Advice on Power Level Caps for a New Campaign

[Corsair]

Haven't played Champions in a long time (if my little buddy (Scott) Bennie is around reading this, you were the GM here in SoCal, that's how long ago it was), and never actually ran Champions (ran original edition Fantasy Hero). So, I'm looking at these 400 point characters and scratching my head as to what happened to 250 point starters. Honestly the latter is the power level I'm happy starting my group at, but if I can get advice on what the various levels for active points, offense, defense, physical defense, energy defense and the like for either point total start and perhaps suggested soft/hard caps, I'd be grateful. My intent is to have an initial hard cap, and then move it to soft immediately after character design. 6th edition (Champions Complete).

[Hyper-Man]

While not exactly about what you're asking for, you may gleam something useful from this old thread:

House Rule: Campaign Damage Caps, Code vs. Killing & Pulling a Punch

[Tasha]

Characters became a bit more expensive in 5e, people just wanted to create decent characters that actually had some Non-Combat skills. So they could do something other than beat on Villains. When 6e came out, Characters became more expensive due to no free secondary characteristics (ie Figureds are now bought up from the same base no matter what your primaries are). So it was determined that 400 points was sufficent to port 5e characters to 6e. Honestly this isn't true in all cases as some characters benefited more from Figured Characteristics than others.

 

I would run a "Standard Champions" Campaign as 450pts (with however many Complications the book recommends for Standard Champions). This gives players a bit more room to have a thoughtful power concept that doesn't require "Mystic Jewel in Forehead" kind of limitations. Also it allows Players the chance to buy non combat skills. In fact, I would require players make sure that their PC's all have 30-50pts in Non Combat skills

For Powerlevels, I like to always suggest the average and work from there. ie Damage Class 12, Dex 20, Spd 5, 24def (12resistant), 70pts in active points per power.13- for skill rolls. Maximums at DC14, Dex 30 Spd 7, 30def (30resistant), 75pts in Active points. 16- for skill rolls. Trading DC for Dex and SPD is recommended (ie high dex/spd should be lower DC and vice versa).

[TheQuestionMan]

Character Creation Guidelines have remained relatively unchanged for a "Standard Superhero" Campaign. I suggest you keep your old "250pt." CCGs and allow only allow one or two Maximum Active Point Abilities/Powers. Encourage the Players to buy Skills, Perks, Talents, and Etc...

 

The only Rule that is absolute is to have fun.

 

QM

 

P.S.: Recommend you BUY Hero Designer

[Balabanto]

I actually have big problems with Hero Designer. When I use an actual calculator I get different numbers about 55 percent of the time.

[Greywind]

I actually have big problems with Hero Designer. When I use an actual calculator I get different numbers about 55 percent of the time.

 

Is that an HD problem or a calculator problem?

[Beast]

I actually have big problems with Hero Designer. When I use an actual calculator I get different numbers about 55 percent of the time.

set the rounding to 2 places to the right

[Corsair]

I would run a "Standard Champions" Campaign as 450pts (with however many Complications the book recommends for Standard Champions). This gives players a bit more room to have a thoughtful power concept that doesn't require "Mystic Jewel in Forehead" kind of limitations. Also it allows Players the chance to buy non combat skills. In fact, I would require players make sure that their PC's all have 30-50pts in Non Combat skills

 

Looking in the book, this would actually be somewhere between "standard" (400 + 75) and "high-powered" ("Nation's greatest super-heroes", 500 + 75). Conceptually, they're not going to be even the region's greatest super-heroes (that's something for them to aspire to long range). The low-powered "youthful superheroes" of 300 + 60 would be more likely fitting. I'll design some test characters around that and see how they turn out, and adjust from there.

 

For Powerlevels, I like to always suggest the average and work from there. ie Damage Class 12, Dex 20, Spd 5, 24def (12resistant), 70pts in active points per power.13- for skill rolls. Maximums at DC14, Dex 30 Spd 7, 30def (30resistant), 75pts in Active points. 16- for skill rolls. Trading DC for Dex and SPD is recommended (ie high dex/spd should be lower DC and vice versa).

 

70 active points seems like rather a lot to me. 50 is more what I'm aiming for initially. I rather doubt I'll have to prompt the group to get non-combat skills, but I'll probably recommend a range to them

[Tasha]

I actually have big problems with Hero Designer. When I use an actual calculator I get different numbers about 55 percent of the time.

 

Is that an HD problem or a calculator problem?

I think that's a Calculator Operator Problem.

 

HD has always been extremely accurate in my experience.

[Tasha]

I would run a "Standard Champions" Campaign as 450pts (with however many Complications the book recommends for Standard Champions). This gives players a bit more room to have a thoughtful power concept that doesn't require "Mystic Jewel in Forehead" kind of limitations. Also it allows Players the chance to buy non combat skills. In fact, I would require players make sure that their PC's all have 30-50pts in Non Combat skills

 

Looking in the book, this would actually be somewhere between "standard" (400 + 75) and "high-powered" ("Nation's greatest super-heroes", 500 + 75). Conceptually, they're not going to be even the region's greatest super-heroes (that's something for them to aspire to long range). The low-powered "youthful superheroes" of 300 + 60 would be more likely fitting. I'll design some test characters around that and see how they turn out, and adjust from there.

 

For Powerlevels, I like to always suggest the average and work from there. ie Damage Class 12, Dex 20, Spd 5, 24def (12resistant), 70pts in active points per power.13- for skill rolls. Maximums at DC14, Dex 30 Spd 7, 30def (30resistant), 75pts in Active points. 16- for skill rolls. Trading DC for Dex and SPD is recommended (ie high dex/spd should be lower DC and vice versa).

 

70 active points seems like rather a lot to me. 50 is more what I'm aiming for initially. I rather doubt I'll have to prompt the group to get non-combat skills, but I'll probably recommend a range to them

70 active is a 60pt power with a 1/4 advantage (ie reduced Endurance).

 

I would suggest pulling out Hero Designer and Write up a few characters and see what happens. If you can build a character to concept and within powerlevel without making major sacrifices.

 

Placing the DC down to 10 will help that somewhat. I usually recommend the higher value as that is what I believe the Champions Villains are built to face.

 

BTW DC 10 should be def 18 (9r) Dex 20, Spd 5, 63pts Active (Again 50 active + 1/4 advantage). CV should be 8. Max being DC 12, Def 25 (r25), 70pts active, CV 11 or so.

[Hyper-Man]

Here is my version of a Year One Batman on 400 points to use for comparison.

[Corsair]

Thanks all for the comments. As to Hero Designer: don't have it and it isn't in the budget for a while (still paying off car repair bills). Not looking to be argued into 70 active point cap - more for appropriate levels/starting character points for other stats based on an initial 50 active point cap.

[Guest Goradin]

Try Gesalt page 26 if you have it has some nice guidelines on power levels. Ties DC with SPD and OCV to limit a character so you have no world beaters.

[Corsair]

Here is my version of a Year One Batman on 400 points to use for comparison.

Thanks, that was helpful. Pretty much I have to design a few characters to see what works.

[Corsair]

Try Gesalt page 26 if you have it has some nice guidelines on power levels. Ties DC with SPD and OCV to limit a character so you have no world beaters.

 

My apologies - this is just a bit too cryptic for me to decipher. A thread started by Gestalt (Scott) Bennie? On page 26 of this forum? Which there isn't at the moment (ones on page 25 and 27 don't seem to apply). Thread title? Or did you really mean Gesalt, which returns nothing on a search.

[Hyper-Man]

 

My apologies - this is just a bit too cryptic for me to decipher. A thread started by Gestalt (Scott) Bennie? On page 26 of this forum? Which there isn't at the moment (ones on page 25 and 27 don't seem to apply). Thread title? Or did you really mean Gesalt, which returns nothing on a search.

 

http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=8180 [TABLE=class: boxWide]

[TR=bgcolor: #BBBBFF]

[TD=class: padded, width: 120, align: right]Title [/TD]

[TD=class: padded, colspan: 2]Gestalt: The Hero Within[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=bgcolor: #DDDDFF]

[TD=class: padded, width: 120, align: right]Author [/TD]

[TD=class: padded, colspan: 2]Scott Bennie[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=bgcolor: #BBBBFF]

[TD=class: padded, width: 120, align: right]Book Type [/TD]

[TD=class: padded]Background: Setting[/TD]

[TD=class: padded, align: right] Rank: [ 401 / 2276 ]

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=bgcolor: #DDDDFF]

[TD=class: padded, width: 120, align: right]Genre [/TD]

[TD=class: padded, colspan: 2]Super Hero[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=bgcolor: #BBBBFF]

[TD=class: padded, width: 120, align: right]Setting [/TD]

[TD=class: padded, colspan: 2]Gestalt[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

[Tasha]

Thanks all for the comments. As to Hero Designer: don't have it and it isn't in the budget for a while (still paying off car repair bills). Not looking to be argued into 70 active point cap - more for appropriate levels/starting character points for other stats based on an initial 50 active point cap.

Wasn't looking to argue, just to explain why I choose that level. Which is why I included a DC10 list. Opinions vary as to good power levels. As a player, as long as I have enough points to create a good character within the GM's powerlevel and still have a decent variety of NonCombat skills and I am a happy players. Also, I really hate having to saddle the character with cheesy Limitations on powers to again make a rounded character. YMMV.