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View Full Version : Making Superman a Class



Lysander
2009-09-20, 01:55 PM
How would you go about making Superman a base class? Over 20 levels a Superman (or woman) would gain new superpowers and have their powers improve. You could imagine the class representing superman as a teenager when his powers first manifested. He discovered his powers one by one, and gained strength and damage reduction slowly. Even at level 20 the Superman class wouldn't be quite as powerful as the Superman in comics who's more of an epic character.

This is more to make a playable mechanic that create that precise character. So a Superman wouldn't need to be an alien species or be vulnerable to a stone called kryptonite.

Here are various powers to include. What level to grant each power and how to improve it over levels it what remains to be decided:

Strength - Obvious one. It would increase slowly to superhuman proportions.

Unarmed Attack - Primary attack would be bare fists. At higher levels the fists would count as adamantine weapons. Maybe count them as epic weapons at level 20?

DR/Magic - They'd become increasingly harder to injure and be practically invulnerable at level 20. However magic weapons and spells could bypass this protection.

Heat Vision - Basically Scorching Ray at will. Unlike the spell a Superman would only be able to fire two rays at a time (one from each eye) at a single target.

Supervision/X-ray vision - The ability to see through up to one foot of material, but blocked by lead and similarly dense metals. Plus they'd have the functionality of a spyglass built into them.

Super hearing - Bonus to listen checks?

Jumping/Slow fall/Flying: This power would start off as a bonus to jumping, then include slow fall, then include limited spurts of flight, and finally become unlimited flight.

Super breath/Freezing Breath - Gust of wind and Cone of Cold. Perhaps they would have the ability to choose which to use when blowing. At higher levels they could use both simultaneously.

Superclap - A high powered handclap that would recreate the Shout spell.

Superspeed - Haste, usable a certain of rounds per day based on Superman level.

What do you think? How should these abilities be earned? The way the class would ultimately work is like a melee version of a warlock. A very small number of superpowers usable at will including flight, but with fists being the prime method of attack.

Shades of Gray
2009-09-20, 01:57 PM
You forgot Super-Ventriloquism, Super-Weaving, and Super-Friction.

Lysander
2009-09-20, 02:03 PM
You forgot Super-Ventriloquism, Super-Weaving, and Super-Friction.

I also deliberately omitted every superpower invented for Superman II, including teleportation and logo-throwing.

Kobold-Bard
2009-09-20, 02:11 PM
I also deliberately omitted every superpower invented for Superman II, including teleportation and logo-throwing.

But...but...logo-throwing :smallfrown:

Starts off as an entangle type power, increasing to Imprisonment at top levels perhaps?