Mythological badasses

[Prime32]

In response to the magic/mundane thread recently, a "respect thread" of sorts. Post badass mythological figures here along with their feats, to show that fighters should be able to do crazy stuff. Like that archer who shot down the sun.

I'll be keeping an index.

[Prime32]

Arthur Pendragon, King of the Britons
[spoiler]

• Defeated an army of 960 men single-handedly.
• Regularly travelled into other dimensions to fight their inhabitants and free countrymen being held prisoner there. These may have included Hell.
• Excalibur "sliced through iron as through wood" and shone with a brilliant light that was terrifying to look upon. Its scabbard prevented the bearer's wounds from bleeding.
• Did not die, but will return in Britain's hour of greatest need.

[/spoiler]

, the Hound of Ulster
[spoiler]

• As a child could enter terrifying rages called "warp spasms", slew the hound of a god with a ball
• At the age of seven, was so strong that any normal weapon shattered from the force of his swings. He also destroys normal chariots somehow.
• Recovered from a "powerful sleeping potion" brewed by an archdruid after an hour.
• Destroys a major artefact in one blow with his sword (and it was made of stone).
• At the age of 17, fights one-on-one duels non-stop for several months. Immediately after this he defeats a goddess of war and destiny (who could fully heal herself in an instant by shapeshifting), followed by an entire army at once (killing so many that he builds walls from their corpses).
• Surrounded by "hero-light" at times.
• Body was so hot while raging that it caused water to explode
• Managed to kill three people after his death.
• Possessed Fragarach (sword which controlled the wind, forced people to tell the truth, and could cut though anything) and (hard-to-use spear which caused instant death)
• Went to Christian Hell for being a pagan, but broke out long enough to give a warning.

[/spoiler]

Dian Wei
[spoiler]

• Fought dual-wielding 20kg halberds. To make up for not using a shield, he instead wore two suits of armour, one on top of the other. He could break ten enemy spears with every swing of his halberd. He held off a small army to defend his king and, when the enemy broke his halberds, he took two enemy corpses and proceeded to swing them as improvised weapons.
• Was pelted with a rain of arrows without noticing.
• Hurled a dozen javelins in one throw at a dozen enemies behind him, each striking and killing their target.
• In a strong wind, held steady a giant banner which could not be held by an entire crowd of soldiers. He did this with one hand.

[/spoiler]

Fionn MacCumhaill, Leader of The Fianna
[spoiler]

• Of the Fianna: "Membership was subject to rigorous tests. In one such test the applicant would stand in a waist-deep hole armed with a shield while nine warriors threw spears at him; if he was wounded, he failed. In another his hair would be braided, and he would be pursued through the forest; he would fail if he was caught, if a branch cracked under his feet, or if the braids in his hair were disturbed. He would have to be able to leap over a branch the height of his forehead, pass under one as low as his knee, and pull a thorn from his foot without slowing down." Many stories consisted of bands of warriors with superhuman powers appearing to challenge members of the Fianna, only to be outmatched or outwitted.
• Could call on all the knowledge of the world by sucking his thumb.
• Avoided the hypnotic song of a fire-breathing fairy by repeatedly stabbing himself with a poisoned spear. Then stabbed the fairy with the spear.
• Could infuse water cupped between his hands with healing properties.
• Had two hounds born from a human woman trapped in the form of a wolfhound - magnificent specimens with the combined cunning of both species.
• Created the Isle of Man and Lough Neagh by pulling a mass of earth from the ground and flinging it at a target in Scotland.

[/spoiler]

Houyi, the God of Archers
[spoiler]

• Was so skilled at archery that he shot down the sun. Multiple times in fact - there used to be ten suns, the others far greater than the one we have now.

[/spoiler]

Roland, the Paladin
[spoiler]

• Split a mountain in two by accident, creating .
• Possessed the indestructible holy sword, Durendal. How indestructible? The "breach" above was created when he tried to destroy it by smashing it against a rock.

[/spoiler]

Zhang Fei
[spoiler]

• Held off an army by himself while his men got to safety.
• Shouted his name and challenged anyone to face him. Not only did the enemy army retreat, one of its officers died of fright.

[/spoiler]

[Prime32]

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9836

[Agita]

There's Houyi, the guy who shot down nine out of ten suns. The smallest one is, according to that story, the one we complain about being too hot in summer nowadays.

[Prime32]

Unsure whether Sun Wukong should be included. He was definitely badass, but used magic in addition to his fighting abilities.

Still, his "72 transformations" are less versatile than a single D&D spell, and he apparently requires different binding spells for different kinds of creatures.

[Monotremeancer]

You could include Talos as well, a warforged who hurled giant rocks and used grapple (while being burning hot) if someone got close enough

[veekie]

Thor probably counts, as does Tyr and Heimdall, though Odin falls under the same conditions as Sun Wukong in that he was also a master of magic. Their feats are less clear though, most of it is just exceptional skill and stats.

Wukong only ever fought in his true form though, his transformations are all invariably weaker than his nigh indestructible body and absurd strength. The only magic he uses in combat are size alteration(giant size/minute form), clones(mook army) and MAYBE flight magic(this one's hard to tell if hes using magic or hes just that good at jumping).

Herne the Hunter? Most versions have him being a mystical figure but with few actual abilities that would be considered magic proper.

[Prime32]

Any list of feats for Hercules?

[Agita]

Any list of feats for Hercules?

The twelve tasks, for one, and there was something involving bow and arrow and a centaur too. Also strangling two snakes sent to kill him as a baby.
Damn, my mythology's rusty.

[dark_samuari]

Achilles?

Beowulf?

Socrates?!?!

[Mixster]

I vote socrates being totally bad ass, he invented socratic Irony which have caused more laughs than anything else.

[Prime32]

Achilles?

Beowulf?

Socrates?!?!

Any more details than that? Everyone already knows that these guys were cool, but they tend to underestimate what they could actually do. For instance, one Celtic hero could shoot rainbow-coloured beams of light out of his sword that could obliterate mountains. If I described that power out of context, some people would rant about how weaboo anime stuff is ruining Western fantasy.

[Monotremeancer]

Achilles?

Beowulf?

Socrates?!?!

Following that train of thought, Douglas Adams and also Sigurd, he was kinda badass

[Mixster]

Here's something about Socrates:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates

Here's what he did: Criticized democracy before anyone really knew what democracy was, wanted to have a despotic rule of tyrants instead of silly bureaucrats. He defended himself in a trial, for many days, although he at last failed the diplomacy check, and they decided to force him to drink poison.
He inspired so many system criticists who later became violent, his diplomacy check was really just because he had levels of exemplar and made a diplomacy test to convince everyone that his school of thought is the best, which is why it is still used today.

TL;DR Socrates was a diplomancer.

[Prime32]

And Leonardo da Vinci was an artificer whose DM ignored the wealth-by-level tables?

[kamikasei]

Thinking of Cuchullain, there's the generic training of the Fianna. Not so much single impressive feats but "they were expected to do this sort of thing routinely".
[spoiler]Membership was subject to rigorous tests. In one such test the applicant would stand in a waist-deep hole armed with a shield while nine warriors threw spears at him; if he was wounded, he failed. In another his hair would be braided, and he would be pursued through the forest; he would fail if he was caught, if a branch cracked under his feet, or if the braids in his hair were disturbed. He would have to be able to leap over a branch the height of his forehead, pass under one as low as his knee, and pull a thorn from his foot without slowing down.[/spoiler]

[dark_samuari]

TL;DR Socrates was a diplomancer.

Actually for all of his badassery Socrates was pretty awful at diplomacy. He would have to have the exemplar's ability to sub diplomacy out for something else (probably Perform: Oratory).

But what Socrates was known for was:
Being able to out drink anyone and never really getting drunk.
Was one of the strongest, bravest and courageous dudes in the Polynesian War.
Was known for having the most beloved of young men throw themselves at his feat (even up into his seventies).

Initially I would say something like a wicked Drunken Master build.

[Prime32]

GitP thread

[Talore]

From the second branch of the Mabinogion:

Bendigeidgfran, brother to Branwen

• Used his body as a bridge for his men
• Slew countless Irish soldiers in a battle where no Irish save five pregnant women survived, died in the process
• His head remained alive for eighty years more, before being buried in England

Props for the Norse legends already here. Should William Wallace be included?

[The_Mad_Linguist]

And Leonardo da Vinci was an artificer whose DM ignored the wealth-by-level tables?

You misspelled "Archimedes" pretty badly there.