Maybe private security for the world's elites, your order of John Wick assassins, tacticool operators who you want to be slightly more plausible then action-movie heroes in how they survive and thrive in multiple firefights? You want your only-slightly paranormal investigators to be able to survive battles with the crocodile-sewer-people? How do you do that in a way that fits a modern setting and is something you could work towards a player character, or something that a secret organization or high-level group could give to their field agents to give them some kind of edge?
This question was also somewhat built out of the idea of adding new enemy types for modern shooter games; similar to something like FEAR or a Call of Duty game. Obviously enemy types can be programmed to do whatever you want; but the silhouette and general weapons, tactics, animations, etc. are all going to be similar. Real life humans can't take a face full of bullets. So barring equipment, some fantastical upgrades are needed. So what's the answer to add some enemy variety and power levels in modern stuff? The answer always seems to be cybernetics or magic. But that's boring. Let's think of some more.
Quick note: The table is also roughly in order of unrealistic and gonzo. You can use smaller dice to represent more "grounded" methods based on your desired level of "fantasy" in modern fantasy-fiction.
[1] It's all in the genes. Some people are just born better then others, sorry! But even if you aren't especially gifted; modern technology has allowed you to gain some of these gifts with platelet-rich blood transfusions on a twice monthly basis. If you miss one? You not only lose your powers, but probably get anemia or something.
[2] Tantric meditation, mindfulness, mental discipline, and lucid dreaming techniques to gain complete and total control of the subconscious, instinct, and psyche. Lets you resist pain & torture, not flinch even around explosions, control body heat, hold your breath for extended periods, lessen bleeding or the effects of shock, control your heart rate, and so on. May include references to Tibetan Monks.
[3] Far eastern herbal supplements, raw milk, and probiotics cultured from a private stash. Grants poison resistance, rapid healing, improved strength and so on. None of the active ingredients are present in any performance enhancing drugs nor can be traced to any specific chemical; but something about the whole is greater then the sum of its parts. You think this one is bullshit until you actually eat probiotic yogurts in real life regularly and maybe go walk outside for an hour holy shit it's crazy. Also I'm including "kung fu but actually works in a real fight and is overpowered" here even if it's a little basic. Like not punches and kicks but Jason Borne stuff, you get it.
[4] Memetic patterns and symbols stitched onto clothing or even tattooed on that do things like draw the eyes towards or away to act as natural stealth, induce vertigo from the swirling designs, cause double vision and loss of accuracy, or disperse impact force or heat along the ink acting as a sort of armor mesh drawn directly on skin or clothing. It's not magic because it triggers an instinctual psychosomatic response, or something. I didn't make up the vertigo tattoo idea unfortunately; I stole it from this shitty YA kid's book I haven't thought about in like 15 years.
[5] Vibrational attunement and bioresonance frequencies. Using specialized headphones or internal body-speakers to emit a performance enhancing sound that grants addition strength, healing, focus, recovery, etc. To avoid it just being a consequence of the noise itself, and therefore usable by anyone, it requires some kind of attunement or acclimation process to maximize the effects. Maybe instead of requiring a device to make the sound you can train your vocal chords to make a "hum" that mimics the effects, or even create a sort of loud drone that weakens nearby organisms but you remain unaffected.
[6] Additional limbs grafted on, fully controlled, capable of using and handling more weapons at once and has much more weight to throw around in melee. People are born like this all the time actually so the only unrealistic part is being able to fully control these extra limbs and your "secret agent badass" is going to be really obvious going about in public with a mass of flesh attached. You could also do this with just adding extra internal organs or domesticated cancers for redundant hearts, extra lungs for more oxygen, grafted liver for poison immunity or whatever but I like the flesh monster approach more.
[7] Spliced with animal DNA. You can take this in as legit or hackneyed as you want. Like everything from "I spliced myself with cheetah DNA so I can run fast even though my legs haven't mutated and I don't have any of the same spinal or square-cube considerations" or some other trite shit like that or you could just have straight up furries. Despite an excuse for the fetish potential I just think it'd be cool if you were playing Max Payne or SWAT 4 or something and a bad guy walked up to you able to handle the recoil of a full-auto shotgun in one hand while clawing at you with the other and he's got weird skin patches all over his body and then your realize he's been genetically modified with a fucking leopard just so he can do crime better.
[8] Supercharged Bioelectric Field. Exposure to very special magnets (or just radiation) enhance and empower a person's bioelectric magnetic/energy field granting a small amount of psychokinetic control. This includes being able to levitate, minor shielding, discharging electrical shocks, and moving objects with ones mind. Basically just Control powers. Because it's using the body's innate magnetic field, only requires a high calorie diet to power and maintain. If too immersion breaking then may require implants to generate the field oh shit we're back at cybernetics again fuck
I guess psionics count as a magic to you, then?
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