D&D 5E [+] Ways to fix the caster / non-caster gap

This runs rather against my experience with both Batman and Captain America.
What comics? If you have never seen a comic where Batman is polymorphed by a spell into a bug and squashed...and DC never, ever again publishes another Batman comic? I'd guess you have never seen that.....

Marvel comics even has a villain, Radiation Man.....with one blast of high enough radiation.....and Captain America would just fall apart, quite literary. But, of course, that never happens. Even just blast Cap with 1000 rads...and sure he deflects with his shield..but now his contaminated shield will kill him....but again, it does not happen.
Has anyone read anything in this topic that they found helpful in addressing the issue?

Like I said, I can offer a dozen different solutions, but if everyone is just shooting down each other's ideas, what's the point?
Well....it's the internet.
 

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Teleporting can certainly be done with just a wand (Arcane Focus). Apportation. I believe Invisibility can - but the cloak is more akin to Greater Invisibility. And the power of Harry Potter's wizards depends on which series of films - remember Harry and co. are still at school.

Yeah, this is Harry Potter, video games, or comics. And even when we look at myths the mythological casters are almost all obvious NPCs.

It used to be said "no one ever stays dead in comics except Bucky, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben". And two of those returned in 2005.
At least they did a good job with the Winter Soldier.
 

I do not understand this reference.

But considering Main Character Syndrome is a frequent insult, this is like calling a turkey a turkey. Sure you used the insult as an insult, but what the heck is the turkey supposed to do and why should it feel bad for being what it is?
I'm not aware of a term specifically for that kind of behavior pushed too far but main character syndrome is close enough in enough ways. There was silliness & an expectation of an understood Overlord reference, I'll try to shed light on the reference.

Ainz Ool Gown is the name of the main character from an anime/book series called Overlord. There's several novels to it with a lot going on plotwise, but pretty much a guy gets isekai'd into his max level mmo character complete with levels gear & stats as is. Along with him are an enture guildhall worth of equally overpowered somewhat insane power hungry NPCs. The whole gaggle of them find themselves in a standard d&dish world where the people & the world have levels gear & stats closer to standard d&d levels. Throughout the series being undead is sapping away Ainz's ability to feel empathy & such he plays off fear of other players in a similar situation with a more PvP focused build to keep the guild's bloodthirsty NPCs from just massacring everything as he slowly takes over the world. The author started writing it after being unable to find players for his d&d game post graduation & it's chock full of what were probably PCs/NPCs from his past games. Think of record of lodoss war (it was someone's 1e/2e campaign log turned into an anime) but replace the party with an absurd GMPC with a bunch of similarly powerful but insane & unhinged GMPCs to do the tedious plans for him that players usually farm out to NPCs.

The power delta between Ainz & his associated isekai'd NPCs stacked against rest of that world is as massive as you would expect (if not moreso). Without needing context NPCs they like rehind their back to them like this :). Rather than plot armor they are just that far beyond everyone kind of like high level PCs can use their strength to treat nearly anyone without deific levels. Because it's a story (or campaign in a trrpg) the world needs to somehow carry on no matter how those actions twist the world around & in Overlord it does.

If a player is acting in a way too far into the idea that the PCs are the plot armored protagonists of the world itself enough to ask a question like "Is it really 'Main Character Syndrome' when you're literally supposed to be an ensemble of Main Characters?" it's kinda channeling Ainz.
 
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What comics? If you have never seen a comic where Batman is polymorphed by a spell into a bug and squashed...and DC never, ever again publishes another Batman comic? I'd guess you have never seen that.....

Marvel comics even has a villain, Radiation Man.....with one blast of high enough radiation.....and Captain America would just fall apart, quite literary. But, of course, that never happens. Even just blast Cap with 1000 rads...and sure he deflects with his shield..but now his contaminated shield will kill him....but again, it does not happen.

Well....it's the internet.
That wasn't your contention. Your contention was that they never fought magic users or folks with sufficient tech to kill them. That they only ever fought "low-level bruisers".

Off the top of my head I've seen Batman fight Darkseid, and there's a whole movie with Batman and crew solving supernatural mysteries.
 

That wasn't your contention. Your contention was that they never fought magic users or folks with sufficient tech to kill them. That they only ever fought "low-level bruisers".

He said more than that.

" Plus simple things like air and heat. But the foes just "never use them". And they never fight a foes that can do things like magic effectively. "

Off the top of my head I've seen Batman fight Darkseid, and there's a whole movie with Batman and crew solving supernatural mysteries.

If Darkseid wanted anyone below the top tier JLA members (Supes, GL, etc) dead, it kind of feels like he should be smart and competent enough to just do it.

One of the schticks of super hero comics is that the bad guys who could never just off the weaker heroes (unless someone really needs to sell an issue, but don't worry, they'll be back).
 

He said more than that.

" Plus simple things like air and heat. But the foes just "never use them". And they never fight a foes that can do things like magic effectively. "



If Darkseid wanted anyone below the top tier JLA members (Supes, GL, etc) dead, it kind of feels like he should be smart and competent enough to just do it.

One of the schticks of super hero comics is that the bad guys who could never just off the weaker heroes (unless someone really needs to sell an issue, but don't worry, they'll be back).
He cheated in the Darkseid fight if it's the one from Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. He rigged basically nukes to go off, which would destroy much of Apokalips and basically told Darkseid if he didn't back off, he'd press the button.

Darkseid realized that Batman would do it, too. Granted, he did break Bruce's ribs for his impertinence, but he didn't kill him.
 

He cheated in the Darkseid fight if it's the one from Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. He rigged basically nukes to go off, which would destroy much of Apokalips and basically told Darkseid if he didn't back off, he'd press the button.

Darkseid realized that Batman would do it, too. Granted, he did break Bruce's ribs for his impertinence, but he didn't kill him.

I guess it says something about Darkseid's character that he didn't randomly do it a few years later so it wouldn't be a problem in the future.
 


Apokalips may be a hell hole, but it's his hell hole, and he isn't keen on letting anyone else trash the place but him.
I meant that Darkseid didn't randomly kill Bruce at some later date to prevent any future Apokolyptic Bat-shenanigans. (Presumably DS had quickly removed the bombs after Bats left?)
 

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