To those who know their mythology...

[Prime32]

I've been trying to compile a list of superhuman feats performed by legendary heroes (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=10208), as examples of what martial characters in D&D should be capable of.

There's not much so far, and the details on some figures are hard to track down. I don't want to throw in some half-remembered stuff about Hercules if someone more knowledgable about him can help out.

Anyone have any input?

[CynicalAvocado]

bruce lee can kick someone across a room

[Haruki-kun]

bruce lee can kick someone across a room

Yes, but how big is the room?

[Rae Artemi]

bruce lee can kick someone across a room

He also kicked a heavy bag hard enough to break it off of it's chain and send it flying out a window.

And other crazy awesome things.

[Lillith]

Does your list include gods/demi gods or are you looking specifically at mortals?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Cause Heracles, you gotta remember, was half god.

Though if you rule people out for just being half god, you pretty much rule out every hero ever...

[CynicalAvocado]

mr rogers is a god in 3.5......
and we all know how he can use calmness as a weapon

[Castaras]

Norse mythology had Nornagest - a lovely little Bard - and Volund - Elvish Blacksmith/Expert. 'though, while Nornagest wasn't that bad a person (by viking standards), Volund was an ...interesting character, shall we say?

Not so much martial heroes tho, for those you'll probably want the half-gods from Greek Mythology. Possibly Beowulf from Anglo Saxon as well. Could look into some of the Arthurian legends as well, although they're less martial feats a lot of the time, and more "We're all paragons of good and righteousness, haha!" feats.

edit: One other thing to note is that heroes from legends are going to have slightly different retellings depending on where you look - 'tis the nature of myths. Simple one is Heracles/Hercules - which changed depending on which Greek/Roman village you lived in, and was toned down by the Romans when they stole him from the Greeks.

[Lillith]

I was thinking Gilgamesh. Though he didn't actually drink the potion of eternal life he did managed to get it. Or was he a demi god?

If you want to go historical perhaps Jeanne d'Arc? Said to have heard voices of God but still managed to lead an entire army to many victories.

Also wasn't there a skilled samurai/swordsmen in Japan? Masamune I think. Forged swords and had like a thousand of them?

[Katana_Geldar]

Achilles was half-god, his mother was a goddess. She also bathed him in the Lethe river giving him vulnerability, but for his heel where she held him. IIRC he was school by a centaur named Chiron.

Odysseus on the other hand is known for his cleverness and wit and wasn't half-god, but he also was Athena's pet.

There's also Theseus, not immortal at all but he's a bit funny. And Jason.

[Eldan]

Hmm. Let's see.

Siegfried/Sigurd hasn't been mentioned, though he didn't really do that many supernatural things. He shattered swords, though that's not that far out.

Heracles' most impressive deed, in pure strength, was probably relieving the giant Atlas at holding up the world over his head.

[Lillith]

Might as well count all the main characters of the Battle of Troy then. :smalltongue: Also Masamune was a master swordsmen who made an incredible sword that wouldn't cut innocent things depending on the story. His apprentice was Marasune?

[Katana_Geldar]

Hmm. Let's see.
Heracles' most impressive deed, in pure strength, was probably relieving the giant Atlas at holding up the world over his head.

Not to mention his other labour...


Slightly off topic, but has anyone seen the Hercules Italian muscleman moves? They're very, very funny, particularly the dwarf side-kick.

[Eldan]

Yes, as I said, just his most physically impressive deed.

[The Rose Dragon]

Heracles' most impressive deed, in pure strength, was probably relieving the giant Atlas at holding up the world over his head.

The sky, not the world.

[Eldan]

Ah, yes. That's what I meant, actually.

[Prime32]

Might as well count all the main characters of the Battle of Troy then. :smalltongue: Also Masamune was a master swordsmen who made an incredible sword that wouldn't cut innocent things depending on the story. His apprentice was Marasune?His rival is usually given as Muramasa (who created vicious swords), though the two men appear to have lived at different times.

[Lady Moreta]

Along the same lines as Odysseus, Aenaes as well (from the Roman version :smalltongue:)

[Prime32]

As I said in the other thread, just giving names isn't much help since everyone's heard them already. I need specifics. Sell them to me.

[Claudius Maximus]

Read Ovid's account of the Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs (http://www.mythology.us/ovid_metamorphoses_book_12.htm) (it continues for quite a bit after the section with that title, so don't stop early). It gives a good idea of what typical heroes could do, from the Romans' point of view. I also think it's hilarious, with all the cartoonish violence with improvised weapons.

The guys in the Nibelungenlied were pretty crazy too. Sigfried was invincible everywhere but a specific spot on his back. Brünhild can pick up a rock so heavy that it takes 12 men to lift it, and throw it 12 fathoms (which I think is 72 feet). Also I seem to remember a scene where Gunther throws a spear so hard at a guy's face that it dragged him across the room by the head and impaled him to the wall.

In the Song of Roland, a guy swings a sword so hard that it takes a man's spine right out of his body, at least if I remember correctly (I haven't read it for some time).

[Serpentine]

Ajax! He's amazing. I think he did have a god somewhere in his ancestry, but it came up much less than most of the other heroes - he was pretty much all on his own. And he managed to hold back the entire Trojan army basically single-handedly.
You want the Iliad for that.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Ajax son of Telamon? Yeah, he's a boss. Diomedes is also a boss, when talking bout the Epic Cycle. Those two are my favourites, right after Hector. Hector is such a well-rounded character, because, in the Iliad at least, he's the only one shown regularily interacting with his wife.

[Claudius Maximus]

Yeah, most people may have heard of Ajax, but nobody remembers poor Diomedes, who is really one of the more decent characters in the Illiad, as well as being one of the best fighters.

[Jack Squat]

Horatius held the only bridge across the Tiber river against the entire Etruscan Army, and after it had been cut down behind him, he swam across the river in full armor. Turnus did similar in the Aeneid.

[Katana_Geldar]

Along the same lines as Odysseus, Aenaes as well (from the Roman version :smalltongue:)

Yeah, but Aeneas was the son of Aphrodite and the victim of a Because Destiny Says So plot.

[Cobra_Ikari]

Holding a bridge alone against a massive army is pretty consistant across cultures as being heroic. =P

[TruorTupnm]

Well, every mythological hero has their specific feats of awesome. Some have specific reasons for being able to do that sort of thing, while some are apparently just a different breed of human (even the ones that don't have a little deity in their blood) that that sort of thing comes naturally to.

They've got super strength (picking up boulders and other large things), crazy amounts of endurance (ofttimes killing twenty-seven thousand people per battle or just continuing to fight, even after their bodies should be destroyed), they are masters of their particular field slash fields (actually, they're usually just masters of whatever field they feel like using), even if they don't seem like the sort of people who'd have spent the time to get that good.

But then, even the less intelligent ones have talents beyond the physical. They are always coming up with sometimes impossible as well as out of the box ideas to solve their problems. Ah, also, one of my favorite things is that they have no shame. They are some kind of super awesome and know it, so they can ofttimes get away with doing (or not doing) whatever they want.

You could even point out their epic ability to gain the ability of some past hero that they are similar to, to simulate how many mythological heroes have borrowed from past versions of themselves, have blended in the public's minds to form the newest hero.

Dang. I think that I rambled. You are just looking for specifics, so that you point and say, "Look! Martial characters! Impossibly epic stuff!"

Here are some specifics:

Hercules ---> Strangled two snakes to death as an infant, and later strangled a lion with an invincible pelt, which he then wore as armour, killed the hydra (with a bit of help from his nephew), caught a few things, most notably, an uncatchable deer, diverted a river to clean out a bunch of stables, killed a bunch of people and monsters, created the Strait of Gibraltar, wrestled Death (as well as a bunch of other dudes, which usually resulted in their deaths, and Cerberus) until he decided not to kill the wife of one of his buddies. Probably a bunch of other stuff.

[Zexion]

Google Rostam. 'Nuff said.

[ForzaFiori]

I was thinking Gilgamesh. Though he didn't actually drink the potion of eternal life he did managed to get it. Or was he a demi god?


Somehow, Gilgamesh was 1/3 God. Still not entirely sure how that worked, but that is what the mythology claims.

For a more modern one, Jesus in the book of revelations does some pretty intense stuff, but he does have some rather powerful divine backing, a problem you'll encounter in most mythology as well (almost all greek mythological humans are part god/sons of god, norse myths are almost all about full gods or god-like creatures [they're elves and dwarves were intense], and the same is true with egyptians)

Hector in the story of Troy was fully human, and on the opposite side of several part gods, and was considered the best fighter in the entire battle. that's pretty epic, though I cannot think of any specifics of what he did. Google could probably help.

Folk-lore could also be of use instead of mythology. People like Paul Bunyon, Davy Crocket, etc are completely human, as opposed to mythology, which is defined as being theological

Jason of the Argonauts and Odysseus from the Odyssey are both fully human and fully bad ass.
Jason feats: killed the harpies, defeated an army of warriors (after plowing a field with fire breathing oxen), and overcame a sleepless dragon, and found the golden fleece.
Odysseus: was the only person strong enough to string his bow, and could shoot an arrow through the rings of twelve ax heads. Killed something like 100 suitors that had been plaguing his wife, and built his bed out of a living tree so that he'd never be uprooted from his home.

[Bhu]

I can post my mythology links if you want stuff to go through

[Serpentine]

Jason feats: killed the harpies, defeated an army of warriors (after plowing a field with fire breathing oxen), and overcame a sleepless dragon, and found the golden fleece.Pah. Medea showed him how to defeat the warriors, Medea overcame the sleepless dragon, Medea found the golden fleece, and Medea repeatedly rescued Jason's pathetic arse to get him home safe and sound.

Viking sagas are pretty fun. In one of the Vinland sagas, the Viking heroes were fleeing a horde of Skraeling warriors. They swept up the rest of the tribe, who all fled but were losing out to the Skraelings. So, one of the matronly women turned around, bared her breast and slapped it with the flat of a sword with a mighty scream, at which the Skraelings were terrified and turned tail. A successful Intimidate check if ever I saw one :smallcool:
In another which, alas, I can't remember the name, a fellow ran onto a frozen lake, skidded across it, decapitated his enemy and then landed safely on the other side.

Oh, re. Gilgamesh's potion of immortality: It was a buckthorn-like herb for which he had to tie rocks to his feet and dive to the bottom of the sea, but a serpent snatched it away as he approached land. See also: Asklepios' serpents.
Dear lord I've been reading about snakes a lot.

[Zexion]

Somehow, Gilgamesh was 1/3 God. Still not entirely sure how that worked, but that is what the mythology claims.
Son of a half-god and a quarter-god. I think. My math is a little fuzzy.

[Skeppio]

Somehow, Gilgamesh was 1/3 God. Still not entirely sure how that worked, but that is what the mythology claims.

As the legend goes, Gilgamesh's mother was ahem 'sleeping with' with two gods when he was conceived. And in those times, it was believed that if a woman was impregnated while 'sleeping with' two men, both were the father. Hence 2/3 god, 1/3 mortal. At least as far as I recall...

[leakingpen]

odysseus strung his bow, which only he was strong enough to string, and fired a single arrow cleanly through a row of 12 axe handles. (I always thought it was a feat of precision, that he was shooting through hanging rings on the butt end of the handles. It was pointed out to me recently that no, hes shooting through the wood, splitting the handles apart. )


Serpentine, regarding breast slapping swordswoman, really? That is awesome. But, given the body part being used, intimidate check of 20, or seduction botch of 1?

[IncoherentEssay]

Since epic craftsmen are under-represented:
Ilmarinen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilmarinen) from Kalevala (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala) is pretty badass for a mortal smith. Notable accomplishments:
-forging Sampo, a mill that can produce endless grain, salt and gold.
-forging an enchanted bow, an enchanted boat, an enchanted plow and a living metal cow on accident when forging the Sampo.
-forging Kokko, essentially a giant mecha-bird, to catch a giant fish.

Väinämöinen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4in%C3%A4m%C3%B6inen) generally relies on magic, but there is an instance where he and his raiding party were attacked by Iku-Turso, a sea monster, when returning home from the North with the captured Sampo. You'd expect an epic battle or something like Scylla/Kharybdis sacrifice, no?
Nah, Väinämöinen just grabs Turso by the ear and tells it to go home. It does. Quality Intimidate right there.
Also pulls an Orpheus by playing the pike-jaw kantele so masterfully everything just stops to listen.

Kalevala tends to blur the line between songs and spells, so clear-cut non-magical feats of skill are somewhat scarce.

[Serpentine]

Serpentine, regarding breast slapping swordswoman, really? That is awesome. But, given the body part being used, intimidate check of 20, or seduction botch of 1?Definitely Intimidate. I can't find an online version of it, but when I get home I'll copy out the passage.

Feminist whingeOf course if a woman attempts to influence another person, it must be by seduction, not by intimidation, because we all know women are incapable of being hardcore :sigh:

edit: Epic craftsmanship? Arachnea(sp?) out-wove the goddess of weaving.

[Coidzor]

^: I find it varies from woman to woman. A lot of women just don't take their hardcore work very seriously and so they actually break the necessary suspension of disbelief.

Which is pretty pathetic due to the fact that you wouldn't think there was any suspension of disbelief involved until the woman goes and breaks it. Done well though, it truly is a sight to behold.

Didn't Beowulf claim to have swum from England to Sweden/Norway or Denmark?

[Serpentine]

This woman travelled from Greenland to Newfoundland to start a colony. Around the year 1000. By longboat. With Vikings. She had to've been pretty damn tough to start with.

[Miklus]

Starkad (or Starkodder) preformed many deeds. One time he won a duel against nine brothers. He was so badly wounded that his guts hang out. Yet he refused medical aid twice before finding a guy he liked enough to let him sow him up.

When Starkard was finally decapitated, his head literaly bit at the grass. But he had a good run, he lived for 300 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starkad

I can't remember the name, but another hero is supposed to have held his breath under water for 2 hours...

A viking named Palnatokes is supposed to have skied down a cliff called "Kullen" in Sweden. Having seen that cliff myself, I find it extremly unlikely. He supposedly made it down with one broken ski.

[Castaras]

Holding a bridge alone against a massive army is pretty consistant across cultures as being heroic. =P

If you want a (slightly more real life) character that did that, there was the Viking Warrior at Stamford Bridge that just stood on the bridge and cut down the anglosaxons one by one. (until a cunning anglosaxon stuck a sword up from underneath him...:smallredface:)

[Eloel]

Somehow, Gilgamesh was 1/3 God. Still not entirely sure how that worked, but that is what the mythology claims.

He has one god grandparent, two mortal grandparents, and a grandparent that's exactly like him.

x = (1 + x + 0 + 0)/4
4x = 1 + x
3x = 1
x = 1/3
Yay math! :smallbiggrin:

[Eldan]

I think it was a spear... the anglosaxon swam under the bridge and stabbed him.

As for people that most likely really existed, how about Dian Wei. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dian_Wei)

According to the records from the time, he fought with a halberd in each hand, each of which weighed about 20 kilograms. To make up for not using a shield, he instead wore two suits of armour, one on top of the other. He could break ten enemy spears with every swing of his halberd. He held of a small army to defend his king and, when the enemy broke his halberds, he took two enemy corpses and proceeded to swing them as improvised weapons.

[Brother Oni]

On the subject of Dian Wei, you have the other heroes of the Three Kingdoms.

Martially, you have Guan Yu who fought his way through 9 enemy guarded gates while protecting the carriage carrying his lord's wife. The only reason why it wasn't more gates is because messangers finally caught up with them, telling the gate guards to let him through.

There's also Zhang Fei, sworn brother of Guan Yu, who Guan Yu himself admitted was better than himself.
He also did an Ajax and held off the entire Wei army on a bridge while the rest of his side evacuated civilians. It was alleged that when he bellowed his name at the enemy army and did his 'none shall pass!' challenge, one of the enemy officers died from fright.

At the same battle, Zhao Yun found his lord's wife injured near a well with her son, so she gave Zhao Yun the heir and told him to return to Liu Bei. Knowing that Zhao Yun would never leave her behind, she then threw herself down the well, so that he couldn't rescue her. He then fought his way through an entire enemy army single handedly while protecting his lord's infant son strapped to the inside of his chest plate.

Finally there was Lu Bu, regarded as the premier warrior of the Three Kingdoms era. He held his own against Guan Yu AND Zhang Fei in a duel and it wasn't until their third sworn brother Liu Bei joined in that Lu Bu had to retreat.

[Eldan]

He also did an Ajax and held off the entire Wei army on a bridge while the rest of his side evacuated civilians. It was alleged that when he bellowed his name at the enemy army and did his 'none shall pass!' challenge, one of the enemy officers died from fright.
.

See? Epic intimidate checks should totally do that.

[Cobra_Ikari]

On the subject of Dian Wei, you have the other heroes of the Three Kingdoms.

Martially, you have Guan Yu who fought his way through 9 enemy guarded gates while protecting the carriage carrying his lord's wife. The only reason why it wasn't more gates is because messangers finally caught up with them, telling the gate guards to let him through.

There's also Zhang Fei, sworn brother of Guan Yu, who Guan Yu himself admitted was better than himself.
He also did an Ajax and held off the entire Wei army on a bridge while the rest of his side evacuated civilians. It was alleged that when he bellowed his name at the enemy army and did his 'none shall pass!' challenge, one of the enemy officers died from fright.

At the same battle, Zhao Yun found his lord's wife injured near a well with her son, so she gave Zhao Yun the heir and told him to return to Liu Bei. Knowing that Zhao Yun would never leave her behind, she then threw herself down the well, so that he couldn't rescue her. He then fought his way through an entire enemy army single handedly while protecting his lord's infant son strapped to the inside of his chest plate.

Finally there was Lu Bu, regarded as the premier warrior of the Three Kingdoms era. He held his own against Guan Yu AND Zhang Fei in a duel and it wasn't until their third sworn brother Liu Bei joined in that Lu Bu had to retreat.

Aww, you're going off RoTK. Sun Jian defeated Lu Bu AND Hua Xiong. Which is pretty awesome.

[Eldan]

Heh. I was going off "historical" sources. :smalltongue:

Anyway, I still maintain that Cù Chulainn is the biggest badass ever. He fought one-on-one duels for, what was it, nine months, without making a break. Then, still without break, defeats the Morrigan.

[Cobra_Ikari]

Heh. I was going off "historical" sources. :smalltongue:

Yeah, unfortunately, RoTK is mostly fiction. =\

A favorite of mine from that time that appears to be accurate is Zhou Tai. He's known for protecting his lord Sun Quan with his own body, taking terrible wounds but surviving and leaving his lord unharmed.

There's another cool story where, when his command is disputed because of his commoner background, his lord holds a party in his honor, has him disrobe, and gets him to tell the story of how he received each of his scars, which won him their respect.

Nothing really superhuman (other than not-dying), but pretty awesome, IMO.

[Form]

Hmm, Perseus comes to mind as he did kill a Gorgon and I think he did quite a bit more as well, but I don't remember the details anymore and I don't know if he had any superhuman qualities according to the myths.

[true_shinken]

This site (http://www.badassoftheweek.com/) might help.
Also, no mention of John Henry? He dual wielded 20pound hammers and he was a real person.

[KnightDisciple]

How about Miyamoto Musashi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi)? He was actually just that hardcore. :smalltongue:

[Brother Oni]

Aww, you're going off RoTK. Sun Jian defeated Lu Bu AND Hua Xiong. Which is pretty awesome.

I only have my copy of Romance to go by. They didn't have a translation of Records for sale at the time.

[Cobra_Ikari]

I only have my copy of Romance to go by. They didn't have a translation of Records for sale at the time.

I like it, it's epic, but it also way glorifies Shu beyond their actuality. =P

[Tirian]

This site (http://www.badassoftheweek.com/) might help.
Also, no mention of John Henry? He dual wielded 20pound hammers and he was a real person.

He wasn't so real that we know for certain where his highly romanticized contest took place. You'd think it would exist somewhere in the written record, but not so much.

[true_shinken]

Also, King David from the Bible is pretty badass.
He killed Goliath, became the champion of the opressed, then he became king...

While we are in the subject of Bible, Samson springs to mind. But I could never speak about him as well as this guy (http://www.badassoftheweek.com/samson.html).

[SaintRidley]

Back into the realm of Gilgamesh, Enkidu.

His endurance - what was it, twelve days of nonstop lovemaking with Shamhat?

He and Gilgamesh wrestled the Bull of Heaven to death and when Ishtar came crying at them he ripped the back end off the bull and hurled the hindquarters at the goddess's face.

But that 12 day marathon, man.

[Brother Oni]

I like it, it's epic, but it also way glorifies Shu beyond their actuality. =P

Oh I agree, but if you know a book is biased (the translator's notes for my copy specifically mentioned that the original author was heavily Liu Bei biased, to the extent that he was referred to as Liu Xuande almost exclusively), then you can read it with a critical eye.
A lot of the Shu feats were actually achieved by Wu officers, hence why I stuck to the martial feats clearly attributable to Shu officers. :smallbiggrin:

[Terumitsu]

I'm surprised that nobody has referenced Orpheus yet. His parentage might be in question as it's debated if he was the son of a king or Apollo but anyone who could play a lyre well enough to charm the god of the dead into bending the rules and letting a soul come back to life is pretty epic. Sure, things didn't work out so well in the end but the feat itself was awesome in and of itself.

As for a real-world super-human-ish person. Audie Murphy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy). The linked article doesn't do the guy justice, sadly, but it should give you a good notion at least.

[Cobra_Ikari]

Oh I agree, but if you know a book is biased (the translator's notes for my copy specifically mentioned that the original author was heavily Liu Bei biased, to the extent that he was referred to as Liu Xuande almost exclusively), then you can read it with a critical eye.
A lot of the Shu feats were actually achieved by Wu officers, hence why I stuck to the martial feats clearly attributable to Shu officers. :smallbiggrin:

But Guan Yu's gates didn't happen, either. Nor the 3-way duel with Lu Bu, as I mentioned. =P

[Brother Oni]

But Guan Yu's gates didn't happen, either. Nor the 3-way duel with Lu Bu, as I mentioned. =P

Really? Oh well, at least Guan Yu is still the patron saint of coppers and Triads, so he's still epic enough. :smalltongue:

[Telonius]

The only myth that's immediately coming to mind is a strongman from a real world religion.

Would more recent folklore or tall takes count?

Pecos Bill: able to ride a tornado like a horse, has a rattlesnake for a lasso.
John Henry: won a contest against a steam-powered hammer (though died in the process)
Paul Bunyan: Performed various feats of strength and general awesomeness, including digging out Lake Michigan as a watering hole for his giant blue ox, Babe.

[Grelna the Blue]

Here's a couple out of Celtic myth.

Cuchulainn (http://www.shee-eire.com/magic&mythology/Warriors&Heroes/Warriors/Males/Cuchulainn/Page1.htm) - scariest barbarian ever.

Cuchulainn's spear, the Gae Bulg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A1e_Bulg).

Fionn mac Cumhaill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fionn_mac_Cumhaill) (aka Finn McCool), possibly the namesake of Vienna (originally Vindobona). Supposely he built the Giant's Causeway as stepping-stones to Scotland, so as not to get his feet wet. He once scooped up part of Ireland to fling it at a rival, but it missed and landed in the Irish Sea — the clump became the Isle of Man and the pebble became Rockall, the void became Lough Neagh.