. When you're talking about the general suitability of a system for use outside its normal purpose, though, if you go there you're in the "any system is good for anything camp" and no, I'm not following you there.

superhero is a pretty wide genre, it very much does not place superman at the bottom either.

 

[loverdrive]

Per RAW, lots of people are already calling characters in 5ed super heroes. Change nothing and here you go.
Nothing prevents you to start level 3.
5ed assume no magical items. Nothing prevents you to have high tech items resembling magical items. The sky is the limit. Why do you limit yourself?

I suppose you could use 5e rules to simulate superpowers... Which is like the least important thing about superhero genre.

 

[overgeeked]

superhero is a pretty wide genre, it very much does not place superman at the bottom either.

Being able to generate an infinite amount of fire sounds like a superpower. Regeneration of all wounds in 8 hours sounds like a superpower. Stopping people from dying with a touch sounds like a superpower.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I can absolutely promise you there are a fairly large number of people who are hostile to virtually any mechanic that they view impinges on their roleplaying at all, which they view virtually any social or intellectual mechanics. It comes up too often for it, even given the tendency for people with a bad reaction to be more likely to say so, not for it to be true.

I've seen pages and pages of people reacting to other people expressing disinterest in such mechanics as if said people were screeching about the end of days, but hostility from the people who don't see the value in such mechanics? Pretty rare.

 

[Hussar]

Being able to generate an infinite amount of fire sounds like a superpower. Regeneration of all wounds in 8 hours sounds like a superpower. Stopping people from dying with a touch sounds like a superpower.

So, every form of D&D ever? Because, well, you can do all of that in every edition. The only real difference is how often.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Right. Which is hilarious when you look at the survivor rules presented in Van Richten's. Your survivor levels up...and gains cool abilities. Admittedly, some of them are really great, like Adrenaline Surge and Desperate Scream. It's so...something. I mean, nice attempt at D&D horror...but it's...yeah.

Why would you ever expect a game to replace it's fundamental mechanical model to add a secondary genre to their game as an optional mode of play?

Because not having PCs level up and gain new abilities would be that. It would be extremely strange to get rid of that, when they can just...do what they did...and keep it without the characters ever reaching into a new tier of power.

Which also gives groups yet another optional tool to change the way their game plays, by starting as survivors in any genre of dnd game, in place of a "level 0", as an added bonus.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Being able to generate an infinite amount of fire sounds like a superpower.

Being able to cast spells at all is a superpower.

Regeneration of all wounds in 8 hours sounds like a superpower.

Good thing that's not what's happening because HP aren't wounds and never have been!

Stopping people from dying with a touch sounds like a superpower.

I have CPR training. I can stop people from dying by breaking their ribs.

But I guess if I can return people to life by making their corpse snort five grand worth of diamonds is not a super power?

 

[Minigiant]

I have CPR training. I can stop people from dying by breaking their ribs.

I have to correct you as a CPR trained person.

We resurrect the dying and dead by breaking their ribs.

 

[Thomas Shey]

superhero is a pretty wide genre, it very much does not place superman at the bottom either.

Even the lower end of superheroes at best brushes with modern D&D, and by that point, you've basically just said "Its more like pulp characters" since that's what you're talking about...and as I've noted, some of those characters were avowedly among the inspirations for the game.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Being able to generate an infinite amount of fire sounds like a superpower. Regeneration of all wounds in 8 hours sounds like a superpower. Stopping people from dying with a touch sounds like a superpower.

Taking 8 hours to regenerate all wounds is a remarkably low end super power. The actual supers that make an issue about regeneration do so in minutes, if not less. And generating fire unlimitedly only looks like a superpower if the fire is potent enough anyone cares. Just being able to do it doesn't say anything.