D&D 5E (2014) DC in DnD: Superman

[Morrus]

I'm curious as to this ability:

"Physical Invulnerability: Superman takes no damage from any effect unless it is generated by a spell or magic item."

Since virtually every character past level 5 either has magic weapons or other means to inflict magical damage (Monk force punches, artificer infusions, etc.), I don't see this being much of a factor. At AC 16 and 300 HP, he'd get chewed up pretty fast.

A lot of level 20 characters could solo this version of Superman easily.

Given his weakness to magic, a D&D party should be able to. In our world, he's pretty super. In a fantasy magic world, he is not so super.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Physical Invulnerability: Superman takes no damage from any effect unless it is generated by a spell or magic item.

Resilience: When Superman rolls less than an 8 on a saving throw, treat the die as if he rolled an 8.

Superior Recovery: At the start of his turn, Superman regains 30 hit points and removes all conditions currently affecting him, unless the condition was imposed by an enhancement spell or effect.

Man of Steel: Superman does not need to breathe.

This could be one ability:
Man of Steel: Superman does not need to breathe and has immunity to all nonmagical damage. At the start of his turn, he regains 30 hit points and removes all conditions currently affecting him, that are not magical in origin. Whenever Superman rolls less than a 10 on a saving throw, treat the result of the roll as 10

I didn't understood why using 8 for a saving throw thing so I bumped it to 10

Batman did it, and he's only a regular human. At peak physical conditioning, but just a man.

World's richest AND smartest man, world's greatest detective and martial artist, who is instant master in any skill he needs and literally can and does bully godlike beings, because everyone is afraid of him, has 100% succesful method to kill any powerful being on the planet at will, armor capable of curbstomping gods, a robot who can instantly copy anyone's speciality or powers and become their superior in every way, walked out a broken spine and no-sold being laser-point nuked in the face by cosmic god of fascism and has supergod of evil ensuring he always wins as cosmic constant and if he dies he is reborn as Batman in another universe. Batman is far more removed from regular human than rest of Justice League combined.

IMO he is very good at builds, much better than me but his builds for the big three (Supers, Bats, Diana) are honestly a bit lackluster often because of limitations in the D&D 5E system even beyond his methodological choices. .

The thing Tulok noticed is that it is very hard to do a "Z Fighter" build in 5e because it requires a character who

• Can fly
• Has any form of ranged energy attack
• fights unarmed while having high physical strength
• doesn't wear armor

Each of these things requires different things in D&D and the character becomes mediocre at everything by grabbing them all, isntead of focusing in one place. That being said, you can look at his Frieza and Trunks buils, which eschew just one of these four traits each (Frieza wears armro and Trunks uses a sword).

Heck I just spent far too much time doing my own version of Batman today and honestly as capable as the build is, while it feels sort of like Batman , it doesn't do the Dark Knight justice and is nowhere as capable. In case anyone is curious it is a 11 Rogue- 9-Artifice based of Nolan/Bat Aflec versions of Batman . Its still not Bats though just a high level dude who plays a but like him.

Again, the issue is that Batman is just best in the multiverse at anything and everything, in his new series Tulok did dwelve into how a correct way to build him is to zero on an aspect you like and work on that.

 

[Maxperson]

In terms of int (and I'm going based on the animated cartoons primarily for my source), Superman is quite intelligent but not a "genius" compared to the real geniuses of the DCU. At a 14 int he is smarter than the vast majority of people on earth, but he's not the top. I also did give him speed reading which is a monstrous advantage in the research department.

He outsmarts Lex Luthor repeatedly, and is often shown easily figuring out alien technology. He'd be at least an 18 intelligence.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Given his weakness to magic, a D&D party should be able to. In our world, he's pretty super. In a fantasy magic world, he is not so super.

I agree. This is kinda a fundamental thing that one has to remember when making comparisons. Neither Superman nor Dragons exist in the real world, but they are important part in their respective settings.
But they are extremely powerful beings in their genre. Despite this, they have enemies. In the world of superheroes, other superheroes and villains can hurt Superman. In D&D, dragons are defeated by mortal men - heck, sometimes they can defeat gods. If superheroes were to enter the world of D&D, mortal men can become powerful enough to beat them, too. That's okay. High level players are effectively superheroes. How much of that is pure magic and how much that is just a level of skill and fitness unattainable in the real world might be up to specifics and individual preferences, but if a being like a ancient dragon existed in the real world, no one would expect that you'd kill it in open, direct combat with hand-held weapons.

 

[Stalker0]

At AC 16 and 300 HP, he'd get chewed up pretty fast.

A lot of level 20 characters could solo this version of Superman easily.

This was made with 2014 cr math, which we know tends to undercut high CR monsters quite a bit. 2024 math would be interesting to try. I do agree with you that many high level parties could burn through 300 hp in 1-2 rounds.

That said, if you were playing this Superman with DnD monster intelligence…using cosmic speed you could evade the fight entirely and just regen any damage away. So such a party would need to contain him somehow which is tricky to do…though completely within the realm of a high level parties resources

 

[Stalker0]

World's richest AND smartest man, world's greatest detective and martial artist, who is instant master in any skill he needs and literally can and does bully godlike beings, because everyone is afraid of him, has 100% succesful method to kill any powerful being on the planet at will, armor capable of curbstomping gods, a robot who can instantly copy anyone's speciality or powers and become their superior in every way, walked out a broken spine and no-sold being laser-point nuked in the face by cosmic god of fascism and has supergod of evil ensuring he always wins as cosmic constant and if he dies he is reborn as Batman in another universe. Batman is far more removed from regular human than rest of Justice League combined.



The thing Tulok noticed is that it is very hard to do a "Z Fighter" build in 5e because it requires a character who

• Can fly
• Has any form of ranged energy attack
• fights unarmed while having high physical strength
• doesn't wear armor

Each of these things requires different things in D&D and the character becomes mediocre at everything by grabbing them all, isntead of focusing in one place. That being said, you can look at his Frieza and Trunks buils, which eschew just one of these four traits each (Frieza wears armro and Trunks uses a sword).


Again, the issue is that Batman is just best in the multiverse at anything and everything, in his new series Tulok did dwelve into how a correct way to build him is to zero on an aspect you like and work on that.

noting I also did Batman as well if you wanted to take a look: D&D 5E (2014) - DC in Dnd: Batman

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

This was made with 2014 cr math, which we know tends to undercut high CR monsters quite a bit. 2024 math would be interesting to try. I do agree with you that many high level parties could burn through 300 hp in 1-2 rounds.

That said, if you were playing this Superman with DnD monster intelligence…using cosmic speed you could evade the fight entirely and just regen any damage away. So such a party would need to contain him somehow which is tricky to do…though completely within the realm of a high level parties resources

Why would a DnD party fight against Superman in the first place. He's a good guy, they are good guys. You just need to fight long enough until you realize you're on the same side! (Maybe mention Martha, I heard that works. Might be meta-gaming, though.)

But if you want to force a fight with Superman, you don't neccessarily need to trap himself. Just ensure that you're threatening a place or group of people (enough that he can't just evacuate them.) Sure he could run away to heal himself, but a DnD party can easily kill a few people each turn, and probably also break a lot of stuff (though the mechanics for that are a lot less robust.)