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JamesIntrocaso
2015-03-03, 08:41 AM
I know that superpowers are not for everyone in a D&D game. They're game-breaking for sure, but if they are for you, they can be a lot of fun. Here's my idea for implementing superpowers in my game. To get them the PCs must risk their sanity and their lives! Let me know what you think.

http://worldbuilderblog.me/2015/03/03/blessings-of-the-damned-lands/

ReturnOfTheKing
2015-03-04, 10:09 PM
I'd critique you on this, but my mind exploded when I found the psionic Tyrannosaurus rex :smallbiggrin:

Actually, I think you did a really good job of portraying superpowers in D&D. However, these abilities aren't all exactly super, or to put it another way, anyone using these "superpowers" wouldn't last 30 seconds in a fight with Black Widow, let alone the entire Avengers team. Yeah, I know, PCs shouldn't be too op, I just feel like that's, yanno, kind of the point of superheroes. I mean, superheroes don't do dungeon crawls, they do megalomaniacs with world conquest plots, and they should be statistically designed to confront such foes. Perhaps the powers should scale based on level? Either experience level or spellcasting level would probably work for that purpose.

Also, I have a bit of a problem with your organization and options. Personally, I see superpowered people being lumped into roughly five categories - mutates, mutants, others, badasses and wielders. This is about to get longwinded, so bear with me.

A mutate is one of the more common varieties of "super", being an otherwise ordinary human who was somehow altered by an outside force, either accidentally or of their own free will, be it unrealistic radiation, a magical item, reading up on eldritch knowledge or some form of genetic upgrading. Examples of this kind of "super" include Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, Captain Marvel/Shazam and the Green Goblin.

Mutants (the name for which I stole from X-Men) are people who were born with their weird powers to otherwise ordinary people, possibly due to bloodlines or genetic anomalies. Examples include the X-Men, Force-sensitive people in Star Wars and Harry Potter.

An other is basically someone who has crazy powers when compared to humans because they're not humans, or in other words, they come from a place where their powers aren't exactly extraordinary by their standards, but us puny humans see them as super because by our standards, they are extraordinary. Examples include Thor, Superman, the Time Lords (from Doctor Who) and Spock (RIP and LLAP, Leonard Nimoy :smallfrown:).

Then there are badasses, who basically have no superpowers other than being insanely skilled soldiers, martial artists, supergeniuses or whatever and generally having absurdly good luck (bordering on the supernatural, in some cases). Examples include Batman, Sherlock, the Joker and the Man With No Name (from Clint Eastwood's Dollars trilogy).

Finally, there are the wielders, who are basically people without superpowers of their own that wear crazy robosuits or have crazy potions they can gulp or something else which gives them powers, the defining factor being that they can remove or shed these devices whenever they like and it's not usually an integral part of them. In other words, they can go from normal to super and back again without any residual effects. Examples include Iron Man, Ant-Man and most shapeshifters with a "standard form", like Odo in Star Trek: DS9.

I hope that makes sense, because I imagine I've confused and bored you by now :smallwink: :smallconfused:. You don't need to incorporate this division scheme in any form, it's just a thought. I just figured it'd be neat to have various heroic "archetypes", for lack of a better word, grouped around these concepts, with powers/feats organized around these archetypes and altered to reflect them. For instance, if you want to go for a mutate which has gained the power to resist death after accidentally absorbing the soul of a lich from it's phylactery, you could give them the invulnerability, regeneration and resurrection abilities, probably not all at once, but over time. Or something like that. Like I said, I'm not trying to force these on you as the only options for giving D&D players superpowers, they're all just suggestions and musings.

EDIT: Just realized that Shazam would technically be a wielder, my bad :smallredface:

Maglubiyet
2015-03-04, 10:23 PM
Really neat idea.

What criteria are you using for separating Major and Minor powers? You've got things like Amphibious as a Major power while Psychic Claws is a Minor. And some of these, like Invulnerability, are downright OP.

Also, you state that the "psionic energy of the place can warp creatures’ anatomy" but none of these powers describes any physical changes to the character's body. Is that implied, like if you get Blindsight do you have oversized ears or something?

JamesIntrocaso
2015-03-05, 09:02 AM
I'd critique you on this, but my mind exploded when I found the psionic Tyrannosaurus rex :smallbiggrin:

Actually, I think you did a really good job of portraying superpowers in D&D. However, these abilities aren't all exactly super, or to put it another way, anyone using these "superpowers" wouldn't last 30 seconds in a fight with Black Widow, let alone the entire Avengers team. Yeah, I know, PCs shouldn't be too op, I just feel like that's, yanno, kind of the point of superheroes. I mean, superheroes don't do dungeon crawls, they do megalomaniacs with world conquest plots, and they should be statistically designed to confront such foes. Perhaps the powers should scale based on level? Either experience level or spellcasting level would probably work for that purpose.

Also, I have a bit of a problem with your organization and options. Personally, I see superpowered people being lumped into roughly five categories - mutates, mutants, others, badasses and wielders. This is about to get longwinded, so bear with me.

A mutate is one of the more common varieties of "super", being an otherwise ordinary human who was somehow altered by an outside force, either accidentally or of their own free will, be it unrealistic radiation, a magical item, reading up on eldritch knowledge or some form of genetic upgrading. Examples of this kind of "super" include Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, Captain Marvel/Shazam and the Green Goblin.

Mutants (the name for which I stole from X-Men) are people who were born with their weird powers to otherwise ordinary people, possibly due to bloodlines or genetic anomalies. Examples include the X-Men, Force-sensitive people in Star Wars and Harry Potter.

An other is basically someone who has crazy powers when compared to humans because they're not humans, or in other words, they come from a place where their powers aren't exactly extraordinary by their standards, but us puny humans see them as super because by our standards, they are extraordinary. Examples include Thor, Superman, the Time Lords (from Doctor Who) and Spock (RIP and LLAP, Leonard Nimoy :smallfrown:).

Then there are badasses, who basically have no superpowers other than being insanely skilled soldiers, martial artists, supergeniuses or whatever and generally having absurdly good luck (bordering on the supernatural, in some cases). Examples include Batman, Sherlock, the Joker and the Man With No Name (from Clint Eastwood's Dollars trilogy).

Finally, there are the wielders, who are basically people without superpowers of their own that wear crazy robosuits or have crazy potions they can gulp or something else which gives them powers, the defining factor being that they can remove or shed these devices whenever they like and it's not usually an integral part of them. In other words, they can go from normal to super and back again without any residual effects. Examples include Iron Man, Ant-Man and most shapeshifters with a "standard form", like Odo in Star Trek: DS9.

I hope that makes sense, because I imagine I've confused and bored you by now :smallwink: :smallconfused:. You don't need to incorporate this division scheme in any form, it's just a thought. I just figured it'd be neat to have various heroic "archetypes", for lack of a better word, grouped around these concepts, with powers/feats organized around these archetypes and altered to reflect them. For instance, if you want to go for a mutate which has gained the power to resist death after accidentally absorbing the soul of a lich from it's phylactery, you could give them the invulnerability, regeneration and resurrection abilities, probably not all at once, but over time. Or something like that. Like I said, I'm not trying to force these on you as the only options for giving D&D players superpowers, they're all just suggestions and musings.

Well I think that's one way to do it if you want to have a superhero game, but I want to play a D&D game where each character has one simple power like "I can fly." I need something simple, but some games do need something more complex and this is a great way to do it.

JamesIntrocaso
2015-03-05, 09:05 AM
Really neat idea.

What criteria are you using for separating Major and Minor powers? You've got things like Amphibious as a Major power while Psychic Claws is a Minor. And some of these, like Invulnerability, are downright OP.

Also, you state that the "psionic energy of the place can warp creatures’ anatomy" but none of these powers describes any physical changes to the character's body. Is that implied, like if you get Blindsight do you have oversized ears or something?

Well psychic claws is a cool power, but it's basically duel-wielding short swords so it got minor. Amphibious is pretty great! They're certainly not all on par as far as power level goes, but in general minor seem less useful and the major are more so. There are changes that occur, (larger ears is a great idea), but I haven't fleshed them all out yet so I didn't include them. They'll be in the final book for sure!