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4th Edition Character Building Guidelines?


Lunatic Fringer

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Hi!  I'm looking for the "standard superhero" character building guidelines for 4th Edition rules.  Specifically, I'm seeking the suggested starting and upper limits for attack powers, defenses, skill rolls, combat values and speed values.  Thanks in advance!   :)

 

This would be for standard supers on the 100 Base + 150 Disadvantages route (though my campaign will probably be 150 Base + 100 Disadvantages).

 

LF

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Okay, let me try this tact, then.  Does this look familiar to anyone?

 

Item                        Starting                         Maximum

Attack Powers        35-45 Active Points      60 Active Points

Defense                 12 - 16 PD / ED             20 PD / ED

Skill Rolls               14 or less                      No Limit

Combat Values       5 - 8 OCV / DCV          12 OCV / DCV

Speed                     4 - 6 SPD                      8 SPD

 

That's what I seem to remember was the old set of "standard" benchmarks...

 

LF

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Greywind gave you the superhero entries from the BBB (Champions 4E) p11.

 

Champions 3E p96 had a section on "Reasonable Characters."

At a beginning power level of 250, the guidelines were:

 

DEX: 18-30, centering on 20-23

CON: 18-33, centering on 18-23

PD: 8-28, centering on 12-18

ED: 8-28, centering on 12-18

SPD: 4-6, centering on 5

 

Attacks: 40-60 points

Defenses: 20-40 points

Movement: 10-40 points

 

 

I don't remember the chart you posted, but that's how my memory is these days.

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Okay, let me try this tact, then.  Does this look familiar to anyone?

 

Item                        Starting                         Maximum

Attack Powers        35-45 Active Points      60 Active Points

Defense                 12 - 16 PD / ED             20 PD / ED

Skill Rolls               14 or less                      No Limit

Combat Values       5 - 8 OCV / DCV          12 OCV / DCV

Speed                     4 - 6 SPD                      8 SPD

 

That's what I seem to remember was the old set of "standard" benchmarks...

 

LF

 

I can't remember this. It's certainly not the "Average Champions Character" described in Adventurer's Club. That was around 11DC, IIRC.

 

Those are very low numbers in most respects. I don't recall them ever having been "standard", except perhaps in a particular low-powered subgenre.

 

Or in a particular GM's campaign. They could be house rules.

 

There was never an edition where the sample characters in the rules were in this range.

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I can't remember this. It's certainly not the "Average Champions Character" described in Adventurer's Club. That was around 11DC, IIRC.

 

Those are very low numbers in most respects. I don't recall them ever having been "standard", except perhaps in a particular low-powered subgenre.

 

Or in a particular GM's campaign. They could be house rules.

 

There was never an edition where the sample characters in the rules were in this range.

Hmmmm.  Maybe these are from an even earlier incarnation of Champions, then?  Say 2nd Ed.?  I'm pretty sure I never owned the first edition rules.

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1e didn't have guidelines. The sample characters in the rules regularly exceeded these limits.

 

The 2e guidelines were identical to the 3e ones (given by Scott Baker above), apart from indicating that characters should be around 225 (100+125) points rather than 250 (100+150).

 

I checked 4e Dark Champions. The suggested figures there were nothing like these either.

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Incidentally, to this day I still design characters according to the 2e(-3e) standards, although with extra skills.

 

Basically, I add 25 points of skills to a 2e style 225 point character, and there you have a perfect low power 4e/5e character, subject to a few conversion tweaks.

 

Converting to 6e is a bit more work, especially if lots of figured characteristics are involved.

 

Bumping up a character to 350/400 points is pretty easy. However, it's usually necessary to bump up your combat abilities (Damage Classes, Defenses, OCVs and so on) to the higher power level, so you rarely get any real benefit from the higher total.

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Well, I have already ordered a copy of 4th Edition, so I'll look up those guidelines when it gets here.  In the meantime, I found the scans I made of the old characters sheets and forms and put them into a pdf file (which can be downloaded below).

 

4th Edition Champions Forms.pdf

 

Thanks for all the research and help, Assault!   :)

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Continuing on the original topic, I have been digging through the notes I kept on various campaigns and found this set for my old Defenders of Lakeport campaign...

 

Aspect                          Starting Level               Maximum

Characteristics                  10 - 40                           50

Speed                                  3 - 6                              8

Base CV                              6 - 9                             11   

Damage Classes                6 - 10                            12

Active Points                     30 - 50                            60

Skill Rolls                          8- to 14-                     No Limit

Defense/Resistant       10 - 15 / 0 - 10                 20 / 15   

 

I think this is the one I was thinking of!  :)

 

LF

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