Gotham Campaign

[DStenz89]

My group has discussed and decided on doing a Gotham-themed campaign setting. None of the PC's will be Batman but they may be Nightwing, Robin, or Batgirl etc. They might even come up with their own character. One of the main things that they want to do is go up against some of the iconic Gotham villains. I'm looking for some help in how to stat the enemies out. Not necessarily classes or levels but ability scores. Assuming that the Batman character that they will at times have dealings with will be 20's across the board, how would you stat people like the Joker, Two-Face, Catwoman, etc.? Any feedback is appreciated

[Grod_The_Giant]

My group has discussed and decided on doing a Gotham-themed campaign setting. None of the PC's will be Batman but they may be Nightwing, Robin, or Batgirl etc. They might even come up with their own character. One of the main things that they want to do is go up against some of the iconic Gotham villains. I'm looking for some help in how to stat the enemies out. Not necessarily classes or levels but ability scores. Assuming that the Batman character that they will at times have dealings with will be 20's across the board, how would you stat people like the Joker, Two-Face, Catwoman, etc.? Any feedback is appreciated
So, um, is there a reason you're using a high fantasy system for a superhero game? I... really can't recommend it.

[DStenz89]

So, um, is there a reason you're using a high fantasy system for a superhero game? I... really can't recommend it.

We like the game mechanics and all. We enjoy doing different campaign settings while keeping the rules and system relatively standard.

[RickAllison]

We like the game mechanics and all. We enjoy doing different campaign settings while keeping the rules and system relatively standard.

Understandable. I would like to note that many of Batman's villains such as Hugo Strange are described as at peak human condition, which you simply need to decide what that means. Does it mean peak fantasy condition (20) or peak normal humans (16 or 18). Some will be outliers (Bane for Strength, Joker for Charisma, Mr. Freeze is probably a 20 in Int if not more, etc.), but many should fit within those bounds and several (Penguin, Riddler who is not as intelligent as he would like to think, Mad Hatter) who may not reach the max on any and instead rely on equipment, schemes, or henchmen.

[Connington]

So here's the thing: If you want to do straight Gotham City in DnD 5e, it's going to be rough. All of the high fantasy rules are going to be inappropriate in some way or another for a modern-day comic book setting. Concepts don't translate well, half of the classes are going to have magic, which doesn't jive with the setting. You start worrying about exactly what the Joker's Intelligence score would be, which is a waste of time.

So if you want to go Gotham-inspired, I would stress the the inspired part, and translate it into a high fantasy setting, and then go for interesting/thematically appropriate concepts. The Joker is a bard who leans heavily on his Vicious Mockery cantrip and has to be stopped before he poisons all of the Good Temple's healing potions. The Riddler is the kind of mad wizard who invents owlbears as part of a particularly convoluted brain teaser. Poison Ivy is a druid, Clayface, Man-Bat and Killer Croc are all straight monsters.

[Buckmaster]

My group has discussed and decided on doing a Gotham-themed campaign setting. None of the PC's will be Batman but they may be Nightwing, Robin, or Batgirl etc. They might even come up with their own character. One of the main things that they want to do is go up against some of the iconic Gotham villains. I'm looking for some help in how to stats the enemies out. Not necessarily classes or levels but ability scores. Assuming that the Batman character that they will at times have dealings with will be 20's across the board, how would you stat people like the Joker, Two-Face, Catwoman, etc.? Any feedback is appreciated

Try standard array and normal build process or look at the monster that most closely fits and retheme it to one of the villains.

The Odd part of Batman universe is none of the villains die. Even if they do they always come back.
High Cha for penguin and the joker. High Int for Two-Face. High Dex for Catwoman. Have fun.

[Beleriphon]

Try standard array and normal build process or look at the monster that most closely fits and retheme it to one of the villains.

The Odd part of Batman universe is none of the villains die. Even if they do they always come back.
High Cha for penguin and the joker. High Int for Two-Face. High Dex for Catwoman. Have fun.

I'm pretty sure Catwoman is a straight up Rogue (thief) build using a whip as a weapon, and a focus on a high dexterity score.

Other characters using D&D I'd personally go with using the monster archetypes in the Monster Manual and modifying as necessary. Two-Face is basically just a jumped thug with a weird psychosis, Penguin is a crime boss that likes ornithology a bit too much, Bane is a guy that demonstrates the dangers of using steroids, and the Riddler is a smart guy that can't help but leave clues even when he doesn't want to. Most Batman villains are really some kind of dark mirror of human psychology, so states and what not don't matter so much.

[Trolleitor]

You may want to try Ultramodern5. It has classes/races/equipment/rules etc. for modern and futuristics settings.

The ladder system is very good if you want to make a nonmagical world Im using it on a gritty ancient greek campaign that I'm running.

The manual is good, if you don't mind more rules and +2 bonus here and there.

[Joe the Rat]

Themes over the literal Gotham will play better. Get a little Elseworlds going.


Two-Face is basically just a jumped thug with a weird psychosis,
Er, what? District Attorney Harvey Dent would better be reflected with a Noble basis, or possibly a Knight if you want to take the "Crusading Attorney" part a bit more literally. In practice, he's probably the most minion-heavy of the classic villains.

Still has the weird psychosis. Twos - That's his Flaw.

The Ideals/Bonds/Flaws really plays out well with the villains - what you want, what you care about, what your Catastrophic Irrational Attraction/Hatred is (Seriously, like every one of them has some obsession). I note this because if you are really going to go for Gotham, These are going to be the breadcrumbs for your Exploration/Investigation and Social encounters. Take advantage of these to gain advantage on your foes.

[DStenz89]

So here's the thing: If you want to do straight Gotham City in DnD 5e, it's going to be rough. All of the high fantasy rules are going to be inappropriate in some way or another for a modern-day comic book setting. Concepts don't translate well, half of the classes are going to have magic, which doesn't jive with the setting. You start worrying about exactly what the Joker's Intelligence score would be, which is a waste of time.

So if you want to go Gotham-inspired, I would stress the the inspired part, and translate it into a high fantasy setting, and then go for interesting/thematically appropriate concepts. The Joker is a bard who leans heavily on his Vicious Mockery cantrip and has to be stopped before he poisons all of the Good Temple's healing potions. The Riddler is the kind of mad wizard who invents owlbears as part of a particularly convoluted brain teaser. Poison Ivy is a druid, Clayface, Man-Bat and Killer Croc are all straight monsters.

This is exactly the kind of game that we are going for!

[DStenz89]

The Ideals/Bonds/Flaws really plays out well with the villains - what you want, what you care about, what your Catastrophic Irrational Attraction/Hatred is (Seriously, like every one of them has some obsession). I note this because if you are really going to go for Gotham, These are going to be the breadcrumbs for your Exploration/Investigation and Social encounters. Take advantage of these to gain advantage on your foes.

I really like the idea about stressing the flaws. That's an element that we haven't incorporated very well (we tend to do it subconsciously though) but to focus on it would be a great idea.

[TheProfessor85]

Clock King is a high elf divination wizard, obsessed with time, high elf also gives long sword use.

Bane half-orc barb who is a bull's strength potion junkie, who has a barrel of it on his back.

Joker is a tinker gnome bard, who's created tasha's laughter potions

Clayface a clay golem that gained its on sentience

Mr. Freeze is a human evoker wizard who takes the feat to change spells to ice, or make a slight difference and could be a white dragon sorc.

Deadshot, human archer fighter

Riddler, human arcane trickster rogue

Killer Croc could be a slaad, or blackscale lizardman

Mad hatter, halfling bard?

Penguin could be a bar owner that helps the party.

[TheProfessor85]

Doctor Hurt as a fiend loving warlock maybe

[DStenz89]

These are all great suggestions and I appreciate them all

[Linker2k]

These are all great suggestions and I appreciate them all


You can use this:

http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA_ModernMagic.pdf

As for magic, you can do two things, one, use "Weapons" as magic (e.g. Freezes Frostbite it's his pistol).
Also remember that DC does have magic (Constantine, Shazam, Dr Face, Sorc). So you can fit magical heroes if you want to.

[DStenz89]

As for magic, you can do two things, one, use "Weapons" as magic (e.g. Freezes Frostbite it's his pistol).
Also remember that DC does have magic (Constantine, Shazam, Dr Face, Sorc). So you can fit magical heroes if you want to.

Zatanna could even show up and she would likely be a straight sorcerer. There are a lot of options and a lot of ways to do characters.

A lot of these spells seem great! It would be easy to fluff each of these spells as a device too.

[Herobizkit]

Riddler, human arcane trickster rogueOr the Mastermind Rogue from SCAG. Seems very appropriate.

Aside, 4e's mechanics (to me) seem much more suited for Superheroic role-play than 5e. While it's very "grid-heavy", every character starts with at least one attack that does Damage AND something else (be it push/pull/slide, give a bonus to someone else, give a penalty to the targets AC, etc) which could be flavored to strong punches/beam attacks or what-not. All of the class abilities seem like superpowers. :)

Aside 2: If you can find it, 4e had a "Gamma World" release that ran an Apocalypse/Mutant World with 4e's mechanics. That setting's mechanics would be perfect for Gotham.