So I've really enjoyed all of the epic monster designs of late, and I've gotten the itch to try more of my own. So I want to see if I could do "justice" to turning the Justice League into Dnd monsters.
Now the trick with comics is, they are all over the place. Give people enough time and they can always point at the one time X superhero did this crazy stunt that just blows every stat you thought about them out of the water. So we are going to ignore that
My goal is to present the leaguers in roughly standard form, with the classic feats and abilities they commonly display. I will admit to be a big fan of the DC animated movies, so that will be a draw of my inspiration as well.
And why not start off with a bang! The ultimate leader of the Justice League and greatest DC Hero....Superman!
Superman Design Notes and Character Traits
Superman
Medium Humanoid (Lawful Good)
AC 16 (+1 Padded Armor)
Hit Points 300
Speed 100 ft, Fly 100 ft, Burrow 100 ft
Skills Athletics +16, Investigation + 10, Persuasion + 12, Perception: +12
Damage Immunities *See Physical Invulnerability
Senses *See X-Ray Vision, Passive Perception: 27
Languages Common
Challenge 26
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.
Break Invulnerability: Superman's Heat Vision and Punch attacks ignore the Physical Invulnerability and Damage Threshold traits. Spell effects that are immune to damage can take damage from these attacks, and are considered to have 500 hp.
Brawler: Superman has a -5 to his attacks and +10 to his damage (factored into to his statblock).
Cosmic Strength: Superman has no limit to his carrying capacity, and gains +27 to his melee damage (included in his statblock). His attacks deal double damage to objects and structures.
Cosmic Speed: When performing the Dash Action, Superman can move to any location on the same plane. Superman can move through any barrier to get to the location, except ones immune to damage.
Mercy: Against Humanoids, Superman cannot make critical hits. If a Humanoid is brought to 0 hp or less by any of Superman’s attacks, Superman always choses to knock them out instead of kill them.
Hear the Helpless: Superman becomes instantly aware of anyone calling for help within the same plane, and knows their location.
X-Ray Vision: Superman has advantage on all wisdom (perception) checks and a +5 to passive perception. Within 100 ft solid objects appear transparent and don't prevent light from passing through them. A thin sheet of lead can block this vision.
Kryptonian Vulnerability: If on a plane with no sunlight or red sunlight, Superman loses his Man of Steel, Cosmic Strength, Cosmic Speed, Heroic Recovery, Hear the Helpless, and X-Ray Vision traits; and he gains Exhaustion 4 and Poisoned. He loses all of his actions except Punch. This effect lasts as long as the exposure occurs, plus 1 additional round. If Superman is exposed to Kryptonite within 50 ft, he suffers the same effects, he is incapacitated, and he takes 7 (2d6) poison damage at the start of his turn.
Sonic Vulnerability: Anytime Superman is hit by an effect dealing 20 or more Thunder damage, he becomes incapacitated for 1 round.
ACTIONS
Multiattack: Superman makes 2 attacks, any combination of Punch or Heat Vision.
Punch: Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 48 (1d6 + 45) bludgeoning damage and the target must make a DC 21 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone or pushed 100 ft, Superman’s choice.
Heat Vision: Ranged Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, range 150/600., one target. Hit: 45 (13d6) fire damage
Freeze Breath: 100 ft Cone. All nonmagical fire in the area is instantly extinguished. All creatures in the area must make a DC 21 constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature magically begins to turn to ice and is restrained. It must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn. On a success, the effect ends. On a failure, the creature is petrified (frozen) until freed by the greater restoration spell or until 100 total fire damage is applied to the ice.
Hurricane Breath: 100 ft Cone.. All creatures in the area must make a DC 21 strength saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is knocked back 100 ft and becomes prone. All gas and fog effects in the area are removed.
Object Slam: Superman may hit his enemies with a large object, or a piece of the ground itself. Superman chooses one 20 by 20 ft square touching his square. All creatures in the area must make a DC 21 Dexterity saving throw, take 45 bludgeoning damage and becoming restrained on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The area becomes difficult terrain. A restrained creature can make a DC 21 strength (athletics) or dexterity (acrobatics) check as an action to remove the condition.
Whirlwind: Each creature within 5 ft of Superman make a DC 21 Strength saving throw. On a failure, a target takes is flung up 100 feet away from Superman in a random direction and knocked prone. If a thrown target strikes an object, such as a wall or floor, the target takes 42 (12d6) bludgeoning damage. If the target is thrown at another creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 21 Dexterity saving throw or take the same damage and be knocked prone.
Speed Reading: Superman can choose any object containing text within 100 ft and instantly read all text contained within.
Clairvoyant Senses: Superman can choose any location within 1 mile, and see as if he were there. If he chooses hearing instead, the range is anywhere on the same plane. When using this ability, Superman automatically has a 32 on any wisdom (perception) check.
Light Speed Dodge: Superman gains a +10 to his AC and Dexterity saving throws, and all attacks against him are made at disadvantage. This effect lasts until the start of Superman’s next turn. Any creature with the Cosmic Speed trait can ignore these effects.
LEGENDARY ACTIONS
Superman can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. Superman can use any unspent legendary actions at the end of each round and he regains spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.
Up, Up, and Away: Superman moves his fly speed.
Punch: Superman makes a Punch attack.
Heat Vision Barrage (Cost: 3 Actions): Superman chooses a 20 ft radius within 150 ft. All creatures in the area must make a DC 21 Dexterity saving throw, take 70 (20d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
CR Notes
Now the trick with comics is, they are all over the place. Give people enough time and they can always point at the one time X superhero did this crazy stunt that just blows every stat you thought about them out of the water. So we are going to ignore that
My goal is to present the leaguers in roughly standard form, with the classic feats and abilities they commonly display. I will admit to be a big fan of the DC animated movies, so that will be a draw of my inspiration as well.And why not start off with a bang! The ultimate leader of the Justice League and greatest DC Hero....Superman!
Superman Design Notes and Character Traits
CR: 26 Wait Superman isn’t 30, or 40, or 50???!!! Again we have to look at the context of what Superman fights, yes against anything mundane he simply wins, its just a question of how quickly (therefore superman’s CR is basically infinite against things without magic or his vulnerabilities). But Superman has been challenged by gods and magical creatures and beings with even greater prowess than his own. Superman is beyond mortals for sure, but when you look at the cosmic realm he is not top of the food chain. Than we further have to accept that magic in dnd is very common compared to the DC universe, which means some of the top dogs have a lot of magic that Superman has no counter for. So we try to reflect that in CR. A group of the highest Dnd mortals (aka 20th level), equipped with all of the right magics and tools, could absolutely take on Superman as a very hard but winnable challenge.
This is probably the area I need feedback on the most, as it would be easy to scale up superman up or down. Because superman’s CR effectively sets the cap for the rest of the justice league it sets the power level for all heroes to come.
Invulnerability: An easy start off. Unless its magic or he’s exposed to his weaknesses, Superman is basically invulnerable for all practical purposes. Now we could treat this as some high damage reduction or the like but I think that is splitting hairs…Superman has tanked stars exploding for pete’s sake, he’s just invulnerable and we leave it at that.
Condition Recovery not Invincibility: While Supes is immune to most damage, he is not immune to most conditions. He gets knocked down, stunned by electricity, grappled by big foes, mind controlled, etc. However, he almost always recovers extremely quickly. So we want to leave him open to conditions but give him ways to recover from them fast. I'm also going to give him some minimum saves, this ensures Superman is not taken down by a silly weak attack. But otherwise, Superman can absolutely be hindered by many dnd conditions.
Fast Healing: Even when Supes is damaged, he recovers very quickly.
Burrow Speed: Supes does like to make himself some tunnels.
Kryptonite / Red Sun / Magic Vulnerability: A key aspect of superman’s character is his vulnerabilities. These strip away his normal invulnerabilities, and for kryptonite acts as a poison.
Sound Vulnerability: Those insane ears come with a price, and a classic superman trip up is hitting him with sonic attacks to slow him down.
Attacks: The standard superman arsenal:
Strong and not Strong: So we have to split apart Superman’s strength. On the one hand, Superman has moved planets. On the other, he has been grappled and knocked down by much more mundane attacks, suggesting his athletics and strength saves are not infinite. Further, while Superman obviously does tons of damage, even in the comics it takes him a while to defeat comparable enemies, which again suggests that his strength which factored into his damage is not as great as you might expect.
Fast and not Fast: A similar dichotomy exists for his speed. On the one hand, Superman can move at near the speed of light. And yet, he is hittable, people also regularly dodge his attacks. So we have to assume his tactical speed (aka speed in combat) is not the same as his traveling speed. That said, there are times where superman “shows” off and becomes very hard to hit, so we will add in some special dodging to note that.
Flight: Duh
Holding Breath: A common note is superman’s ability to hold his breath for absurd amounts of time, effectively at the whims of plot. For simplicity I’m just going to say he doesn’t need to breathe, that’s close enough for our purposes.
Perception: Superman’s perception is insane, able to see the smallest particle or hear a bird’s wingflap across the world. But his perception is not unbeatable, sneaky types have been able to sneak around him. So we are going to give him a good (but beatable) passive perception, and gives him an ability that effectively lets him see or hear from incredible distances. And of course Xray Vision.
Skills: Superman is often pictured as a leader, inspiring hope in others and talking people down (persuasion). While Superman sometimes does insane feats of intelligence, the base superman is seen as a highly intelligent person, but not in the level of “genius” like many other DC characters. However, we do want to include his speed reading abilities, and we will throw in some investigation for his reporting abilities.
This is probably the area I need feedback on the most, as it would be easy to scale up superman up or down. Because superman’s CR effectively sets the cap for the rest of the justice league it sets the power level for all heroes to come.
Invulnerability: An easy start off. Unless its magic or he’s exposed to his weaknesses, Superman is basically invulnerable for all practical purposes. Now we could treat this as some high damage reduction or the like but I think that is splitting hairs…Superman has tanked stars exploding for pete’s sake, he’s just invulnerable and we leave it at that.
Condition Recovery not Invincibility: While Supes is immune to most damage, he is not immune to most conditions. He gets knocked down, stunned by electricity, grappled by big foes, mind controlled, etc. However, he almost always recovers extremely quickly. So we want to leave him open to conditions but give him ways to recover from them fast. I'm also going to give him some minimum saves, this ensures Superman is not taken down by a silly weak attack. But otherwise, Superman can absolutely be hindered by many dnd conditions.
Fast Healing: Even when Supes is damaged, he recovers very quickly.
Burrow Speed: Supes does like to make himself some tunnels.
Kryptonite / Red Sun / Magic Vulnerability: A key aspect of superman’s character is his vulnerabilities. These strip away his normal invulnerabilities, and for kryptonite acts as a poison.
Sound Vulnerability: Those insane ears come with a price, and a classic superman trip up is hitting him with sonic attacks to slow him down.
Attacks: The standard superman arsenal:
- Punch
- Eye Beams
- Freezing Breath / Hurricane Breath
- Hitting people with big objects
- Turning into a Tornado
Strong and not Strong: So we have to split apart Superman’s strength. On the one hand, Superman has moved planets. On the other, he has been grappled and knocked down by much more mundane attacks, suggesting his athletics and strength saves are not infinite. Further, while Superman obviously does tons of damage, even in the comics it takes him a while to defeat comparable enemies, which again suggests that his strength which factored into his damage is not as great as you might expect.
Fast and not Fast: A similar dichotomy exists for his speed. On the one hand, Superman can move at near the speed of light. And yet, he is hittable, people also regularly dodge his attacks. So we have to assume his tactical speed (aka speed in combat) is not the same as his traveling speed. That said, there are times where superman “shows” off and becomes very hard to hit, so we will add in some special dodging to note that.
Flight: Duh
Holding Breath: A common note is superman’s ability to hold his breath for absurd amounts of time, effectively at the whims of plot. For simplicity I’m just going to say he doesn’t need to breathe, that’s close enough for our purposes.
Perception: Superman’s perception is insane, able to see the smallest particle or hear a bird’s wingflap across the world. But his perception is not unbeatable, sneaky types have been able to sneak around him. So we are going to give him a good (but beatable) passive perception, and gives him an ability that effectively lets him see or hear from incredible distances. And of course Xray Vision.
Skills: Superman is often pictured as a leader, inspiring hope in others and talking people down (persuasion). While Superman sometimes does insane feats of intelligence, the base superman is seen as a highly intelligent person, but not in the level of “genius” like many other DC characters. However, we do want to include his speed reading abilities, and we will throw in some investigation for his reporting abilities.
Superman
Medium Humanoid (Lawful Good)
AC 16 (+1 Padded Armor)
Hit Points 300
Speed 100 ft, Fly 100 ft, Burrow 100 ft
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| 26 (+8) | 18 (+4) | 20 (+5) | 14 (+2) | 18 (+4) | 18 (+4) |
Skills Athletics +16, Investigation + 10, Persuasion + 12, Perception: +12
Damage Immunities *See Physical Invulnerability
Senses *See X-Ray Vision, Passive Perception: 27
Languages Common
Challenge 26
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.
Break Invulnerability: Superman's Heat Vision and Punch attacks ignore the Physical Invulnerability and Damage Threshold traits. Spell effects that are immune to damage can take damage from these attacks, and are considered to have 500 hp.
Brawler: Superman has a -5 to his attacks and +10 to his damage (factored into to his statblock).
Cosmic Strength: Superman has no limit to his carrying capacity, and gains +27 to his melee damage (included in his statblock). His attacks deal double damage to objects and structures.
Cosmic Speed: When performing the Dash Action, Superman can move to any location on the same plane. Superman can move through any barrier to get to the location, except ones immune to damage.
Mercy: Against Humanoids, Superman cannot make critical hits. If a Humanoid is brought to 0 hp or less by any of Superman’s attacks, Superman always choses to knock them out instead of kill them.
Hear the Helpless: Superman becomes instantly aware of anyone calling for help within the same plane, and knows their location.
X-Ray Vision: Superman has advantage on all wisdom (perception) checks and a +5 to passive perception. Within 100 ft solid objects appear transparent and don't prevent light from passing through them. A thin sheet of lead can block this vision.
Kryptonian Vulnerability: If on a plane with no sunlight or red sunlight, Superman loses his Man of Steel, Cosmic Strength, Cosmic Speed, Heroic Recovery, Hear the Helpless, and X-Ray Vision traits; and he gains Exhaustion 4 and Poisoned. He loses all of his actions except Punch. This effect lasts as long as the exposure occurs, plus 1 additional round. If Superman is exposed to Kryptonite within 50 ft, he suffers the same effects, he is incapacitated, and he takes 7 (2d6) poison damage at the start of his turn.
Sonic Vulnerability: Anytime Superman is hit by an effect dealing 20 or more Thunder damage, he becomes incapacitated for 1 round.
ACTIONS
Multiattack: Superman makes 2 attacks, any combination of Punch or Heat Vision.
Punch: Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 48 (1d6 + 45) bludgeoning damage and the target must make a DC 21 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone or pushed 100 ft, Superman’s choice.
Heat Vision: Ranged Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, range 150/600., one target. Hit: 45 (13d6) fire damage
Freeze Breath: 100 ft Cone. All nonmagical fire in the area is instantly extinguished. All creatures in the area must make a DC 21 constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature magically begins to turn to ice and is restrained. It must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn. On a success, the effect ends. On a failure, the creature is petrified (frozen) until freed by the greater restoration spell or until 100 total fire damage is applied to the ice.
Hurricane Breath: 100 ft Cone.. All creatures in the area must make a DC 21 strength saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is knocked back 100 ft and becomes prone. All gas and fog effects in the area are removed.
Object Slam: Superman may hit his enemies with a large object, or a piece of the ground itself. Superman chooses one 20 by 20 ft square touching his square. All creatures in the area must make a DC 21 Dexterity saving throw, take 45 bludgeoning damage and becoming restrained on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The area becomes difficult terrain. A restrained creature can make a DC 21 strength (athletics) or dexterity (acrobatics) check as an action to remove the condition.
Whirlwind: Each creature within 5 ft of Superman make a DC 21 Strength saving throw. On a failure, a target takes is flung up 100 feet away from Superman in a random direction and knocked prone. If a thrown target strikes an object, such as a wall or floor, the target takes 42 (12d6) bludgeoning damage. If the target is thrown at another creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 21 Dexterity saving throw or take the same damage and be knocked prone.
Speed Reading: Superman can choose any object containing text within 100 ft and instantly read all text contained within.
Clairvoyant Senses: Superman can choose any location within 1 mile, and see as if he were there. If he chooses hearing instead, the range is anywhere on the same plane. When using this ability, Superman automatically has a 32 on any wisdom (perception) check.
Light Speed Dodge: Superman gains a +10 to his AC and Dexterity saving throws, and all attacks against him are made at disadvantage. This effect lasts until the start of Superman’s next turn. Any creature with the Cosmic Speed trait can ignore these effects.
LEGENDARY ACTIONS
Superman can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. Superman can use any unspent legendary actions at the end of each round and he regains spent legendary actions at the start of his turn.
Up, Up, and Away: Superman moves his fly speed.
Punch: Superman makes a Punch attack.
Heat Vision Barrage (Cost: 3 Actions): Superman chooses a 20 ft radius within 150 ft. All creatures in the area must make a DC 21 Dexterity saving throw, take 70 (20d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
CR Notes
Offensive CR: 26. A very straightforward calculation.
For Defense, I used the effective hitpoint adjusted for immunities, and further adjusted for a 30 "regeneration". I left the saving throw (8 or lower is an 8) bonus out of any factor, that is really just to deal with the riff raff, it doesn't actually help Supes against real DCs he would be facing. That also gives me a Defensive CR 26.
For Defense, I used the effective hitpoint adjusted for immunities, and further adjusted for a 30 "regeneration". I left the saving throw (8 or lower is an 8) bonus out of any factor, that is really just to deal with the riff raff, it doesn't actually help Supes against real DCs he would be facing. That also gives me a Defensive CR 26.
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