High time for a geeky brainstorming session, methinks.
I’ve been reading an internet-based work of speculative fiction, lately—Alright, it’s a crossover fanfic. Ya happy?—and at one point in the ongoing discussion, someone raised the possibility of replicating and/or enhancing the SPARTAN II supersoldier program using technologies and magic available on the RPG world of Abeir-Toril.
Laser-etching sigils around the corneas for vision bonuses and microscopic runes embedded in ceramic enhanced bones were mentioned, specifically.
But, anyway, even leaving aside bringing the advanced technology into the mix for this discussion,* how close would you be able to come, in-universe, to recreating a SPARTAN’s enhancements and armor, if you knew what you had to aim for, and you had virtually unlimited resources?
*Unless everyone’s cool with it. I’m always up for making things as esoterically geeky as possible, of course.
D20 Future allowed? If so, the Juggernaut prestige class would work pretty well. Hard part is defining what the armor does. If you can define it, you can build it.
Training them as Kensai would probably be a good start, as it would give you another method to enhance their natural capabilities - why enchant their weapons to improve their reaction times when you can enchant them? It also means they will become less dangerous if they ever turn against you.
If I were the DM (and twelve) then I’d just pick the bonuses out the book for equipment and give them a Fighter class with a few feats selected to bridge the gaps. Besides all high level DnD characters have superhuman abilities to resist and recover from damage thanks to escalating HPs.
Honestly for “superhuman death machines” their abilities aren’t that impressive. I suppose that’s to the credit of the people writing that back story that their superpowers aren’t really outside of the range of human possibility but I get the impression that I’m supposed to be shocked at how awesome they are…
Dude, this is a trivial excercise. Heck, compared to “ordinary” high-level characters, the Spartans are probably under-levelled, if perhaps over-equipped. Is there something in particular you want them to have? Every ability they’ve got can be easily handled with D20 magic gear.
In fact, good enough D20 gear will handily outpace them, as a consequence of DnD’s scaling.
…
Edit: a more amusing comparison is DnD and Battletech. Originally, the scalng meant you could compare hit points right over, so DnD hit points equalled Battletech mech hitpoints. The systems were similar enough that one GM i know once had a crossover game.
The Zeus pilot was pissed when the barbarian took out his mech’s leg in one mighty cleave! The SDhadowrunners were also there, and traded their advanced tech for the mech designs, which they took back and colonized worlds with (and eventually wrecked Earth with), thus causing Battletech to come into existance. Everybody won.
Well, more specifically, how, in-universe (as in, say, the story of the Forgotten Realms universe, not “just” creating an RPG character), you could take a physically exceptional but otherwise mundane (as in, not being a wizard or a natural born demigod hybrid or something themselves) human, physically enhance them to Spartan levels, and produce a suit of armor to match the capabilities of the one from Halo.
Using non-magical, semi-magical, or unconventionally magical means to accomplish this (like making the armor clockwork-powered, or a wearable Golem or something) is also a bonus. Cause, y’know, I’m always for weird creativity, and ungodly fusions of science and the supernatural.
I’ll leave the issue of smokepowder Nock Guns to other, twisted, minds.
You, sir, are awesome by association, if nothing else. (A questioning emphasis on “if,” of course. )
I could, pretty trivially, make a character that could take a shotgun blast to the head, without armor, and ignore it. (Elan, level 5 or better.) Elans are sort of upgraded humans.
The question is… what’s the benefit here? So, STR 20, DEX 20, CON 20. Maybe some light fortification on the armor? True sight, and that Book of 9 Swords thing that lets you sense enemy stats? An ioun stone of not needing food and water?
It seems to me (although my experience is limited, so ymmv) that in most fantasy D&D settings the really powerful human characters are usually one-offs: individual warrior heroes. A supersoldier, however powerful, is at bottom an assembly line mass produced grunt. So the question becomes, how can you churn out arbitrarily high numbers of (nominally human) supersoldiers within the D&D setting?
I don’t have the specifics of what’s available so I can’t comment there. Generally however, there are two basic classes of usable enhancments/weapons: mundane and magical. The availability of magic is the limiting factor, since almost all really worthwhile stuff in D&D needs some sort of nonmundane basis. So I would say you either need a really fecund source of applicable magic, or clever ways of maximizing what sources you do have.
[ul][]Could you have a forge-god like Hephaestus on your side?[]Are spells of duplication (for non-special objects) available and relatively inexpensive? You might then try getting the best mundane armor and weapons in the world and then mass duplicating them.[]Is draining the lifeforce of prisoners/slaves on a regular basis an option? You could then keep your soldiers fit and strong at the others’ expense.[]How about instant training? Being able to give a raw recruit the experience of a five-year veteran would be really useful. How about being able to resurrect/ reincarnate the most successful suicide soldiers?[/ul]
All you really need is Pun-Pun. I wont’ even describe it. It’s that bad.
Human. Fighter 5. +1 Flaming, Frost, Shocking, Acid, Thundering Autoloading Crossbow. (That’s 1d8 + 5d6 +1 w/ no magic bolts). To match their almost-never used strength, you can give them guantlets of whatever.
Or not. The armor is pretty much just one suit of armor which sovers multiple magic items slots in DnD terms.
You can create the magic regenerating shield effect with a low-level spell similar to False Life, or the optional Dodge Point rules from the sourcebook I never released. ( ) Anyway, just make it cast False Life 1/round. It’s 1000 gold peices for a cheap hit point boost that gets taken off first and refreshes every round.
Remember that these were never “assembly-line” soldiers. The entire human race was down to 200 million poeple, and these were a tiny handful of the best specimens, bred with all kinds of genetic advantages and then given the best cyberware, and subjected to numerous lethal tests just because. There were only a handful.
It’s not arbitrarily high, but a Wu Jen/Incantatrix can make dozens of clones that exist for hours, even days. One such build I was playing around with would give you a standing army of around 200 dwarves in adamantine super-heavy plate and armed with pikes.
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