Asking to play a anime character in D&D is the same as asking to play a Horror game character. It can range from Chris Redfield from Resident Evil to literally the Brother Moons from Dead Space 3.
Anime as a whole is highly depends on WHAT your character is based off, something like the Goblin Slayer is perfectly fine as he fits into the entire genre. But someone like Ainz is completely ridiculous as he is from both a different medium and uses stuff that only that medium has that to offer. For a saiyan specifically, D&D is utterly unfitted for such a character, they will either be far too weak or far too strong, with the popularity of saiyans causing a focus on the player with said character.
In conclusion, play Mutants and Masterminds, it’s a superhero ttrpg set in a modern day like setting.
I don't know about 3rd Edition (or heck, if M&M has had any further editions since then), but I found Mutants & Masterminds to actually be quite restrictive for a game that used a class-free character construction system.
Also, OP wasn't asking for an anime character, they were asking for a species from a specific anime which more or less starts at Silver Age Superman level power.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Yea and having your race be possibly stronger than most of your class features is definitely not what D&D 5e was intended. Having an official race like that would be a massive sign of quality drop for the company to just put something so out of left field.
Its ultimately a good thing that it will never become official, as homebrewers can continue making their own interpretations for their own games, without min makers picking the race because its official.
Simply put, D&D isn't built to handle this kind of scaling. It already breaks down at the 4th tier for most play groups anyway, as you have earth shattering power, and you're still accepting quests to stop a local threat.
Add to that the fact that playing one in a campaign where others aren't also that "power level" and it's like a level 20 character walking around with level 5 characters. Far too imbalanced.
That said, there are already systems out there designed for this sort of play. Stop trying to shoehorn everything into D&D. That's where we've gotten so many problems in the past. Play systems designed for the stories you want to tell, don't make one system break trying to tell every story.
Who is bagging on anime? The point is it's a fundamentally different way to power. I love One Punch Man, but Saitama is to the point he can break the universe. Dnd progression is relatively linear. Anime power is exponential. They even showed a graph on OPM heading to infinity. Naruto and DBZ basically the same thing.
Dungeon Meshi
Frieren
Hell, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash is so punishing and brutal, a DM who ran The Campaign of the Show would be accused of being an old school Killer DM out to gib his players.
And of course, Record of Lodoss War is a classic forty-year-old anime that was directly based on the creator's ongoing tabletop campaign.
Four I can rattle off, off the top of my head, that are grounded in the sort of "realistic" fantasy D&D people say anime cannot ever possibly fathom.
If you want to cite One Punch Man, which is deliberate satire of the overpowered nonsense in shounen beat-'em-ups, and two of the biggest shounen power fantasy series out there as 'the default' for anime? Perhaps we should compare those to their equivalent in D&D - a Monty Haul campaign where everybody is level 20 by the fifth session, everybody is armed to the teeth with dozens of legendary items, people are gestalting into new classes, and the entire goal is crazy over-the-top action.
Assuming that anyone who wants to play to their favorite tropes and stories is just a powergaming jackwad is rather disingenuous, is it not?
Whilst the like of Frieren and Dungeon Meshi are anime that would work very well in D&D they’d not what was asked, the OP specifically asked about Saiyan characters which wouldn’t work as well because of all the factors given by other posters
Who is bagging on anime? The point is it's a fundamentally different way to power. I love One Punch Man, but Saitama is to the point he can break the universe. Dnd progression is relatively linear. Anime power is exponential. They even showed a graph on OPM heading to infinity. Naruto and DBZ basically the same thing.
Dungeon Meshi
Frieren
Hell, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash is so punishing and brutal, a DM who ran The Campaign of the Show would be accused of being an old school Killer DM out to gib his players.
And of course, Record of Lodoss War is a classic forty-year-old anime that was directly based on the creator's ongoing tabletop campaign.
Four I can rattle off, off the top of my head, that are grounded in the sort of "realistic" fantasy D&D people say anime cannot ever possibly fathom.
If you want to cite One Punch Man, which is deliberate satire of the overpowered nonsense in shounen beat-'em-ups, and two of the biggest shounen power fantasy series out there as 'the default' for anime? Perhaps we should compare those to their equivalent in D&D - a Monty Haul campaign where everybody is level 20 by the fifth session, everybody is armed to the teeth with dozens of legendary items, people are gestalting into new classes, and the entire goal is crazy over-the-top action.
Assuming that anyone who wants to play to their favorite tropes and stories is just a powergaming jackwad is rather disingenuous, is it not?
Well done, but the example cited was DBZ. If you feel like a jackwad that's on you, buddy.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Asking to play a anime character in D&D is the same as asking to play a Horror game character. It can range from Chris Redfield from Resident Evil to literally the Brother Moons from Dead Space 3.
Anime as a whole is highly depends on WHAT your character is based off, something like the Goblin Slayer is perfectly fine as he fits into the entire genre. But someone like Ainz is completely ridiculous as he is from both a different medium and uses stuff that only that medium has that to offer. For a saiyan specifically, D&D is utterly unfitted for such a character, they will either be far too weak or far too strong, with the popularity of saiyans causing a focus on the player with said character.
In conclusion, play Mutants and Masterminds, it’s a superhero ttrpg set in a modern day like setting.
I don't know about 3rd Edition (or heck, if M&M has had any further editions since then), but I found Mutants & Masterminds to actually be quite restrictive for a game that used a class-free character construction system.
Also, OP wasn't asking for an anime character, they were asking for a species from a specific anime which more or less starts at Silver Age Superman level power.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Yea and having your race be possibly stronger than most of your class features is definitely not what D&D 5e was intended. Having an official race like that would be a massive sign of quality drop for the company to just put something so out of left field.
Its ultimately a good thing that it will never become official, as homebrewers can continue making their own interpretations for their own games, without min makers picking the race because its official.
Simply put, D&D isn't built to handle this kind of scaling. It already breaks down at the 4th tier for most play groups anyway, as you have earth shattering power, and you're still accepting quests to stop a local threat.
Add to that the fact that playing one in a campaign where others aren't also that "power level" and it's like a level 20 character walking around with level 5 characters. Far too imbalanced.
That said, there are already systems out there designed for this sort of play. Stop trying to shoehorn everything into D&D. That's where we've gotten so many problems in the past. Play systems designed for the stories you want to tell, don't make one system break trying to tell every story.
Whilst the like of Frieren and Dungeon Meshi are anime that would work very well in D&D they’d not what was asked, the OP specifically asked about Saiyan characters which wouldn’t work as well because of all the factors given by other posters
Well done, but the example cited was DBZ. If you feel like a jackwad that's on you, buddy.