Let’s Play D&D With Ms. Marvel
This week we’re embiggening our entire campaign to play Dungeons and Dragons with Ms. Marvel’s comic powers.
The Ms. Marvel trailer came out recently, and despite a few major changes to her power set, I’m pretty optimistic. I’ve been a fan of Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel since she joined the comics. So naturally, I’m happily taking the opportunity to make her a playable hero in my next D&D campaign.
Only, I’m going to do something a little different. Usually, if it’s a comic-turned-life-action character I’ll make a sheet that highlights the essence of who they are on the page and on the screen since those tend to have at least a little discrepancy. But comic-book-Kamala’s powers are so specific and iconic and we don’t know exactly what the full scope of her live action powers will look like. So maybe I’ll come back for live-action-Kamala in a few months. For now we’re playing D&D with…
Comic Book Ms. Marvel
via Marvel
Looking at this sheet, she’s pretty underpowered for a super hero. That’s on purpose. We’re introduced to Kamala as a regular kid who spends more time fighting trolls in fan spaces online than fighting super villains. While she’s been on the comic scene for long enough to be a seasoned super by now, the show will start us at the beginning of her career so making her a more entry level character felt like the right choice.
Ms. Marvel has two main powers in the comics that I wanted to bring to her character sheet: she’s stretchy and she can shapeshift. Unfortunately there are a few aspects that I had a slightly harder time incorporating. For example, she can stretch herself into a giant or a tiny little Thumbalina person like Ant Man, and I had to let those go. Still, I think I captured the spirit of her powers.
For starters, I made Kamala Khan a Changeling. This works with her comic-book Inhuman background, as well as giving her an easy in-game way to shapeshift into other people. From there, Way of the Astral Self Monk would give us an ability to have astral arms to deal out force damage with. Astral arms can look like whatever the player wants, giving Ms. Marvel her signature “embiggened” arms.
At higher levels this same power gives her an helmet or mask made of the same astral stuff. And that may come up in the show as it seems to link her powers a little more closely to Captain Marvel, but for now the lower level astral arms are perfect.
I can’t tell you how much I wanted to add Lockjaw to her sheet somehow. Convince your DM to let her have a familiar. Do it for me.
Monk also makes Ms. Marvel what I like to call a “punch guy.” She doesn’t use a lot of weapons when she fight villains. Instead she mainly hits baddies with her big arms or uses her stretchiness as its own weapon. And it makes her a surprisingly straight forward and playable character in your average D&D adventure.
Are you excited to watch Ms. Marvel when it’s streaming? Would you enjoy a return to her sheet with the live-action powers in mind? What show, movie, comic, or game should I make sheets from next time? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
