Yeah, spells and magic never actually given to the players, or explicitly forbidden from them. Other than wish, which isn't shaking things in that manner, nothing in 5e that has stats for the players to use has that level of power. Not even close. Destroying a large city is something most player's can't even get close to accomplishing.
In my games, anomalous magic can be done via special "rituals". What are official Elf "mythals" are an example of these kinds of "rituals". Each ritual can be for any kind of effect, of any kind of magnitude, but come with specific requirements, and use a relevant skill check. The requirement can be anything, such as meditate for an hour, involve a group of a hundred people doing it, find and implement rare ingredients, time with specific astronomical event, or whatever. Some rituals are intentional with requirements whose fulfillment is unlikely.
That said.
Re Thor, his hammer is an epic tier artifact. In D&D, this kind of magic item is the kind of means that sometimes can cause local, regional, or planetary cataclysm.
And none of that applies to Rope, the stuff I was talking about. And while a DC 17 to burst rope sounds pretty high, it wouldn't be if you have a +7 to Strength, and we never see her burst ropes with her arms.
I am happy that tearing a rope apart requires a reasonably high DC.
You have a point that the 24 Strength Score by itself would be +7, making it likely for Catwoman to burst out of a rope.
I would rather resolve the difficulty by making rope DC 20. (Then the metal manacle is also DC 20, because only its weaker hinge or lock catch needs to be broken, rather than the material strength of the metal cuff itself. In the case of the rope, it is the material strength of the rope, and rope can secure massive ships in storms.)
That said, I think I am ok with Catwoman having a Strength Score of 22, so at least she wouldnt "take ten" from a passive check to automatically break out. In any case, there would be no proficiency bonus from a Weightlifting skill.
Sure, I don't deny that Catwoman would be bad at bending bars, lifting gates, or bursting steel chains. That's kind of my point, she doesn't do those things, so giving her a +7 strength makes no sense. You seem to weigh training and proficiency far higher than you should in these instances.
Heh, the discussion of the metal manacles is slightly moot, since D&D would use either Strength or Dexterity to escape a restraint.
But yeah, the focus here is the use of Strength specifically.
The proficiency bonus can add anywhere from +2 to +7, or +4 to +14 if expert. So the training in Weightlifting is a big deal for tests requiring brute force.
Let's try this. Imagine a Vampire. Vampires in fantasy are incredibly strong. They can throw grown men through brick walls, break steel with their bare hands, rip cell doors from stone.... and in DnD this is represented by an 18 strength. You want to give very athletic woman Selena Kyle a strength of 24 because she jumps good. This does not work.
D&D Vampires cannot rip thru steel. Its +4 Strength is the same as anyone else with it.
So no one armed with a sword can harm an Earth Elemental? They are made of stone as well. Heck, a Caster could have animated that stone wall you declare the fighter cannot cut, using Animate Objects, and then, suddenly, the fighter is allowed to cut it?
Use Consistent logic.
Something like that.
The 2014 Monster Manual approaches this concept of invulnerability by making the Earth Elemental "resistant" to "nonmagical" weapons.
It would be plausible to make creatures that are made out of animate stone (namely self reassembling/regenerating stone without vital organs) to be "immune" to nonmagical weapons.
People speculate that 2024 will discontinue the mechanic of "resistant to nomagical weapons", and simply use the Force damage type to bypass immunity.
Where in the PHB does it say more? Sure, the DMG says you need to have the "right tool" and enough time, but other than saying you can't cut through stone with a sword (conveniently forgetting all the times you can) it doesn't say anything more than that. And I'd be a little miffed as a player if I picked a weapon, and then was told a whole bunch of enemies are completely immune to that damage, because "common sense" and not game rules stated so.
Sometimes, the DMs Guide has core rules that are necessary for playing the D&D game. Here, how to destroy unattended objects. I hope 2024 consolidates this info into the Players Handbook, so the Players Handbook really will have EVERY rule that one needs to play a complete game of D&D.
So, your real point is "alter the scale to make things sound like they are superhero level, and then they are actually superhero level"?
The point is, the high tiers of D&D provide the kinds of effects that duplicate or approximate the superpowers of comic book superheroes.
Superman can innately cast
Time Stop, for example, and so on.
It is easy to write up new spells at the appropriate slots for the purpose of representing a specific superpower.
A main difference between superpowers and D&D spells is, the superpower are often "always on". But some D&D spells have extensive duration, such as
Mage Armor to thematicize a force body armor. In principle, some spells can have indefinite durations in a balanced way, or even swap out a spell slot for a permanent effect.
I have a design concept where a superpower spell "occupies" a spell slot, instead of expending it, so as long as the slot is "occupied" the spell effect remains indefinitely.
