350 Champs. vs 250 Champs. Why?

[CPaladino]

I haven't tried the new point totals out, but I did see the new "official" standard of Supers is 350 pts. vs. the old standard of 250.

 

How's this work power-level wise? I would assume a starting character under the 350 is more powerful than the 250 (haven't playtested much of 5th edit. for Supers yet).

 

Why the switch? I found 250 starting for a Champs. campaign to be good. I understand I can still do 250, I'm just curious if there was a deliberate decision and why...

[Trebuchet]

350 point characters tend to be better rounded. More non-combat skills, more Perks, a better selection of Powers with greater flexibility. 250 point characters tend to be almost exclusively combat-oriented. When we jumped our 250 point game up to 350 points in our 10-year-old campaign, everybody's characters got a lot more versatile. We picked up languages (Everybody on our team now speaks three or more languages), oddball Skills such as Riding and Piloting, one player had his character pay 15 points for Filthy Rich. All in all, it's a better group of characters. Nobody's defenses in our group increased at all, and only one character's attack increased and that only because of GM request (We wanted the team's brick to hit harder.).

 

Nothing wrong with 250. 350 is better IMHO.

[Captain Obvious]

I haven't actually played out a campaign under the new point totals, but after making a small handful of supers, I have to say I like the extra 100 points. No more scraping and stretching a concept to get enough points in disads to make a workable hero. And as Trebuchet has pointed out, characters tend to be more rounded.

[TheTemplar]

Yes, when our campaign made the jump from 4th ed to 5th ed, all the power level caps still stayed in place, so the extra 100 pts. made it nice to pick up some new Skills and Perks, as well as gave the opportunity to buy off some disads that had been roleplayed out to resolution without having to pick up a new disad.

[CrosshairCollie]

I was in a 260 point game for a long time. A really high-powered 260 point game. The bricks had 26 Dex'es. The maximum attack DC was 18. And every last character was streamlined for power. At best, you had 10 points of noncombat skills, which was fine for some backgrounds, but others were just shafted. Only one person on the team had full-time powers (me). Everybody else was Hero-IDed or OIFed from head to toe.

 

Now, 350 game ... mmmm, sweetness. No more scrounging for points for things crucial to your concept (or sacrificing your concept!). People with OIF Battle Armor can actually have the skills appropriate to having built it! People who shouldn't have Hero ID don't have to take it (most of those old Hero IDs would be Multiforms now, anyways).

 

Sure, you're gonna have some power-twinks who just use it to ramp up their attacks and defenses, but that's what GM supervision is for. "Might I suggest, instead of another 40 STR on top of your 70, that you purchase a Shockwave?"

[JohnTaber]

I think there are also a bit more things to buy in FREd. There are more adders, advantages, and such that are fun to buy but hard to afford on only 250 points. Some of the existing powers are also more expensive (aid, TK, etc). I used to run games at 200 points but my new campaign is 350 points. I have to admit it is a fun change...

[Herolover]

When I first heard of this change I really groaned, but knew my players would be happy.

 

I started a campaign and kept my campaign limits pretty much the same and the situation is that I have some very nice well rounded characters that feel a lot more like the characters you see in the comic books.

 

The one thing that I have noticed is that it seems that I have more characters with high DEX's and high SPD's. That might just be my campaign though.

[JohnOSpencer]

Originally posted by Herolover

When I first heard of this change I really groaned, but knew my players would be happy.

 

I started a campaign and kept my campaign limits pretty much the same and the situation is that I have some very nice well rounded characters that feel a lot more like the characters you see in the comic books.

 

The one thing that I have noticed is that it seems that I have more characters with high DEX's and high SPD's. That might just be my campaign though.

 

Not just yours. My campaigns average DEX is 28 and Speed is 6. I have to make up almost all my villians myself. They trash any CKC villians.

 

John

[Captain Obvious]

Every campaign I've been in has had most characters at a 6 SPD (well, every supers game...). The only people who ever went any lower were a few bricks, or once or twice, characters who took Normal Characteristic Maxima as a disad....

[Fry Daddy]

I had the same apprehensions when I got my FRED, but my group converted all the characters and it wasn't that bad. Also, now that we are wrapping up and starting a new campaign, my main point was making sure I had good power caps for beginning supers at 350. This actually opens up for characters to actually buy SKILLS, which are neglected a lot of times for power.

 

Martial Artist: "I'm sneaking up on the VIPER agents guarding the door."

GM: "Make your stealth roll."

MA: "I didn't buy it."

GM: "Well, then, you are staring down the barrel of two VIPER heavy blasters."

MA: "D'oh!"

[Tech]

We have an interesting way of handling the upgrade from a 100 base to a 200 base for Champions characters. What's amazing is that all the players agree to it. The sitch is that dependent on the character concept, the GM will make the determination of what base to give the character. Yes, we have a variable base for character creation. One character now has a 100 base, another 150, a different one 200. The GM's fine with it, the players are happy and it works.

 

Not all characters are created equal. Someone who's got tons of skills, languages, Professional Skills, etc., may end up getting a higher base due to a well thought-out concept. It depends on a case-by-case situation. I'm still inclined towards the 100 base. Villains will get a 100 base and anything extra needed is a villain bonus. Some villains are not well rounded and may be living on a poverty level with nominal powers, with the police looking for them.