D&D 5E [+] Ways to fix the caster / non-caster gap

[Micah Sweet]

Thank you for this.

So we have 2 things going on here.

1. Alien is in the eye of the beholder. Drax, Groot, Superman, and the Asgardians are (AFAIK) 100% biologically natural representatives of their species. They are only "Alien" in the context of Earth, and D&D does not take place on Earth.

2. IIRC, the structure of your question was "In their media, are their any examples of mundane characters who can do superheroic things without relying on external power sources like superserums, mutant drinks, etc". The logic you've presented here is "if they can do things beyond the normal rules of the D&D game system, they cannot be mundane regardless of how they got there". It is perfectly self-defeating.

Of course no one can give you an example.of a mundane character who has superpowers without external help.

By your definition any character with superpowers cannot be mundane.

Well...yeah. "mundane" and "has superpowers" are mutually exclusive.

 

[Lord Shark]

I guess I should be able to hit like Ohtani, read a defense like Jalen Hurts, and vault like Simone Biles if I just train enough. It'd be inconsistent and unrealistic if people had different capabilities, after all.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Exactly. If they have superpowers they are magical/supernatural/mutants/Aliens/demon bargained/...

if mundane people just trough Training can become superstrong, like some people say happen in Mangas and Anime a lot, than thoose are probably not for me.

Then asking for examples was rather silly.

It's like this..
If you say "show me an honest millionaire"

And then go on to say "I regard all millionaires as thieves regardless of how they attained their riches"

You're "winning" a rigged game, not having a discussion.

 

[TwoSix]

Well...yeah. "mundane" and "has superpowers" are mutually exclusive.

I think the point is "mundane" is contextual. If you're on a planet where everyone has superpowers, your ability to shoot a fire beam could easily be considered mundane.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Flash back to 3E where every butcher, baker, tailor, and candlestick maker must have gone adventuring if they're skilled (to get the XP to level) and thus Gordon Ramsay (or pick whatever 20th level chef on your planet) is roughly comparable to a 5th (?) level fighter.

You don't need to adventure to gain XP in some D&D-adjacent systems. It just takes a lot longer; in fact, speed of advancement despite the risk is a big reason why people become adventurers in the first place. Doing it this way is how you create setting consistency in this area.

 

[Micah Sweet]

100% agree. NPCs look different from PCs for in-narrative reasons, and are also generally way more specialized and weaker for their level than PCs.

Yet somehow with far more hit points.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I guess I should be able to hit like Ohtani, read a defense like Jalen Hurts, and vault like Simone Biles if I just train enough. It'd be inconsistent and unrealistic if people had different capabilities, after all.

Sure they do. What I'd like to avoid is saying that you cannot play Simone Biles because her vaulting ability is an NPC-only feature.

 

[Raiztt]

If they're killing a dragon with a bow and pike, then it's reality-defying.

They're not killing dragons at all.

 

[DavyGreenwind]

I made another thread about it, but I whipped up a Revised version of the UA 7 Fighter. It's got some pretty juicy Achilles/Hercules stuff at the end.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Well...yeah. "mundane" and "has superpowers" are mutually exclusive.

Yes, sort of. But I think there is a blurry area of "cinematic mundane" or heightened mundane. The character doesn't do anything blatantly supernatural, but their capabilities are heightened beyond what people can actually do in the real life.