shrike
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What is the most powerful character you've played with in your tabletop sessions (as GM or player)? Ever had player achieve demi/godhood, or meet superpowered NPCs, gods or opponents? What are your tips or advice on making these encounters interesting or as fun/fair as possible?
>D&D: probably Demogorgon or Vecna. Not sure which is stronger, considering their mooks and holdings.
>COC (modern): Baba Yaga from "Inversion". Very fun scenario to run and play with tons of excellent resources, though requires a bit of effort from the keeper to prepare and set up. Without spoilers: its a Soviet-era science bunker full of increasingly spooky monsters, its a 200+ page book with incredible details, so detailed we played it twice (first run was a TPK). Highly recommend.
>Traveler: homebrew !Not_Xeelee ancient ayy lmaos PCs discovered hibernating on a remote planet waiting for the heat-death of the universe. PC meddling woke them up, which lead to bad stuff, though that was more incidental than deliberately malicious akin (like an awakening Necron tombship), like sweeping off the snow and dust off their parked car as they went about to continue their agenda.
>>95835867 (OP)a level 18 wild magic sorcerer deep gnome with a staff of moonfire
Cyberpunk Media with global reach and maxxed out believability, so with evidence there's no person that didn't believe my articles (aside from people who "were there"). Used that to destroy an Arasaka subsidiary and keep Japs out of Night City for at least a decade which already makes 2077 game not canon in our campaign.
She also had a concealed rocket launcher and regularly beat Legendary Difficulty rolls for Wardrobe & Style.
Gossip Girlboss power fantasy basically.
>>95835867 (OP)Exalted 2E game that made it to 9 Essence. Radiant Phoenix the Dawn caste giga-martial-artist eventually became powerful enough to duel a Deathlord in single combat, and was the strongest living Exalt in all the worlds at the time of his final battle. His ultimate Charm touched every thread in the Loom of Fate and wove it into his own story, dictating destiny upon his own pen in a way that made all the Sidereals collectively seethe. As all Creation moved to his will as The Hero™, his ultimate victory was guaranteed by the nature of narrative.
So was his own death, of course. The best stories can only end with the hero's sacrifice. But in so doing, the Neverborn master died a final death along with his Deathlord, and all things were permanently dragged further from Oblivion.
We were chuuni teenagers okay we're not the best writers. But yeah, in that moment after igniting his final Charm, he was truly invincible. The weight of existing in the same narrative as him meant you are conceptually bound to either ally with him or fall before him, with no other possibilities.
>>95835867 (OP)We played a campaign where we rescued a demigod from Szass Tam, who was trying to steal her power. We went epic level and ended up pushing a soft coup in Thay (we kill most of the dudes in charge and replaced them with slightly less evil ones but didn't really change anything aside from getting slavery replaced with sharecropping).
>>95836187That's unfair bullshit.
But then again, its on-brand for solars.
I'm actually running a campaign about that for Wild Talents (superhero stuff). My PC have to find someone in the most dangerous prison, holding 20~ super super super villains/hero. The prison is actually a lid to a secret prison underneath that hold the actual 5 apocalypse-tier mutants. Of course they have to free one of the 5 and they don't know which
it's crazy fun
I remember i once made a Goliath Pugilist in D&D who was able to cheese the rules to make like seventy attacks in a single turn if he used all his points and was at low health, and deal up to nearly a thousand damage. Also, it wasn't just normal physical damage, so he could punch just about anything, magic included.
That's not particularly strong, I just don't really play a lot of 'highpower' games.
Full throated necromancer who later became a Fae lord.
Imagine David Bowie in Labyrinth if he could bullshit out ten thousand skeletons a minute and couldn't die thanks to being able to reincarnate.
>>95835867 (OP)>Heavily optimized wizard (tanky than the fighter on my team thanks to Cleric 1 dip)>DM granted basic magic itemsThe character was used for a big (11 PCs) PvP arena just as a fun thing to say goodbye on before some of the members had to leave. I tried to negotiate and strategize but my (2) allies ran to the middle and got downed immediately. Meanwhile, I'm using every trick and cheese in the book to survive. Eventually, I landed a nice aoe spell hit that technically brings me to the highest damage output of the combat, but also hastened the imminent death of one of my allies caught in the blast. Eventually, I build my position to where almost every enemy combatant on the field is in danger of my attacks while I have 0 damage to fear from any of them.
>Level 5, yes, but should the DM have given each of the 3 teams 1 staff of power (even if it was quickly nerfed to the equivalent lvl 3 effects) each? No, it was absolutely busted. Despite my winning position, I'm annoyed that the DM had put in so few mental faculties into trying to make the encounter more interesting for everyone instead of just a few. All the suboptimal builds that got clowned on were innocent collateral that happened to get led into the wrong fight by the one they trusted to guide them right.
In short:
>rope trick 5e OP (With the right ceiling) pls nerf In terms of absolute power, my wizard would have gotten crushed without a thought by a higher level mage (the DM did actually consider adding a lich to see how things would go before realizing it would be an instant total group death), but relative power is much more important than absolutes in an actual game and that is what I had an abundance of. Not my most powerful absolute character, by far my best relative character.
>>95835867 (OP)I played a demigod cult leader with evil genie powers in Exalted. (Infernal Exalt, Cecylene and Malfeas charms). Guy could kill or grievously injure mortal schlubs with a gesture, withstand the odd knife or arrow, but his real power was outside combat. Anyone expressing a wish in his vicinity could be targeted with an imposed devil's bargain, and he was socially adept enough to lure that out of unsuspecting targets. He also could perform sorcerous miracles like summoning food (nutritious demon-locusts) and raising structures from the earth. His capstone achievement was singlehandedly constructing a city for thousands of refugees over the course of two weeks, then convincing them this was their long-lost ancestral homeland (which he made up).
>>95835867 (OP)Why would I be rolling for damage?
>>95835867 (OP)Hyperion is a good book, but I honestly kind of hate the Shrike. Does it get better explained in the sequels? The fact that it takes the shape of this humanoid boogieman just does nothing for me. It cheapens the actual thematic possibilities of what it can actually do.
>>95840783Yes, especially in The Fall of Hyperion.
I once played a fairy foxboy princess (male) in a one-on-one game, over half a decade ago. Their abilities included:
• An ability to clone the mind and soul of anyone, including themselves, ad infinitum, on a mass scale. These clones could selectively be linked together into a hivemind. They used this to repeatedly duplicate their own mind into a multitasking, omnipresent hivemind. They could also clone bodies and create new bodies, although this took a small expenditure of physical resources.
• Unrestricted access to the minds/souls of all creatures in existence, and the ability to edit those minds however well they pleased, ad infinitum, on a mass scale.
• The ability to copy skills, talents, knowledge, and magical/psionic/supernatural abilities across minds and souls, ad infinitum, on a mass scale.
• The ability to create world-sized, fully habitable mindscapes for bodiless minds and souls to inhabit, ad infinitum, on a mass scale.
• The ability to reverse the death of just about anyone, ad infinitum, on a mass scale.
By this point, my character was effectively so godlike that they could effectively create whatever sort of world(s) they pleased to create. They instead opted to create a reality-wide government and bureaucracy with themselves at the head, with a series of self-imposed rules to try to make things "fair" for everyone else in the inevitable transhumanist... utopia? Yes, "utopia," let us call it that. The largest restriction was against cloning minds and souls, because my character felt that it would not make for a balanced society if everyone could just clone themselves willy-nilly.
He also ended the campaign marrying his own sister, though fairies in this setting are not born conventionally, so sibling status is much murkier.
>>95835867 (OP)From mechanical crunching probably Krough. Spent two weeks prepping a lv 15 tengu monk/rogue for a 1st edition pathfinder one shot.
Due to pf1e stacking shenanigans he had unarmed attacks that hit as if they were colossal+, wisdom to attack, damage and saves and mixed crane and panther style for significant boosts to defences and preemptive counter attacks that could stun.
The DM threw an ancient red at us as the climax and Krough, horrid little minmaxed munchkin that he was, killed it in one turn. So the DM threw another one at us, and Krough killed it on the dragons turn with a preemptive quivering palm that it rolled a 2 against.
Honestly spoiled the session for most everyone despite the RP being pretty solidly fun.
I've since built character first, and aim to match the tables crunchiness instead of upending balance for my own amusement.
In terms of NPC's, probably Vecna or Orcus? I duo'ed Baphomet with a fighter buddy in 4e as a barbarian, so he definitely wasn't the strongest...
>>95835867 (OP)>DMTharizdun
>PlayerD&D 5e: From a campaign that went post-20, a Bladesinger Lich that built an Artifact capable of absorbing Divine power in order to cast 11th level spells. He was the second weakest member of the party that managed to kill A God who was wielding Sci-Fi technology in his own domain. The Lich then ensured his own Immortality by sending a copy of his mind into the past and creating a cascading series of parallel timelines
>>95840783Doesn't cheapen anything, rather.
>>95840783Everything about the Shrike gets explained in painstaking detail. I, personally, preferred it when it was mysterious.
>>95835867 (OP)Why would I be rolling for damage?
>>95835867 (OP)I've made a powerful psionic character in Traveller legit had the maximum Psi stat & tested in all powers which was cool. Then got enough credits to afford a really awesome android body with maxed stats & no downsides. Then we did some stuff for Grandfather & the ancients tech we received made me even more OP. He started as a kid of a Zhodani commando/secret police who presented himself as just a travelling lawyer with a hidden past & didn't want to be a soldier anymore. Ended up being a reluctant psychic warrior-emperor to save people. Campaign is wrapped up.
I made a 3.5 dnd Artificer that became an powerful immortal guy who fought gods & kept enhancing himself until he had a construct body & layers of magical enchantments that made it impossible to be hurt. Mostly he just wanted to play support for the party but kept having to overcome greater & greater challenges & felt the need to shelter the party who were the ones to push the plot along. Only really "revealed his power level a handful of times" mostly to avoid the rest of the party being TPKd, then he would immediately go back to being a passive buff & heal guy who handed out magic gear occasionally. Game is on near permanent hiatus.
Played a psyker admech in 40k. Had tons of cybernetics that made me tough to kill & had a lot of psyker power to cover certain gaps, he was a heretek but loyal to the Imperium. Wanted to improve humanity with some crazy thoughts on wraithbone tech. Game is dead.
I'm currently playing an Atlantean TW in RIFTS who had downloaded himself into a living flesh golem body so he looks human but has a bunch of magic & tech installed to make him nearly indestructible. He also has a laser gun that does crazy levels of damage.
If you haven't seen it they all kind of run on a theme. A mortal man crafting himself a godlike living artificial body. I don't knownwhy but I've alwaysnliked the idea & always gravitate towards it. I play plenty of other characters, but
>>95844103I keep coming back to that concept. It just speaks to me. Something about overcoming your limitations & your weakness through craftsmanship & clever ideas. To become a god by tools & knowledge & tricks, I love it
>>95835867 (OP)Adam Smasher showed up once as a TPK device when my one of my players decided to fuck around and find out.
>players doing a corpo heist>yoink a mcguffin from an arasaka lab and the tech specs from the on-site datafort>solos have the mcguffin and are exfiltrating>netrunner decides he wants to go off-script and start cracking unrelated high-sec files, expecting bonus pay>despite several warnings via the datafort 'librarian' AI that these things were absolutely off-limits>'im already through the walls, the ice is derezzed. this net is pwned'>fails hidden roll>datafort AI injects invisible tracker downloaded with the cracked files>two days later Adam Smasher Kool-Aid Man smashes through the hideout and kills everybody to retrieve the datashard>he left the mcguffin in a pile of rubble on the floor
>>95844539An MDC laser pistol that does hundreds of MDC. With plans on making it even better if I can find the right stuff.
