DoctorImpossible

You say fireball is not necessary, and I know that D&D has some very specific ideas about what a fireball spell is, but honestly, I tend to encounter a more apt form of what I would call a "fireball" spell generally featured in a *lot* of fantasy. That being the depiction of a mage who holds out a clenched fist or spreads out their fingers and suddenly those fists are wreathed in flame or their spread fingers are cupping a hovering ball of fire, then they either punch the air towards their target or vaguely flick their open hand towards their target, and the ball of fire is sent flying into the opponent.
 
Rather than exploding and taking out a room grenade flamethrower style, these common fireballs tend to simply "punch" the target, along with a little bit of damage from the fire itself, but only enough fire to cause a problem for extremely flammable targets. Otherwise, the main point of the spells is just to produce a very hard punch at a long range.
 
That seems like a fairly believable spell for all sorts of magic-users to learn and teach their apprentices as the most basic form of attack, even if only for self-defence. You're an academic who doesn't want to get into melee with your enemies, so you learn how casting an element at your enemies works, and of course everybody picks the element that is the most easy to learn how to cast.
 
Basically just a Blast with Energy Damage and No Endurance Cost.

Maybe that's the secret. The successful super-villains who you hear from, because they keep cropping up to do villainry, are the crazy obsessed types. There are plenty of the previously lower level but then got a power up or some training or just a sack full of treasure, who you simply stop hearing of and you tend to assume that they finally died off after Punisher found them, or got sent to the Suicide Squad, or whatever. You know, basically the word on the street is that they finally got big enough to draw too much attention for their power level/smarts and got killed. But what actually happened was that they got all they ever wanted.
 
Somebody with the small pocket dimension powers that let them smuggle weapons and cash and stuff as a mercenary, retires once they figure out how to make a whole extra pocket universe, because instead of smuggling *an army*, they'd rather make a lot less money much more safely by simply letting supervillains retire to a pocket world mansion. 
 
Some sort of immortal who only became a supervillain from boredom finally reaches the end of the century that they promised themselves they'd spend as a supervillain, and disappears, with nobody realising their connection to the new superhero who rises on the other side of the world, being a hero for the next hundred years.
 
 The evil wizard that everyone was so worried about finally kills their good guy archnemesis... and promptly resurrects them, joins the their team and is revealed to have been that hero's mentor all along, not having turned evil but merely trying to test the hero's worth and having found it wanting, but with potential.
 
Basically, in a comic, heroes and villains tend to keep coming back the same as they ever have been, with any changes (even good, well-written, famously popular changes) being retconned or simply ignored by some later writers who either didn't do their research or just refuse to acknowledge the changes. 
 
But in the real world, with those heroes and villains added, there's much more scope for long-term redemptions, or a retirement for a super-villain, or just an illegal deal actually going well.

Maybe that's the secret. The successful super-villains who you hear from, because they keep cropping up to do villainry, are the crazy obsessed types. There are plenty of the previously lower level but then got a power up or some training or just a sack full of treasure, who you simply stop hearing of and you tend to assume that they finally died off after Punisher found them, or got sent to the Suicide Squad, or whatever. You know, basically the word on the street is that they finally got big enough to draw too much attention for their power level/smarts and got killed. But what actually happened was that they got all they ever wanted.
 
Somebody with the small pocket dimension powers that let them smuggle weapons and cash and stuff as a mercenary, retires once they figure out how to make a whole extra pocket universe, because instead of smuggling *an army*, they'd rather make a lot less money much more safely by simply letting supervillains retire to a pocket world mansion. 
 
Some sort of immortal who only became a supervillain from boredom finally reaches the end of the century that they promised themselves they'd spend as a supervillain, and disappears, with nobody realising their connection to the new superhero who rises on the other side of the world, being a hero for the next hundred years.
 
 The evil wizard that everyone was so worried about finally kills their good guy archnemesis... and promptly resurrects them, joins the their team and is revealed to have been that hero's mentor all along, not having turned evil but merely trying to test the hero's worth and having found it wanting, but with potential.
 
Basically, in a comic, heroes and villains tend to keep coming back the same as they ever have been, with any changes (even good, well-written, famously popular changes) being retconned or simply ignored by some later writers who either didn't do their research or just refuse to acknowledge the changes. 
 
But in the real world, with those heroes and villains added, there's much more scope for long-term redemptions, or a retirement for a super-villain, or just an illegal deal actually going well.

Maybe that's the secret. The successful super-villains who you hear from, because they keep cropping up to do villainry, are the crazy obsessed types. There are plenty of the previously lower level but then got a power up or some training or just a sack full of treasure, who you simply stop hearing of and you tend to assume that they finally died off after Punisher found them, or got sent to the Suicide Squad, or whatever. You know, basically the word on the street is that they finally got big enough to draw too much attention for their power level/smarts and got killed. But what actually happened was that they got all they ever wanted.
 
Somebody with the small pocket dimension powers that let them smuggle weapons and cash and stuff as a mercenary, retires once they figure out how to make a whole extra pocket universe, because instead of smuggling *an army*, they'd rather make a lot less money much more safely by simply letting supervillains retire to a pocket world mansion. 
 
Some sort of immortal who only became a supervillain from boredom finally reaches the end of the century that they promised themselves they'd spend as a supervillain, and disappears, with nobody realising their connection to the new superhero who rises on the other side of the world, being a hero for the next hundred years.
 
 The evil wizard that everyone was so worried about finally kills their good guy archnemesis... and promptly resurrects them, joins the their team and is revealed to have been that hero's mentor all along, not having turned evil but merely trying to test the hero's worth and having found it wanting, but with potential.
 
Basically, in a comic, heroes and villains tend to keep coming back the same as they ever have been, with any changes (even good, well-written, famously popular changes) being retconned or simply ignored by some later writers who either didn't do their research or just refuse to acknowledge the changes. 
 
But in the real world, with those heroes and villains added, there's much more scope for long-term redemptions, or a retirement for a super-villain, or just an illegal deal actually going well.

To be fair, if they were actually stopping crimes, even if only minor crimes and even if they would then loot the criminals, at least they were contributing to the efforts. You might resent them for taking more of the credit that they're really earning, but they do cut down on some of the work for you and the police.
 
With regards to the nature of the other team in the OP's question, I think it should depend entirely on each individual PC or NPC to choose for themselves. What do you, individually, all want from this specific group of NPCs? A major rival team to show you up when they swoop in to save the day better than you could? An enemy team who are trying to accomplish the same goals as you, before you can achieve them? Or even just a bunch of other people that you hate but you have to tolerate them? 

Very much appreciated. (Polite applause.) I suspect I might have a very grateful totally not the Sorcerer Supreme to play sometime soon, which will be wonderful. Literally. As in it is "full of wonders".

From the same film (Mystery Men), The Shoveller's one liner just before entering the climactic mission that will near certainly be a suicide mission to save the city (so it is a phrase to used about a very big, hero mission but one which will be very difficult to pull off and you might all die, or worse, fail to save the city):
 
We've got a date with destiny! And it looks like she's ordered the lobster!

I'm tempted to say that Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans would end up being similar to their fictional counterparts. Not because of their portrayals but because of the stuff they've done outside of that.
 
In RDJ's case, visiting lots of amputees with new, advanced prosthetics. In some kind of Super-hero universe, I could see his influence in that field being able to get all sorts of hyper-advanced prosthetics, to a "winter soldier" level, ending up making lots of people into cyborg super-heroes.
 
In Chris Evans case, his crusading against the resurgence of actual Nazis, which, in a super-hero universe, means that he's going to end up as a super-hero, fighting the forces of, for example, the Red Skull.

I'm tempted to say that Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans would end up being similar to their fictional counterparts. Not because of their portrayals but because of the stuff they've done outside of that.
 
In RDJ's case, visiting lots of amputees with new, advanced prosthetics. In some kind of Super-hero universe, I could see his influence in that field being able to get all sorts of hyper-advanced prosthetics, to a "winter soldier" level, ending up making lots of people into cyborg super-heroes.
 
In Chris Evans case, his crusading against the resurgence of actual Nazis, which, in a super-hero universe, means that he's going to end up as a super-hero, fighting the forces of, for example, the Red Skull.

Well, I can do that for you. Look at Loki's eyes from the Thor film and any film apart from the first Avengers film. Green, right? (Except in his blue-skinned, red-eyed, form of course.) That is his natural eye colour. 
 
Now look at his eye colour when he arrives on Midgard to take the tesseract. Bright blue. 
 
Who else has their eye colour changed from whatever it was before to a piercing blue? Anyone being controlled by the stone in his sceptre. When Hawkeye is under his command, mind controlled, he has bright blue eyes, unlike his usual steely grey eyes whenever Jeremy Renner played him in the rest of the MCU. 
 
Loki isn't invading midgard because he was hoping to conquer it. Asgard has always been the only place he cared about, except for his targeting of Jotunheim simply to win his father's approval in Thor 1. Loki is here to attack Midgard as a cover for him first grabbing the Tesseract (and therefore an infinity stone) then also attacking New York (which is, canonically, where the Sorcerer Supreme is, at that exact moment) to get hold of the Eye Of Agamotto and therefore another Infinity Stone, since Earth has the rare distinction of holding two of the infinity stones at the time. Well worth Thanos risking his own infinity stone, carried by a mind-controlled god, to bring him back two more. 
 
You can even see how badly hurt Loki had been, just before he was mind-controlled and sent to Midgard to capture infinity stones, much more so than after Hulk's beatdown. He'd been tortured, for a long time, whether for information or simply to make sure that the mind control would take effect. 
 
How does this make losing a fight to the Hulk into a victory for Loki? Well, much like Dr Selvig managed to resist mind control just enough to include an off-switch for his portal, Loki managed to resist his own mind control enough to pick a fight with the Hulk and then opt to monologue instead of being ready for an actual fight. Which, much like Black Widow's punch to Hawkeye's head to "recalibrate" his brain, was able to reset Loki's mind to free it from the mind control. You may notice that his eyes, after the beatdown, are back to their normal emerald green, instead of the bright blue of the mind control effects. He also suddenly changes from Shakespearean villain monologues, that we know are not his usual mode of speech, to the casual quipster that we are more familiar with.
 
"I'll take that drink, now."

From the same film (Mystery Men), The Shoveller's one liner just before entering the climactic mission that will near certainly be a suicide mission to save the city (so it is a phrase to used about a very big, hero mission but one which will be very difficult to pull off and you might all die, or worse, fail to save the city):
 
We've got a date with destiny! And it looks like she's ordered the lobster!

From the same film (Mystery Men), The Shoveller's one liner just before entering the climactic mission that will near certainly be a suicide mission to save the city (so it is a phrase to used about a very big, hero mission but one which will be very difficult to pull off and you might all die, or worse, fail to save the city):
 
We've got a date with destiny! And it looks like she's ordered the lobster!

Very much appreciated. (Polite applause.) I suspect I might have a very grateful totally not the Sorcerer Supreme to play sometime soon, which will be wonderful. Literally. As in it is "full of wonders".

Re: Sci-Fi Melee Weapons: Bat'leth, Lirpas, Lightsabres, Rykk Blades, Koltari, Denn'B
 
So here are the titular weapons, with some brief explanation as to where I heard the name.
 
Bat'leth - The Klingon sword, used in most battles if possible. Also popular (in universe) among members of many other species, especially their adversaries turned allies, the Federation.
 
Lirpas - A Lirpa is a Vulcan ceremonial weapon, dating back to the days before their devotion to logic, when their extreme emotions were allowed to run free. The Lirpa is the weapon used by Kirk and Spock in that famous fight to the death. A long wooden pole in the centre, with an extremely sharp semi-circular blade fanning out from one end of the pole and a large, heavy, metal club on the other end.
 
Lightsabres - The sword of a Jedi or Sith, this is a blade of plasma held in by a magnetic field. It's creation involves force-sensitive crystals and is a test of the creator's complete mastery of the force.
 
Ryyk Blades - The traditional sword of a Wookie, this weapon is an enormous blade which is nevertheless able to be manipulated gracefully by the immense user. Each is hand made and considered to be an extension of it's user.
 
Koltari - The sword of the Centauri, now used mostly for ceremonial occasions and duels to the death among the heads of feuding houses. It is a straight sword designed for use in a thrusting attack, unlike the slashing weapons that make up most of this list.
 
Denn'Bok - This is the extendable metal staff of the Rangers. It is a small metal cylinder no wider than the average human hand when held closed, but it grows to about six feet or more when activated.

Re: Has anyone built any of the characters from Star Trek - Deep Space 9?
 
Thanks.

At the moment, I am playing a Supervillain Campaign. My character in particular is a powerful magic user that is only really being a supervillain for kicks. He already has everything he wants because, well, magic. To illustrate my point, I want to give him a slavishly devoted magical harem. But, to make it all the more impressive (while simultaneously avoiding the implication that he could be sleeping with any of the other PCs at any time) he is going to have a harem made up entirely of fictional characters, usually as they were portrayed in film adaptations. This includes giving them some of the powers and prowess that they displayed in the film.
 
Now, I know how I would build the basic mechanics of a magical harem. Its a pretty typical "summon" spell, to which you add any appropriate dis/ads. But what I want to know is, what fictional characters would you add? Not your character, mind you. I'm talking about random people on the internet. Bear in mind, of course, that since he can dismiss and resummon, he has not limit on the number of people he eventually summons.
 
For example so far:
Batman, Robin, and Batgirl from "Batman & Robin"
Because the film may have been pretty bad but the heroes were just pretty.

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...
 
Eldritch is a powerful evil mage of the cackling, "lets have fun doing evil" kind. So he doesn't need to eat at all but does. I think he probably takes a group of good-looking people hostage (because if you are going to have to keep track of hostages, they might as well pretty to look at). Then he'll summon up an incredible feast of every kind of luxury food under the sun, all the really unhealthy, fattening junk that people might eat if they didn't have to worry about their health and forces the hostages to gorge themselves right along with him. Not only does the food not affect him one way or the other, it actually magically makes the hostages immune to heart failure or starvation. This is partly because he doesn't want to risk his hostages dying on him for any reason. But it's mostly because he makes his food extremely fattening (as in "10lbs an hour" fattening), in order to drastically reduce the inevitable escape attempts.

Re: PRE Drain
 
Or simply say 'Sure, you can see the power. The power is "This teacher is really creepy". So you "see" that the teacher...is really creepy. Congratulations, I guess?'

I plan on making a Halfling Cleric Baker. I hope to use some of my cakes as alternatives to healing potions, some of them as stat-boosters, some as simply very nutritious food (despite tasting exactly like cake), and some as traps.
 
The healing cake I get, it's just an OAF for a healing power.
The stats boosting cake is similar.
The very nutritious cake is simply a Life Support Power, immunity to hunger and ingested poisons, usable by others. The special effect is "Here's one I made earlier," followed by producing a long-lasting cake (fruitcake or something) that I made a while ago and hid for just such an emergency.
 
But what about the trap cakes? I plan to have a few cakes in my pack seeded there simply to trap thieves who want to take my cake without asking. The cakes will turn the thieves a funny colour for easy identification, using the Transform power, and the colour getting more clear as time goes on until they are completely covered in a particular shade. But how would you stat up a Transform attack that takes time to build up like that and only works after an enemy has eaten something you cooked?

The Librarian Trilogy and the ten episode sequel television programme The Librarians
 
Perpetual student, Flynn Carsen is recruited by a mystical secret library underneath the New York Metropolitan Library, to be the new Librarian. He is sent around the world to retrieve dangerous mystical artifacts and stop them falling into the wrong hands. Sort of like Indiana Jones, if he didn't need the gun or the whip because he was the smartest, most well-educated man in the world.

This was actually super-useful, thanks! 

Does the paleolithic era include mammoths?

What about the ability to bestow powers upon mortals? Is that an inherent Godly ability or is it restricted to only some gods?

Very much appreciated. (Polite applause.) I suspect I might have a very grateful totally not the Sorcerer Supreme to play sometime soon, which will be wonderful. Literally. As in it is "full of wonders".

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