D&D 5E Should martial characters be mundane or supernatural?

[overgeeked]

Simple enough question. What are your thoughts?

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Both, I think there should be a progression from everyday hero to superhero

 

[The Old Crow]

Whatever works for the player.

 

[Tony Vargas]

They should be be balanced.
That might require them being supernatural, if it's possible to play supernatural PCs that are far more powerful than the game allows 'mundane' characters to be - and mundane characters would be NPCs, not player facing choices.
But, it's certainly possible to devise supernatural abilities that are not overpowered. Indeed, an overtly supernatural power could be week or downright useless.

 

[Corinnguard]

To the mundane, they're supernatural. To the supernatural, they're mundane. So really, they're somewhere in between.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Supernatural is the only real option in D&D. It may be anchored in "mundane," but magic is a part of a D&D character's life from birth to death (and then after death, too!). You slay giants, you slay dragons, you fight fiends, you survive explosions and cave-ins and poison gas and deadly falls, a night's rest restores you, you are not a "mundane" person.

That supernatural might look like intense training, or magic items, or being born of the gods, or whatever, but at the end of the day, even a level 1 fighter is head and shoulders above your average town guard or militia member, and that's the same kind of magic that helps dragons fly and giants breathe. You're magical.

There might be a filter or a style of D&D that's not so magical, but out of the box, with sorcerers and warlocks and wizards and clerics and druids, D&D heroes are magical, and fighters and rogues aren't exceptions to that if they're playing in the same genre.

 

[Scribe]

Mundane base, with Caster/Magical/Supernatural options as subclasses, Class Feats and the like.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Both, I think there should be a progression from everyday hero to superhero

Exactly this. It is an easy and simple answer, and allows those who don't want mythic martials to have it by just capping the campaign at certain level.

 

[Staffan]

I'd go with "mythical", with supernatural as an option. Mid-to-High-level characters should be able to display wuxia/Xena/Leverage levels of competence, without necessarily being able to do things like breathe fire.

 

[bloodtide]

I do like mundane......but feel like there is a point where you get supernatural.

Like once your spending a 'mundane hero point' to do a 100 leap or damage a foe immune to 'normal weapons'......then you ARE basically doing supernatural things.

I kinda like the Grimm spin.....a Grimm is supernatural...they can see, out and hurt all the beings because they have 'the power', but they don't really 'do' anything (else).