You can either set the is_superuser flag true or false. Suppose I want a near superuser role, create user, create keyspace, grant user read/write/update to keyspaces, but this user can not drop keyspaces or grant other users drop keyspaces.
Steve ,
Yes it is possible to create a user (ROLE) with that permission set. If you examine the GRANT PERMISSION command you can customize the list of permissions that a role may have.
E.g.
CREATE ROLE near_superuser;
GRANT CREATE ON ALL ROLES TO near_superuser;
GRANT CREATE ON ALL KEYSPACES TO near_superuser;
GRANT MODIFY ON ALL KEYSPACES TO near_superuser;
GRANT SELECT ON ALL KEYSPACES TO near_superuser;