Many RPG players have compared high-level D&D characters with comic book super heroes. With magic spells or magic items, high-level D&D characters are so far beyond the realm of normal D&D-world characters, they are like Captain America, Superman, and other heroes with super powers. Well, that’s not true. High-level D&D characters are more powerful than even comic book super heroes.

For instance, look at Captain America: he’s basically a 20th-level fighter with a single magic item (an artifact, really). His physical abilities are all within normal human limits, although at the very maximum limits. A 20th-level fighter in D&D is going to have magic items to boost his physical abilities beyond normal limits. He’ll have magic items that allow him to fly, and resist magic and effects, and he’ll have a whole suite of magic weapons, armors, and miscellaneous gear.

Superman? A 20th-level wizard would clean his clock. Even if Superman made every saving throw roll, a high-level wizard has so many options at his command, he can easily catch Supes in a no-save spell. A single 20th-level wizard has more options, and more powerful options than the entire Justice League combined. And that’s before even considering magic equipment.
There is no argument — high-level D&D characters are, indeed, super powered characters. But they were not born with this amazing, super power. They did not get it all at once in some mutation, or freak chemical reaction, or even some magical experiment. A 20th-level D&D character worked up from 1st level, gaining power in small, incremental steps. A 3rd-level D&D character is not super powered compared to a 1st-level character. An 8th-level character is not super powered compared to a 6th-level character. A 13th-level character is not super powered compared to a 10th-level character. A 20th-level character is not super powered compared to an 18th-level character. The power did not come at a big jump. The power increase is relatively slow, gained through many adventures, over many months or years, in game time and real world time.

And this is all a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with playing a super hero-like character in a non-super hero world. If that character was built up from low level, through the normal ways — adventuring, overcoming obstacles, surviving dangers — gaining the super power levels feels natural and smooth.

A comic book super hero character usually starts his or her career with super powers. They are either born with them, or at some point they go from 1st level normal person to 20th level super hero in one jump. But D&D characters usually start their career at 1st-level hero, then work up to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and a long last, 20th-level hero, through a lot of work.

Comic book super heroes are usually far above all other people in the world, powerwise. You have normal people, and then you have super powered people. There’s a huge gulf between the two, like having 1st-level people and 20th-level people, and no one in between. But in a D&D world, you don’t have 1st-level normal people and then 20th-level super characters. You have a wide array of levels throughout the world. There are 19th, 18th, 17th, 16th, and 15th-level characters as well as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th-level characters. Sure, the high-level characters will be fewer, far fewer as the levels rise, but they are there.

Only when you look at the end result in isolation from all the work up to that point does the high-level character seem strangely super powered.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I ran a Marvel Super Heroes (MSH) campaign back in the 90s – the heroes were gathered by a mysterious man who supported their hero work. I don’t remember how they came up with the name for their group, but I have it written down in my MSH notes from the time: The Guardians. The campaign lasted probably a year or so.

Over ten years later (now), I’ve started another MSH campaign. It’s the exact same concept as the previous campaign, but different Players. The group decided (without my input or prompting) to come up with a name for themselves. They came up with about 20 names through e-mail exchanges over a week. The next game session (last week), they took 10 minutes or so to hash out the names. They eventually settled on a name (half by choice, half by random roll): The Guardians.

I showed the Players the notes from my old campaign (they know this is a repeat set up), and we were all surprised that they came up with the exact same name.

I don’t have anything special to say about this, really. I just thought it amazing that two different groups, in two different cities, in two different decades would come up with the same name for their group in the same campaign set up.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I canceled my WoW account. I’ve gotten pretty busy lately and just haven’t played in several weeks.

Fortunately, WoW keeps character information safe when you cancel your account, so if I get the time to play again, I can reopen the account and continue where I left off (level 68).

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

My friends and I were talking about using mules in WoW. One of my friends has never used one.

In the Outlands, you almost must have a mule. It saves a lot of time having to go back and forth for the bank and Auction House. My mule scans the AH daily, and then receives loot from my main to sell on the AH. She can store stuff in the bank, too. Probably saves me 20 minutes of travel time each time I play. Let’s my main stay close to the action areas.

Last night, I was on with my mule (now level 10) and had a guy ask me to sign his guild charter. Said he’d give me 1 gold to do it. I was curious if he would actually give me a gold, so I said yes.

He and his friend came to me and I signed the charter. A moment later, he opened a trade window and put in a gold. Honesty! Great. I didn’t take the gold and told him to keep it.

He said, “Umm, okay.”

I said, “I’m a mule, and I’ve already got 680 gold on me. I don’t need it.”

He said, “?? How did you get so much gold?”

I had to log off right after he asked that, so I didn’t get to answer. I didn’t notice what level he and his friend was. I imagine he’s probably telling people I he found a gold buyer.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com