What would happen if your character or your PCs had an 18 in every stat?

[xenoflare]

hmm. i'm playing a pretty high-statted character right now, an exalted psi-monk who's a saint, and has access to animal affinity, so he can literally boost himself to all 18s at a moment's thought. (somewhere around Str 22, Dex 18, Con 24, Int 16, Cha 26, Wis 24 - those ranges.)

Despite those "godly stats", he's still angsty.

Why? when you realise just how powerful you are, how well off you are, and you also realise that there're others who are crippled, feeble of mind, etc, and you can't "be" the world for the world.

Harmony and balance is important to my character, so did my super-strength rob some one else of his strength? That's kinda screwy logic there, but you can see where i'm coming from.

i'll go out and be determined to make the world a better place, because i got the good draw of karma from my previous lives and efforts, so it should mean something positive right?

so what if i'm superman..

..and i can't stop the wife-beating gun nut from shooting his entire family in a late night's drunken pique?

..and i can't stop the urban gang turf warfare from ravaging the lives of folk?

..and i can't do a thing to prevent the spiralling of ethnic/ religious violence in a world where "killing orcs are good"?

angst, baby, angst. that's complex 18s for you.

i sorta got some ideas from the DC hero Mr. Terrific, from the old Justice Society. He's super-talented in every single thing in the world, fighting, crimesolving, arts, cooking, dancing, engineering, the occult etc... but his perfection leads him to blindness of some things that "normal" people take for granted.

There was one issue set in WW 2 where the Allies were bombing a town in Germany that apparently had munitions factories - he was there looking for some artifact to fight some evil demon, and he saw that there was -no- munition factory, and there were no justifications for the violent destruction of the town. He found out that the bombings were conducted to break the townfolk's spirit, and to kill off the young boys and men so that they will not be able to be drafted into the Nazi forces.

He got so pissed off that he went to the military office of the Allies' field commander and demanded to know why there was such wanton killing, such cold-blooded slaughter. The soldiers tried to explain to him that this was -the- only "practical" way to prevent more violence...

.. and the perfect all-18s- Mr. Terrific broke down, because he couldn't see why other people could be so -vile-, how even the "good guys" could resort to such means to fight the "good" fight. But then he decided to get back up again - is this not a perfect challenge then, to fight for black and white equality, total justice in a world of grays?

Exalted path is a lonely, hard path to follow...

Yours,
shao

 

[Thanee]

I think I'd roll again. Maybe just five of the stats, tho.

While I certainly like good stats, I also like my characters to have some weaknesses.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Privateer]

Batman! That's who straight 18's most closely resembles. (Captain America, while the peak of human physical perfection, doesn't seem quite as smart as Batman.)

I actually have heard that a lot, and it does seem to fit. At the very least, it shows how someone without superpowers could buddy up with Superman.

Ah, understood! Funny you should mention a traditional super hero game since I am running a Champions game. In some ways D&D is already like the super hero genre since you have heroes that face things normal class citizens could not hope to defeat such as the monsters, evil wizards and warlords that seem to plauge the land.

Yes, they are strikingly similar... and it is true what I've heard Hong say on occasion -- high level D&D is just about analogous to wuxia films.

Honestly if you want to make the game really different, with the super hero genre in mind, you may consider giving each PC a unique special ability, maybe something like increased strength for a limited time frame. While my example is so embarrassing pedestrian, there are a lot of abilities you can pull out of the monster manual, spells and PRC abilities. That may be more intrteasting to do than give them all 18's for Stats.

Not a bad idea. You may just see another thread created by me about that, later on

What do you consider to be a extraordinary plot?

Simply? One that can only be solved by an extraordinary person. The vast majority of comic book and higher level D&D adventures, for instance.

Of course, sometimes a less than extraordinary plot is interesting, too -- everyone can succumb to the wiles of the heart, and no matter how powerful you are you can still be angsty---

so what if i'm superman..

..and i can't stop the wife-beating gun nut from shooting his entire family in a late night's drunken pique?

..and i can't stop the urban gang turf warfare from ravaging the lives of folk?

..and i can't do a thing to prevent the spiralling of ethnic/ religious violence in a world where "killing orcs are good"?

angst, baby, angst. that's complex 18s for you.

This is exactly what I'm going for. You are a brillaint person, xeno. I'm going to have to look into the angst-filled dramas of Mr. Terrific (is it just me, or is that name just dripping with sarcasm or something?)

 

[Jolly Giant]

Well, with all 18's you have the potential to excel at anything so I'd try to make a character who could do a bit of everything. I'd multi-class, in other words; and I'd look for a Prc that would let me develop at least two sets of class abilities simultaneously. Maybe an arcane trickster or mystic theurge. And I'd probably roleplay him as the most arrogant bastard in RPG history! ("I get all the chicks 'cause I'm so perfect, my farts smell like roses." For maximum versatility, I'd go with human.

If I'm gonna play some sort of ûber-mensch, I'll want to have magic at my disposal. I'd also make sure to take at least one or two levels of a class that would grant me full martial weapon proficiency, probably fighter for the generic-ness of it. An ûber-mensch who doesn't even know how to handle a basic longsword just wouldn't sit right with me...

Actually, monk would be a great alternative, coolness-wise; "Ooh, look at me; I'm so perfect, I don't need neither weapons nor armor to defeat my enemies!" I'd still take a fighter level first ("Sure, I can use every weapon in the book, but I'm so brilliant I don't need weapons..."), and then go for something like the Sacred Fist PrC.

---------

As for challenges such a character would face I imagine adoration, envy and unreasonably high expectations from the community would be plentiful. Walking down a street he'd be followed by cries of "I love you, you're so perfect", "I hate you, you're so full of it", "Find my lost ring/cat/dog/significant other", "Raise my dead granny", "End world hunger", "" etc.

I guess just about every organisation in the world would be out to recruit such a person, an if he refuses to let himself be recruited some of those organisations would try to assinate him before he joins an enemy organisation.

Edit: Spelling

 

[D+1]

In short: why do you say perfect stats are not fun?

"Having a thing is often not as satisfying as wanting a thing. It is not logical, but it is often true." - Spock

 

[Privateer]

"Having a thing is often not as satisfying as wanting a thing. It is not logical, but it is often true." - Spock

"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire

Sorry, couldn't resist... but, also, good point. However, if I am able to prove this to my players, they won't bug me about me only giving them, say, standard array

 

[darkRitual]

It seems as though Monk or Paladin would benefit most from the scores. I'd actually take a normally physically weak class like wizard or sorcerer, then turn him into a touch spell machine