Power Points & Power Levels

=POWER POINTS & POWER LEVELS=

POWER POINTS
You design a DC Adventures hero by spending power points on different traits. Each ability, skill, advantage, power, and other trait has an associated power point cost.

STARTING POWER POINTS
The game’s power level provides a guideline for how many power points you get initially to design your character, as shown on the Starting Power Points table. The Gamemaster can vary the starting power points as desired to suit the series.

SPENDING POWER POINTS
Each trait costs a certain number of power points. You “spend” or allocate your points to give your character different traits. Once spent, power points cannot be reallocated without the use of a power effect or the Gamemaster’s permission. The basic costs of traits are given on the Basic Trait Costs table, with specific costs for powers given in the Powers chapter.

POWER LEVELS
Power level is an overall measure of effectiveness and power, primarily combat ability, but also generally measuring what sort of tasks a character can be expected to accomplish on a routine basis (see Routine Checks).

Power level is a value set by the Gamemaster for the series as a whole. It places certain limits on where and how players can spend power points when creating or improving their heroes. Power level imposes the following limits:
 * Skill Modifier: Your hero’s total modifier with any skill (ability rank + skill rank + advantage modifiers) cannot exceed the series power level +10. This includes untrained skill modifiers using only ability rank, and so sets an effective limit on all abilities associated with skills.
 * Attack & Effect: The total of your hero’s attack bonus and effect rank with that attack cannot exceed twice the series power level. If an effect allows a resistance check, but does not require an attack check, its effect rank cannot exceed the series power level.
 * Dodge & Toughness: The total of your hero’s Dodge and Toughness defenses cannot exceed twice the series power level.
 * Parry & Toughness: The total of your hero’s Parry and Toughness defenses cannot exceed twice the series power level.
 * Fortitude & Will: The total of your hero’s Fortitude and Will defenses cannot exceed twice the series power level.

POWER LEVEL CHARACTER EXAMPLES
Characters cover a diverse range of power levels, from the first costumed adventurers of the Golden Age, who relied solely on their skills and a few gimmicks (and modern vigilantes of the mean streets, who do much the same), to the greatest protectors of the world, who take on cosmic threats on a regular basis. The following are some common power levels and starting power point values suitable for different games:

POWER LEVEL 8 • MASKED ADVENTURERS
This power level fits the “Mystery Men” era of DC’s Golden Age, as well as the adventures of teams like the Blackhawks and the Challengers of the Unknown: heroes who rely more on their skills and wits (and maybe a few gadgets) rather than amazing powers. The suggested starting value of 120 power points creates well-rounded heroes at this level, particularly if the emphasis is on skills and advantages—and maybe a power or two—rather than a lot of powers. Think Dr. Mid-Nite and Hourman rather than the Flash and Green Lantern. A higher starting power point total allows for more diverse capabilities within the same limits. Heroes at this level often focus more on skill than sheer damage output, often having fighting skills in the 10–12 range, but commensurately lower damage and effect ranks (using just their fists or small arms).

POWER LEVEL 10 • SUPER HEROES
The suggested starting power level suits mature and experienced “adventurers” of the previous level along with a wide range of younger or focused metahumans. This is the power level of most of the Legion of Super- Heroes, characters like Green Arrow and Black Canary, and a great many of the Teen Titans. It’s also good for powerful, but relatively inexperienced heroes like the Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes). Power level 10 heroes may have a balance of attack and effect, defense and resistance, or may go for being stronger on one side than the other, having great combat skill, but comparatively limited damage, for example, or great Toughness, but lowered defenses.

POWER LEVEL 12 • BIG LEAGUES
Power level 12 is where you find many of the members of the Justice League: Aquaman, Batman, and the Flash, to name a few. They are “senior” heroes, usually with considerable capabilities (and, often, experience). Those lacking metahuman powers (such as Batman) have amazing levels of skill and resources to draw upon while the metahuman types are often among the most capable in their particular area, often worthy of titles like “King” and “World’s Greatest”. In areas where power level 12 heroes tip the balance of their combat capabilities, they can have amazing ranks in attack (like Batman’s Close Combat skill) or defense (like Flash’s Dodge).

POWER LEVEL 14 • WORLD-PROTECTORS
Heroes at this level are closing in on the power levels of the paragons of the DC Universe like Captain Atom, Green Lantern, Superman, and Wonder Woman. They are largely capable of ignoring lesser concerns and tend to focus on “big picture” problems like alien invasions and world-conquerors along with natural disasters (although they may still handle some of the “small stuff” as well)''. This is the level of the “heavy-hitters” of the Justice League of America and Justice Society of America.''

TRADE-OFFS
Note that the averaging effect of power level—the fact that all the traits it limits are paired with other traits—allows for a measure of “trade-off.” For example, attack bonus and effect rank added together cannot exceed twice the series power level, but this does not mean the two traits must themselves be equal, or that neither can be greater than the series PL. It’s entirely possible to create a hero with more fighting skill than damage capability (like the Crime Fighter or the Martial Artist in the sample Hero Archetypes), a hero with more sheer power than skill (like the Powerhouse), or a hero who is a roughly equal mix of both (like the Warrior) who are all within the series limit, PL10. The same is true of the various other traits, such as placing a greater reliance on Dodge and Parry over Toughness, or vice versa.

The GM may want to keep an eye on combinations that swing wildly towards one side or another: the hero with no Dodge bonus to speak of but a massive Toughness bonus, or the one with no real attack bonus but capable of dishing out a tremendous amount of damage. For the most part, these designs are self-limiting, but they can pose problems in comparison to better-balanced heroes. A disparity of more than 50% between a pair of power level limited traits is something to look at closely before approving.

POWER LEVEL & NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
While the GM should keep the power level guidelines and suggested starting power points of the series in mind while creating villains and members of the supporting cast, non-player characters are not restricted by the series power level and are built on as many power points as the GM wants to give them. In other words, there is no need to add up the “cost” of a non-player character. Just assign the appropriate traits at the desired ranks.

Determine an NPC’s effective power level based on the character’s highest appropriate offensive and defensive trait(s). This power level is simply an approximation to show what level of challenge that NPC offers, and is not necessarily related to the NPC’s power point total, which may be greater than or less than the recommended starting power points for that power level.

Example:
The Gamemaster is creating a villain for a power level 10 series. The bad guy has a +8 total attack bonus with a primary attack doing 16 damage. Adding these together and dividing by 2 gives the GM a power level of 12 [(16 + 8)/2]. So long as none of the villain’s other traits exceed this, the GM notes the villain’s power level as 12, a reasonable challenge for a group of PL10 heroes.

REALLOCATING POWER POINTS
Normally a hero’s traits are fixed. Once power points are spent on them, they remain there. In some cases, however, the Gamemaster may allow players to re-allocate their characters’ points, changing their traits within the limits of the series power level, perhaps even losing some traits and gaining entirely new ones. This is typically a result of the transformed condition, either due to a power or encountering a transformational effect (intense radiation, mutagenic chemicals, cosmic power sources, and so forth). It’s up to the GM to decide when these character-altering events occur, but they should be fairly rare unless their effects are intended to be temporary complications.

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