D&D 5E Being strong and skilled is a magic of its own or, how I learned to stop worrying and love anime fightin' magic

[Vaalingrade]

"Lasso: Whiskey carried around a whip/lasso that he could use to fend off multiple opponents: the lasso could also be activated so it became charged with electricity—strong enough to cut someone in half. He was skilled enough to catch objects in midair with the lasso, or pull objects using it."

All the kingsman lore on the net says it's electricity, which means it must have metal threads running through it, so very, very, very fast.

Considering that's not a thing electricity does, we are forced to assume it is magic and thus totally okay even if it turned into a cat and flung itself into his face.

 

[Cadence]

Ballistic missiles don't exist in D&D. Restarting a neutron star is a narrative thing, not mechanical.

I'm pretty sure no rendition of Beowulf I've ever seen was credited with feats in the ballpark though, either physically for the missiles and ship or narratively for the neutron star. (Was Grendel's mom portrayed as an Armageddon level threat in any of the versions?)

 

[Maxperson]

Considering that's not a thing electricity does, we are forced to assume it is magic and thus totally okay even if it turned into a cat and flung itself into his face.

The magic portion would be the cutting part. It is electricity, though, and there would be a conductor throughout the rope, so it moves at close to the speed of light. That dude was toast. No way he could move fast enough.

 

[Cadence]

I kind of want a high level bard power in the playtest about derailment, that just sidetracks whatever was going on, no matter what. Maybe give it to the warlord equivalent too if they put one in.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The magic portion would be the cutting part. It is electricity, though, and there would be a conductor throughout the rope, so it moves at close to the speed of light. That dude was toast. No way he could move fast enough.

Except we see that it is actually moving slowly up the rope. We can see the speed of the rest of the scene happening around it.

You are blaming the human for how the rope is acting.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Which of those move slower than a human arm can move?

I mean, this is not Discworld light we're talking about here, though what happened in that clip was certainly comedic.

The energy depicted does not follow the properties of what any form of actual known energy does.

It is effectively therefore 'magic' and has whatever properties the writers choose to give it. If they write the rules to say it travels at a speed of 2m/second or whatever, then that is how fast it travels. If that allows even just a mundane action hero human rather than fantasy legendary hero a chance to escape the loop, then they have a chance to escape the loop.

If you are making a declaration of fact about its capabilities such as how fast it travels then that engenders two possibilities:
1: You have made the claim from a position of knowledge: You know exactly how fast it travels and the capabilities of the person escaping from it. (Possibly from the book the film was based on, or if there was an RPG based on it with those rules in.)
2: You are making this claim from a position of no knowledge. You are fully aware that you do not know enough about the subject to make such a claim, but you have made it anyway in the hopes that it will bolster an argument that you are trying to make.

Thus demonstrating in a microcosm one of the major problems causing this issue:
Magic almost by definition is unexplainable and thus can be given whatever capabilities people think are appropriate when they write the rules for it. They could make it no match for a cunning mind, a deft hand and a strong arm. They could make it so that a wielder of magic was at the same level of narrative capability as a warrior hero, or notorious thief. Or they could decide that because they could allow it to do anything, that it should be allowed to do everything, in most cases better than anything non-magical.

 

[Maxperson]

The energy depicted does not follow the properties of what any form of actual known energy does.

It is effectively therefore 'magic' and has whatever properties the writers choose to give it. If they write the rules to say it travels at a speed of 2m/second or whatever, then that is how fast it travels. If that allows even just a mundane action hero human rather than fantasy legendary hero a chance to escape the loop, then they have a chance to escape the loop.

They gave it electricity and then power of plotted the other guy into escape.

If you are making a declaration of fact about its capabilities such as how fast it travels then that engenders two possibilities:
1: You have made the claim from a position of knowledge: You know exactly how fast it travels and the capabilities of the person escaping from it. (Possibly from the book the film was based on, or if there was an RPG based on it with those rules in.)

It was a comic as well as a movie. The power is electricity, though as you said it seems to have other properties, also through the power of plot. Electricity, though, it is. That means it moves with the speed of electricity, or should if plot doesn't get in the way.

 

[Maxperson]

Except we see that it is actually moving slowly up the rope. We can see the speed of the rest of the scene happening around it.

You are blaming the human for how the rope is acting.

I blame bad movie plot actually. Bad movie plot doesn't change it into some other energy type, though.

 

[Medic]

However, wuxia heroes had to seek out masters of martial arts or knowledge set down in manuals and train and practice in order to acquire their special techniques. I'm no expert, but it does align with what I know of both genres.

While it could be argued that wuxia heroes are powered by supernatural ki and are not purely martial, I think I would prefer a D&D that is built around the idea that a normal humanoid could train hard enough to reach the power level of Hercules or the Hulk.

There are numerous "layers" that are for all intents and purposes different genres, from mundane martial artists and soldiers that maybe use a few supernatural abilities, to more mythological "immortal" heroes. The latter are more analogous to spellcasters, who increase their power with alchemy and mysticism (they take drugs and meditate).

Ironically, there is also a "martial-caster" split here too, where people who can throw a sword all fancy-like exist with people that can create entire new universes.

 

[Garthanos]

Appropriating "ki" for the monk class is problematic in all the ways that WotC is trying to get away from.

Hell, 4e was planning a ki power source to go with martial, arcane, divine, primal, and psionic until the developers realized that would just be "Asian classes" and folded the monk into psionics.

Orientalism is the issue. To my thinking Martial Power is Qi, one is just in a different language same thing. And the distinction between Knight/Samurai has the same issue. Every martial character is using it subconsciously... the Martial Artist is more aware, not necessarily different. Qi points should be identical to superiority dice. (or vice versi)

i don't beowulf is just a man trained... and he wrestles grendel and a dragon then grendel's mother...

that latter was for hours under water... Gilgamesh is another order all together he arguably fought a sentient volcano.

Grendel/Mom were umm something else, they could bite off the head of a man, chomp and tearing off a monster (of that orders) limb manually is not exactly a typical D&D fighter attack is it?... and Beowulf was able to fight the Dragon too...