Let’s Play D&D In ‘Marvel What If…?’
Marvel What If….? is here and we are ready to celebrate by inviting one of the characters we’re most excited to meet to the table to play some D&D!
Marvel What If…? premiers today and between the canonical multiverse and the total free for all of Twilight Zone style episodes, we are very excited for a wild ride from MCU. With all of these new takes on old favorite characters, we would be remiss if we didn’t try to add at least one or two of them to our next D&D session, and I can’t think of anyone more perfect than Captain Carter.
On her own, Peggy is a pretty solid character with some pretty interesting D&D potential. Leadership skills, smarts, investigation, and enough physical ability to get into (and out of) trouble have made her a well-deserved fan favorite for a little while now. But once you mix in the super-solider serum and shield that Steve is usually known for you have a powerhouse character that any player would have a fun time with.
Unfortunately, the serum also throws a few odd wrenches into the mix. This is a character who’s highest stat should obviously be the physical ones – and they are – but a not-super version of Peggy would have much higher Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. I rolled pretty well for her, so it wouldn’t be fair to say that these have become dump stats, but I think we can all agree that if we weren’t specifically prioritizing Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity, she would have much better than a plus one to the more mental stats.
Her classes were easy in that they were both more or less perfect. Battle Master speaks to her academic study of weapons and theory behind warfare and her background in intelligence while the Fighter aspect give us some boosts to the physical fights we know she’ll be getting into. Meanwhile, Oath of the Crown Paladin, aside from being a pretty solid play on her loyalty to The Crown, focuses on serving society, justice, and civilization. It also gives us the Paladin ability, Lay On Hands, which isn’t strictly a Peggy or Captain Carter power, but feels like something she (or Captain America Classic) would appreciate having.
Her weaponry is where I had to get a little creative. A huge part of the Captain aesthetic is the vibranium shield, but in D&D shields are shields and not ever weapons… Except this one is. While I don’t love pulling from online homebrews for my sheets, I took a fair amount of inspiration from this Hero’s Shield and listed it as both a throwable strength-based weapon and an AC boosting shield. If you were trying to sneak a Captain Carter inspired character into your next game, you’d want to have a chat with your DM, but custom weapons are a staple of most games, and your DM is probably cool.
Finally, I wanted to give her as many boosts to her leadership capabilities as possible with the Inspiring Leader feat and a number of Maneuvers focused on helping, leading and commanding a team. Her background in intelligence and with leadership roles give Peggy a unique ability to take control of any situation and make the battle field better for it, perhaps even more so than Steve.
What other characters would you like to see from Marvel What If…? Which episode are you looking forward to the most? What TV show, movie, or game would you like to see sheets from next time? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
