D&D Movie/TV How would you build characters for a KPop Demon Hunters campaign?

Silam

Villager
At first I thought they’re bards, and they swing fancy blades, so maybe bards of valor. And if we’re going there, then maybe one of the three can be a bladesinger instead, since it’s basically the same abilities, but with better spells… but then I figured, they cast very little, if anything at all. Unless you count the planar travel blocker thingie as some kind of epic-level mythal naughty word. Then definitely there’s got to be one or three archmage-level people involved. Sorry, just saw it for the first time and it got my hamster wheel spinning 😵‍💫
 

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Like a lot of "supernatural warrior"-types, the girls of Huntrix have a lot of abilities that are clearly magical in nature, but cast few-to-no actual spells. For instance:
  • They can fall out of an airplane in mid-flight and not only land safely, but not even be slightly jarred.
  • They can go building-hopping fairly easily, fighting on top of moving trains, and similar feats of acrobatics without slowing down.
  • They can produce their magic weapons from nowhere.
  • This one's iffy, but presumably they have some limited ability to see through demonic disguises, at least if they stare at someone and concentrate long enough. I mean, I suppose them catching sight of Jinu's patterns while he was singing "Soda Pop" could have been him deliberately letting them be seen (he goes out of his way to taunt Rumi in that same sequence), but I like the idea that they have some kind of concentration-based save to see through low-level disguise magic.
  • Even iffier, they presumably have some way of preventing their souls from being yanked out the way so many other humans have theirs. That's a seemingly instant-kill attack, and the demon doing so to the old man in the bathhouse (after the fight there) makes it seem like a quick and easy process for them.
  • The honmoon is the only thing which seems like a spell, but there's a lot about it that would need to be defined. Like, does it act as a barrier around the entire world? Or is it just Korea? The former seems ridiculously large and beyond the scope of the film, but the latter makes the barrier seem provincial; why couldn't demons just enter Earth right outside Korea and come in that way? Or does it keep them out physically (i.e. if they did show up in another country and try to cross into Korea, it'd be like hitting a force field) as well as preventing moving between the demon world and the human one? Don't even get me started about how long it takes to make a golden honmoon; I know that mass media allows for more people to be reached in a faster period of time, but even then the film places thematic resonance over internal consistency in that regard.
I won't say any more, since this thread isn't tagged as being one with spoilers, but those first three (maybe four) powers seem like low-level abilities to me. So I'd essentially make them as melee characters who have a small number of magical abilities that they can use at-will. The honmoon is (much like in the movie) a plot device more than a game mechanic, and the demons are low-level enemies who are more dangerous when used in swarms/mobs/troops, with a few being stronger than normal (e.g. the Saja Boys). But even then, I don't think this campaign would need to get anywhere close to the double-digits (in terms of character levels) to be able to replicate what's in the film.

This is, ultimately, a case about specific applications of abilities (in terms of character classes being deliberate straitjackets) more than whether or not the system can handle such a thing in the first place. If you're willing to homebrew the rules (and maybe some some considered third-party supplements), then it shouldn't be difficult to do.
 

The jump from the airplane can be the typical HALF jump (High Altitude Low Featherfall) technique.

Maybe the demons’ soul-drinking ability is repelled by a simple Protection Against Evil? (And maybe the Honmoon mythal is nothing more than a large scale version of that, too…)

Might make sense to have a paladin in the crew. They sure seem to smite fiends on the regular, and that naginata thingie has got to be a martial weapon.
 

1 I wouldnt use DnD

2 my go to would be Fate, but Blades in the Dark would work too.
High Aspect - Idol identity/Warrior type
Trouble - demons
Second Aspect - fans, management, relationships
Group Aspect - Honmoon unity

3 The Honmoon isnt a spell its a shared wonderous artifact which requires group attunement, in Fate is a extra that triggers a new scene aspect, in BitD its an Arcane Asset
 

Blades in the Dark - Idol Crew
Performances earn Coin
Saving fans earns Rep
Scandals, Tabloid leaks earn Heat
RRplaybooks
  • Slide: Face/Lead
  • Whisper: Arcane lyricist
  • Cutter: Martial dancer
  • Spider: Producer
  • Leech: Stage engineer, effects wizard
 

A 3PP published KPop hunter like a bard subclass.

Falling from an airplan? Easy, "feather fall" in the last minutes.

Some times if you want to adapt superhero-style characters to D&D these have to be "nerferd".
 



Honmoon has classic "Cast once every year for 100 years to become permanent" vibes. Definitely more of a plot device than anything an individual class should give, by radius alone.
 

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