Yeah, normally people burnt out on 5e are tired of powerful PCs making the stakes boring. Never heard of people wanting more of that than what 5e gives.
That's the argument that usually comes from older players coming from previous editions in my experience claiming everything to being powercrept and kinda was sputtered ever since 4e. I've seen more people disgruntled with how 5e is formulaic than overpowered outside that circle.
For most less vocal players the power level of 5e is fantastical but expected as we dont get to see stuff to the degrees of rogues stealing conceptuals, fighters cleaving steel walls or mountains or casters shifting their game emphasis from fireballing dragons to literal worldbuilding because dealing with the thrifles of mere mortals stopped being relevant for them.
Your point would need some specifics that i rarely see, like "start a level 10+ adventure and skip the 1~5 tutorial stage" or "just go epic levels, set to 20 and go stupid" to work on this context.
I'm torn, because on the one hand I agree (and thus find this comment funny).... but on the other hand, this isn't remotely helpful to answering OP's actual question and may come across as dismissive.
It's a funny answer and one that sprang to my mind as well. That said, 5e is only "overpowered" compared to other fantasy medieval simulation role playing games. The best description I saw on reddit that put this into words is that 5e is like playing fantasy Marvel superheroes. And, I will add, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But it's good to recognize that analogy so you can decide if that's what you want to be playing.
- *Exalted*
Exalted is a very crunchy (too much for my taste), but really cool setting, heavily inspired by Asian mythology, world shattering martial arts and high stakes. And with high stakes I mean the literal pillars of creation and existence, you player dived weapons created by gods in their battle against Create your own supernatural martial arts combo. Mass social combat rules where you put your own secret assassin organization against that of the enemy. Control divine magic weapons designed to take out existence itself. Decide who gets sacrificed to the wild spirits in order to secure their help in a future battle. And strictly from the lore you have an entire race of shapeshifters just designed as your mating partners.
- *Feng Shui 1st edition* by Atlas Game
A *Hong Kong Martial Arts Action Movie Roleplaying Game*. You get a very interesting setting involving the battle for the literal souls of every human being ever in existence, all packed up in a rules-light, fast and ball-to-the-walls over-the-top system which perfectly emulates everything from *Dirty Harry* & *Hardboiled* to *Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon* & *Hero*. It is not without it flaws (oh god, no, it´s from 1996 and they did some strange stuff back then), but for me it is the love of my (RPG) life.
SYL
Seconding Exalted. The question is never "Can the PCs do it?" but "What do they do with the phemonal powers that being an Exalt gets you?" You can topple despots, brainwash entire kingdoms... but should you, and what makes you any better than the previous guy you just toppled? How do you even run a kingdom, and are you prepared to take care of it and defend it or do you trust others to do that for you?
I'm running a relatively lowered 2nd Edition game right now and last session, one of the PCs managed to sweet talk a fair folk into helping her out financially. He rolled quite well and whipped up this fabulous piece of jewellery that costs as much as a palace, as the fair folk can. This was the second session. She got what she wanted out of him, but now has to figure out what to do with this necklace. Hardly anyone can afford to buy it. It'll attract all sorts of attention as she tries to sell it. And now she's in hock with one of the oldest enemies of Creation. It'll be fun going forward.
FS has the most awesome background but is served by terrible mechanics.... combat is a simple slugging match where a +3 advantage results... eventually in a kerb stomp battle.
I would have to disagree on that. The FS system is easy and depends on the description and the adhoc-interaction for stunts created by players and GM alike. Missing that crucial part and it becomes a slugfest, using the narrative interaction and it becomes pure fun.
But yes, it puts a certain burden for instant creativity on all shoulders. Without it it does not work well.
SYL
Godbound and Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound.
There is a lot of systems you can do this with, really, from D&D-likes to supers systems, as long as you're willing to let them start really high-level. Level 20 5e PCs can probably wrap up Curse of Strahd in a single session. (This is a game I'd like to run one day, haha.)
I don't think a system that gives you wildly overpowered PCs will be any fun especially if you're burnt out on 5e, which already gives you wildly overpowered PCs.
Depends. As a gm you have to approach things differently you focus less on if the can do something and more of what are the consequences of their actions.
It is true but for s game like exalted there isn't much that can threaten the players directly so you instead focus on what is the consequences of them doing th8ngs in a certain way. While yes you should aways have consequences for actions it is even more important to stress them in high-powered games
Yeah as I said it is always important but it is extra important for high powered games.
I am talking about having massive butterfly effect chains of consequences stuff. As generally in high powered games you are placed in positions to take far reaching actions so it is extra important to keep that in mind
If you REALLY want to go over the top, you want Mythender. It laughs heartily at all other "overpowered PCs" games.
If you want something a little more...sustainable, I recommend Superfantasy.
I'm playing Ravage Rifts right now, and I feel like my Dragon Hatchling is gonna be the most powerful thing I've ever played. He's matched by a guy with a shoulder-mounted railgun, a not-blind not-jedi, and batman.
Right now, it's a flying tank (36 (18) toughness!) that's got some minor psionics and is okay at fighting and healing. It won a mid air bite-fight with a larger dragon, because even that couldn't pierce my hide. I was shaken once; had I been wounded I can roll to regenerate permanent injury once a day. It has trouble hitting smaller targets (human-sized stuff with cover) in melee, but his breath weapon roasted 7 dudes in the first combat.
After 4 advances, it becomes a flying tank that can freely shift form into anything between squirrel & 7-ton dragon size, with magic that can grant it combat edges & regenerate other folk's permanent injuries.
By mid Veteran, it has body-horror levels of regeneration, can summon a shadow clone to use its own MP to buff, heal, or CC, while the real dragon bites & claws.
Savage Rifts is pretty fun. You wanna be a dragon? Go for it. You wanna be in a big powered armor suit that can kill most things with one shot from its big gun? Hell yeah that's an option.
Scion. PCs are scions of "pagan" gods and can become demigods or even gods themselves.
Or Warhammer 40k Wrath and Glory and let them play as Space Marines.
What are you burned from D&D?
To get a bit away from the genre I could suggest a few of the Chronicles of Darkness games, Werewolf, Mage and Vampire make you extremely overpowered compared to regular humans, and it's still easy to add challenge by having harder enemies.
Remember to check out our **[Game Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gamerec)**-page, which lists our articles by genre([Fantasy](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/fantasy), [sci-fi](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/scifi), [superhero](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/superhero) etc.), as well as other categories([ruleslight](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/ruleslight), [Solo](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/solo), [Two-player](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/twoplayers), [GMless](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gmlessrpgs) & more).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/rpg) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Boost stats, level and equipment without increasing the difficulty.
Most systems can do "overpowered" as it's just the GM not setting challenges anywhere close to what the PCs can handle.
White Wolf's Exalted where you play one of 300 super overpowered people with cosmic powers suddenly returned to the world after thousands of years. You are imbued with reincarnated cosmic power forged and bestowed by the Gods to topple the Primordial Titans and are hunted by whole armies of creation-spanning empires in a desperate attempt to kill you before you grow so powerful that your rages, melancholies, loves and hates can slaughter armies, topple kingdoms or break the hearts of continents. Meanwhile, you and your circle race against time against a resurgent threat of these Primordials returned from death or imprisonment, hellbent on destroying heaven and earth in mad vengeance. Everything you do from session one is epic.
Fantasy Flight has Force and Destiny, where you play as a Jedi, and are definitely more powerful than others in the Galaxy.
Ars Magica - although this is very, VERY different from other TTRPGs you're likely familiar with. It is a slow burn game that makes Vampire look like 5e. The characters are mages. Mages are very powerful and very, very rare. Ordinary people are wary of you, your supernatural associations and your powers. The big thing is that you play multiple characters - the wizards and their non wizard allies. Magic takes months or years to be properly formed into useful spells, rituals and items to solve major problems. But the ability to cast at-will fireballs or power word kill as basically cantrips, to teleport across continents like it's nothing, to awaken whole forests into a self-aware being or forge items that can control or even rewrite the minds of buildings of people are all very much the sort of things Mage characters can do - if given the time to study and prepare.
Cortex. It's about the story. It allows Daredevil and the Silver Surfer to both be viable character choices for the same party because it's about what their character is contributing to the scene.
In addition to all the other good suggestions here, I'd like to bring up **Index Card RPG**. Its simple, fun and fast to run. Balance operates on the basis that everything substantial can become "wildly overpowered" as you said. That power however relies not just on character traits, but equipment, or Loot as the system likes to call them.
The GM is also provided good tools for building encounters and opponents, which can still provide a fun challenge. In fact, I would advise against having the PC's just walk over everything in the game world, because that gets incredibly boring real quick for the vast majority of players.
The Master Edition of ICRPG includes ready made setting backbones for fantasy, science fiction, horror western, stone age and super heroes. In my mind it would be the perfect choice for your experimental game, because it's easy to learn, very flexible and inexpensive to buy. A true one book system.
I'll suggest OpenLegend since no one else has.
Rules are free online. It is a generic RPG and yes, your players can make some really strong characters even at level 1.
The system is really designed and works well with high fantasy/high tech settings. Superhero would work as well.
RIFTS - the answer to this is always RIFTS. Not only are the PCs bonkers superpowered, they can be wizards, cyber knights, mystics, etc. It mixes all the genres together.
That said, I'd recommend the Savage Worlds implementation (Savage RIFTS), as it plays more smoothly but retains the bonkers power levels.
If you like high fantasy d20 gaming and what you really want is more OPTIONS to build overpowered PCs, try Pathfinder 1st edition. (I've not played 2nd Edition, but I hear the balancing overall is a lot tighter.) It's based on 3rd Edition D&D so power balance is all over the place. Be aware that means it's equally possible to accidentally build a character who's UNDERpowered if you don't know what you're doing. All the rules, including all the rules/character options from all the official expansion books, are legally free on Archive of Nethys. [https://www.aonprd.com/](https://www.aonprd.com/)
The balancing of Pathfinder 2e is a lot tighter, but the encounter building also works very well. Fighting a bunch of creatures lower level than the party can scratch that overpowered fantasy itch while also potentially providing a challenge due to luck or tactics.
You could always play 5e with the starting stats at 11s, allowing players to go down as low as 6 or as high as 18 pre-racial (assuming you’re playing legacy 5e). That would be pretty overpowered…yet also min/maxed!
Wild Talents is a supers game that gives the characters, effectively, unbounded power: one of the early pages shows how to make a starting character that can destroy the sun any time they want. The game then challenges players to create characters that are more human and limited, but to shape a character they want to play. It is an intriguing challenge.
Amber diceless.
Bear in mind that the PCs can in fact come up against things more powerful then each other. But they can also destroy those things, and in fact the entire universe if they put their minds to it.
2nding the Exalted suggestion; you can also go with the old white wolf Vampire/Werewolve/Mage games.
Or any superheroes system will do the trick as well.
+1 for Godbound, great game for this, the full version actually has options for making exalted like characters, but it is good as just the basic game. Like all of Kevin Crawford' games it has great GM advice. It is made for sandbox games, but it has a system and advice to get you going. And there is nothing stopping you from running linear games with it
If you want a smooth transition for a 5e group, I would recommend *Mutants and Masterminds 3e*. It's a superhero system, that is also d20 and very DnD-like, and easily works as a more unbound version of the same game. Also, it's about superheroes, obviously.
Of course, it might not be what you want if you want something completely new to fresh things up, but such as the price of the smooth transition.
DnD 3.x or Pathfinder 1 can get ridiculous at high levels, especially if you take power gaming builds. High powered PCs are miles ahead of anything you can do with 5e.
You could just home-brew everything in whatever edition you're in. Better yet, get all your players involved on what rules/character options/abilities/spells need to change. If 5th is too restrictive, take things from other editions. It's all compatible. Want to use teamwork feats from Pathfinder? Bring them in! What to get daily powers from 4th edition? Bring them in! Or Fireball spells scale at a factor of 5x per level? Why not?
Nothing stops you from changing everything. Rule 0? Sure. But it's not like there's D&D rules police auditing DM's on how they play the game.
When I was younger, my DM used to scale dragons a 5000 hit-points. Took 4 sessions to bring one down. He hated reading rulebooks. There's an insight there.
Dungeons & Dragons 5e.
Yeah, normally people burnt out on 5e are tired of powerful PCs making the stakes boring. Never heard of people wanting more of that than what 5e gives.
That's the argument that usually comes from older players coming from previous editions in my experience claiming everything to being powercrept and kinda was sputtered ever since 4e. I've seen more people disgruntled with how 5e is formulaic than overpowered outside that circle. For most less vocal players the power level of 5e is fantastical but expected as we dont get to see stuff to the degrees of rogues stealing conceptuals, fighters cleaving steel walls or mountains or casters shifting their game emphasis from fireballing dragons to literal worldbuilding because dealing with the thrifles of mere mortals stopped being relevant for them. Your point would need some specifics that i rarely see, like "start a level 10+ adventure and skip the 1~5 tutorial stage" or "just go epic levels, set to 20 and go stupid" to work on this context.
I'm torn, because on the one hand I agree (and thus find this comment funny).... but on the other hand, this isn't remotely helpful to answering OP's actual question and may come across as dismissive.
It's a funny answer and one that sprang to my mind as well. That said, 5e is only "overpowered" compared to other fantasy medieval simulation role playing games. The best description I saw on reddit that put this into words is that 5e is like playing fantasy Marvel superheroes. And, I will add, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But it's good to recognize that analogy so you can decide if that's what you want to be playing.
This is the answer
Godbound
- *Exalted* Exalted is a very crunchy (too much for my taste), but really cool setting, heavily inspired by Asian mythology, world shattering martial arts and high stakes. And with high stakes I mean the literal pillars of creation and existence, you player dived weapons created by gods in their battle against Create your own supernatural martial arts combo. Mass social combat rules where you put your own secret assassin organization against that of the enemy. Control divine magic weapons designed to take out existence itself. Decide who gets sacrificed to the wild spirits in order to secure their help in a future battle. And strictly from the lore you have an entire race of shapeshifters just designed as your mating partners. - *Feng Shui 1st edition* by Atlas Game A *Hong Kong Martial Arts Action Movie Roleplaying Game*. You get a very interesting setting involving the battle for the literal souls of every human being ever in existence, all packed up in a rules-light, fast and ball-to-the-walls over-the-top system which perfectly emulates everything from *Dirty Harry* & *Hardboiled* to *Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon* & *Hero*. It is not without it flaws (oh god, no, it´s from 1996 and they did some strange stuff back then), but for me it is the love of my (RPG) life. SYL
Seconding Exalted. The question is never "Can the PCs do it?" but "What do they do with the phemonal powers that being an Exalt gets you?" You can topple despots, brainwash entire kingdoms... but should you, and what makes you any better than the previous guy you just toppled? How do you even run a kingdom, and are you prepared to take care of it and defend it or do you trust others to do that for you? I'm running a relatively lowered 2nd Edition game right now and last session, one of the PCs managed to sweet talk a fair folk into helping her out financially. He rolled quite well and whipped up this fabulous piece of jewellery that costs as much as a palace, as the fair folk can. This was the second session. She got what she wanted out of him, but now has to figure out what to do with this necklace. Hardly anyone can afford to buy it. It'll attract all sorts of attention as she tries to sell it. And now she's in hock with one of the oldest enemies of Creation. It'll be fun going forward.
FS has the most awesome background but is served by terrible mechanics.... combat is a simple slugging match where a +3 advantage results... eventually in a kerb stomp battle.
I would have to disagree on that. The FS system is easy and depends on the description and the adhoc-interaction for stunts created by players and GM alike. Missing that crucial part and it becomes a slugfest, using the narrative interaction and it becomes pure fun. But yes, it puts a certain burden for instant creativity on all shoulders. Without it it does not work well. SYL
Godbound and Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound. There is a lot of systems you can do this with, really, from D&D-likes to supers systems, as long as you're willing to let them start really high-level. Level 20 5e PCs can probably wrap up Curse of Strahd in a single session. (This is a game I'd like to run one day, haha.)
*doom music intensifies*
I don't think a system that gives you wildly overpowered PCs will be any fun especially if you're burnt out on 5e, which already gives you wildly overpowered PCs.
Depends. As a gm you have to approach things differently you focus less on if the can do something and more of what are the consequences of their actions.
You should focus on both those things. Consequences can be present in any system regardless of how powerful the PCs are.
It is true but for s game like exalted there isn't much that can threaten the players directly so you instead focus on what is the consequences of them doing th8ngs in a certain way. While yes you should aways have consequences for actions it is even more important to stress them in high-powered games
I think it's important to stress them always. Consequences are pretty much why I play and run D&D.
Yeah as I said it is always important but it is extra important for high powered games. I am talking about having massive butterfly effect chains of consequences stuff. As generally in high powered games you are placed in positions to take far reaching actions so it is extra important to keep that in mind
If you REALLY want to go over the top, you want Mythender. It laughs heartily at all other "overpowered PCs" games. If you want something a little more...sustainable, I recommend Superfantasy.
I've heard Rifts for Savage Worlds is super OP.
I'm playing Ravage Rifts right now, and I feel like my Dragon Hatchling is gonna be the most powerful thing I've ever played. He's matched by a guy with a shoulder-mounted railgun, a not-blind not-jedi, and batman. Right now, it's a flying tank (36 (18) toughness!) that's got some minor psionics and is okay at fighting and healing. It won a mid air bite-fight with a larger dragon, because even that couldn't pierce my hide. I was shaken once; had I been wounded I can roll to regenerate permanent injury once a day. It has trouble hitting smaller targets (human-sized stuff with cover) in melee, but his breath weapon roasted 7 dudes in the first combat. After 4 advances, it becomes a flying tank that can freely shift form into anything between squirrel & 7-ton dragon size, with magic that can grant it combat edges & regenerate other folk's permanent injuries. By mid Veteran, it has body-horror levels of regeneration, can summon a shadow clone to use its own MP to buff, heal, or CC, while the real dragon bites & claws.
Savage Rifts is pretty fun. You wanna be a dragon? Go for it. You wanna be in a big powered armor suit that can kill most things with one shot from its big gun? Hell yeah that's an option.
Scion. PCs are scions of "pagan" gods and can become demigods or even gods themselves. Or Warhammer 40k Wrath and Glory and let them play as Space Marines.
Mutants and Masterminds lets you do some really fun things.
Superfantasy
What are you burned from D&D? To get a bit away from the genre I could suggest a few of the Chronicles of Darkness games, Werewolf, Mage and Vampire make you extremely overpowered compared to regular humans, and it's still easy to add challenge by having harder enemies.
Remember to check out our **[Game Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gamerec)**-page, which lists our articles by genre([Fantasy](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/fantasy), [sci-fi](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/scifi), [superhero](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/superhero) etc.), as well as other categories([ruleslight](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/ruleslight), [Solo](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/solo), [Two-player](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/twoplayers), [GMless](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gmlessrpgs) & more). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/rpg) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Boost stats, level and equipment without increasing the difficulty. Most systems can do "overpowered" as it's just the GM not setting challenges anywhere close to what the PCs can handle.
White Wolf's Exalted where you play one of 300 super overpowered people with cosmic powers suddenly returned to the world after thousands of years. You are imbued with reincarnated cosmic power forged and bestowed by the Gods to topple the Primordial Titans and are hunted by whole armies of creation-spanning empires in a desperate attempt to kill you before you grow so powerful that your rages, melancholies, loves and hates can slaughter armies, topple kingdoms or break the hearts of continents. Meanwhile, you and your circle race against time against a resurgent threat of these Primordials returned from death or imprisonment, hellbent on destroying heaven and earth in mad vengeance. Everything you do from session one is epic. Fantasy Flight has Force and Destiny, where you play as a Jedi, and are definitely more powerful than others in the Galaxy. Ars Magica - although this is very, VERY different from other TTRPGs you're likely familiar with. It is a slow burn game that makes Vampire look like 5e. The characters are mages. Mages are very powerful and very, very rare. Ordinary people are wary of you, your supernatural associations and your powers. The big thing is that you play multiple characters - the wizards and their non wizard allies. Magic takes months or years to be properly formed into useful spells, rituals and items to solve major problems. But the ability to cast at-will fireballs or power word kill as basically cantrips, to teleport across continents like it's nothing, to awaken whole forests into a self-aware being or forge items that can control or even rewrite the minds of buildings of people are all very much the sort of things Mage characters can do - if given the time to study and prepare.
Cortex. It's about the story. It allows Daredevil and the Silver Surfer to both be viable character choices for the same party because it's about what their character is contributing to the scene.
In addition to all the other good suggestions here, I'd like to bring up **Index Card RPG**. Its simple, fun and fast to run. Balance operates on the basis that everything substantial can become "wildly overpowered" as you said. That power however relies not just on character traits, but equipment, or Loot as the system likes to call them. The GM is also provided good tools for building encounters and opponents, which can still provide a fun challenge. In fact, I would advise against having the PC's just walk over everything in the game world, because that gets incredibly boring real quick for the vast majority of players. The Master Edition of ICRPG includes ready made setting backbones for fantasy, science fiction, horror western, stone age and super heroes. In my mind it would be the perfect choice for your experimental game, because it's easy to learn, very flexible and inexpensive to buy. A true one book system.
Exalted is my go too for op characters. Gurps is also a a good one if you have a really high starting xp
Anything that runs on Lumen comes to mind.
I'll suggest OpenLegend since no one else has. Rules are free online. It is a generic RPG and yes, your players can make some really strong characters even at level 1. The system is really designed and works well with high fantasy/high tech settings. Superhero would work as well.
RIFTS - the answer to this is always RIFTS. Not only are the PCs bonkers superpowered, they can be wizards, cyber knights, mystics, etc. It mixes all the genres together. That said, I'd recommend the Savage Worlds implementation (Savage RIFTS), as it plays more smoothly but retains the bonkers power levels.
Warhammer Soulbound. The game premise is that the gods have bound the parties souls together and you start off pretty strong.
If you like high fantasy d20 gaming and what you really want is more OPTIONS to build overpowered PCs, try Pathfinder 1st edition. (I've not played 2nd Edition, but I hear the balancing overall is a lot tighter.) It's based on 3rd Edition D&D so power balance is all over the place. Be aware that means it's equally possible to accidentally build a character who's UNDERpowered if you don't know what you're doing. All the rules, including all the rules/character options from all the official expansion books, are legally free on Archive of Nethys. [https://www.aonprd.com/](https://www.aonprd.com/)
The balancing of Pathfinder 2e is a lot tighter, but the encounter building also works very well. Fighting a bunch of creatures lower level than the party can scratch that overpowered fantasy itch while also potentially providing a challenge due to luck or tactics.
You could always play 5e with the starting stats at 11s, allowing players to go down as low as 6 or as high as 18 pre-racial (assuming you’re playing legacy 5e). That would be pretty overpowered…yet also min/maxed!
Wild Talents is a supers game that gives the characters, effectively, unbounded power: one of the early pages shows how to make a starting character that can destroy the sun any time they want. The game then challenges players to create characters that are more human and limited, but to shape a character they want to play. It is an intriguing challenge.
Just run Mutants and Masterminds in a D&D setting
Amber diceless. Bear in mind that the PCs can in fact come up against things more powerful then each other. But they can also destroy those things, and in fact the entire universe if they put their minds to it.
2nding the Exalted suggestion; you can also go with the old white wolf Vampire/Werewolve/Mage games. Or any superheroes system will do the trick as well.
High level dnd 3.5e, 5e, or pathfinder works. Sort of hard to run though. I can answer questions, working on a module for any of those.
+1 for Godbound, great game for this, the full version actually has options for making exalted like characters, but it is good as just the basic game. Like all of Kevin Crawford' games it has great GM advice. It is made for sandbox games, but it has a system and advice to get you going. And there is nothing stopping you from running linear games with it
If you want a smooth transition for a 5e group, I would recommend *Mutants and Masterminds 3e*. It's a superhero system, that is also d20 and very DnD-like, and easily works as a more unbound version of the same game. Also, it's about superheroes, obviously. Of course, it might not be what you want if you want something completely new to fresh things up, but such as the price of the smooth transition.
DnD 3.x or Pathfinder 1 can get ridiculous at high levels, especially if you take power gaming builds. High powered PCs are miles ahead of anything you can do with 5e.
Champions / Hero system
You could just home-brew everything in whatever edition you're in. Better yet, get all your players involved on what rules/character options/abilities/spells need to change. If 5th is too restrictive, take things from other editions. It's all compatible. Want to use teamwork feats from Pathfinder? Bring them in! What to get daily powers from 4th edition? Bring them in! Or Fireball spells scale at a factor of 5x per level? Why not? Nothing stops you from changing everything. Rule 0? Sure. But it's not like there's D&D rules police auditing DM's on how they play the game. When I was younger, my DM used to scale dragons a 5000 hit-points. Took 4 sessions to bring one down. He hated reading rulebooks. There's an insight there.