D&D "Super Heroes"

[DungeonMaester]

I have always wanted to write up a campaign where most people in the world are 20th level. However, to keep a balance the players would not be allowed any special abilities that isn't a feat or class abilty, and take all magic items right out.

--Rusty

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Back when I cared about making M&M 2e my DC game of choice I took and said forget the Power Level Limits and make the characters accurate to the comics and past RPG's and Supermans Strength is between 88 and 120 based on what he has done in the comics and from the DCU rpg by WEG.
Superboy prime with his ability to move a planet (as mentioned in Crisis on Infinite Earths) has Str score of around 400!

D&D characters just arent powerful enough to go taking on guys like Thor, Superman, Sentry, Specter, Captain Marvel or even Zatanna.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Superboy prime with his ability to move a planet (as mentioned in Crisis on Infinite Earths) has Str score of around 400!

Moving planets is waay old school.

 

[Doug McCrae]

As for the assertion about Supes...seeing as how he can actually attack people from beond the atmosphere (say, by dropping a 150+ ton rock on them), move faster than the eye can see (How many swift actions would he get? How many miles would his half-move be?), use his heat vision to cook them as long as he has LOS

Yes, but Supes doesn't do those things because he's very generous to his opponents. Always gives them a free shot from close range. Then looks pretty stupid when he's turned into a toad.

I guess the real reason is if Superman dealt with every problem from extreme long range and/or at superspeed it would be too hard to challenge him and make for a boring comic. Hence the super-complacency, no matter how many times it bites him on the ass.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I think superman IS pretty boring, But theirs some wicked art of him.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yes, but Supes doesn't do those things because he's very generous to his opponents. Always gives them a free shot from close range. Then looks pretty stupid when he's turned into a toad.

That depends upon the situation & the writer. At times, he's proven to be a fairly competent tactitian.

If he knows you're a wizard or otherwise using magic, he's going to be on guard.

If he knows you're using kryptonite, he's going fight you at range.

And similar things can be said of those characters that are like him. Mon-El- vulnerable to lead- avoided being shot at on 20th Century Earth, for instance. In a D&D setting, he'd be pretty much unstoppable...until he met a halfling using lead shot in his sling, of course.

 

[Firebird]

Hmmmm......I'm not sure how this E6 thing really works.

Could someone show me side by side versions of a monster using the standard rules and then the E6 version? Maybe that Bulette or Red dragon from earlier.

Thank you

 

[WayneLigon]

And similar things can be said of those characters that are like him. Mon-El- vulnerable to lead- avoided being shot at on 20th Century Earth, for instance. In a D&D setting, he'd be pretty much unstoppable...until he met a halfling using lead shot in his sling, of course.

Brainiac-5's serum (in all incarnations I can find) temporarily (and later on, permanently) cured him of that vulnerability so he's pretty much Superman with no weaknesses whatsoever. It's unknown just what in the world they're doing with him now, given the most recent Superman preview pages.

Really, though, comparing 20th-level D&D characters to superheroes is comparing apples and oranges. The assumptions and genre conventions are totally different in many cases. I think the term only came about as a disparaging one since for a segment of the populace 'superhero' is a derogatory term.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The assumptions and genre conventions are totally different in many cases.

Not really- after all, most superheroic universes contain characters who are "superheroes" but have magical/mystic backgrounds*...

Dr. Fate, Dr. Strange, Iron Fist, Zatanna, The Black Knight, The Phantom Stranger, Capt. Marvel (aka Shazam & his whole family & parts of his rogue's gallery), The Specter, The Demon, King Tiger, Archer & Armstrong, etc.

Many of those characters display abilities beyond those found in a typical FRPG, or at least, beyond the abilities of mere mortals.

*which is part of the reason why a good superhero RPG has a system that is better at simulating a wider variety of campaign styles than most other RPGs- witness HERO and M&M.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Moving planets is waay old school.

I remember Supes chaining all the planets in a solar system (our IIRC) and moving them somewhere!