Lorehunter

My first step usually is to find out the power level of the game.  In this example, I'll assume a standard superhero game which would be 400 pts with 75 points in complications. 
 
The power level is basically the average number of dice thrown at what CVs and at what speed.  For our example, the average power level is 12DC, at an 8 CV and 5 Speed. 
 
Sometimes, GMs will give you a maximum power level.  If the GM gives you this, they generally don't want you to make all your abilities hit these maximums on a regular basis.  This means, that without pushing, using maneuvers you will be using often, your damage and CV should not exceed these numbers.  As an example, say a GM has denoted a maximum of 15DC at a 8CV.  You create a character with a 60 strength.  This is well within the power level right?  But you add 60m(30") of flight and you move through targets a lot doing 18d6 of damage, the GM might have issues with that amount of damage despite the penalties to your CVs.
 
At 12d6 average damage, if we assume about 15 stun on average past defenses, that would mean 27 points of defense.  This is calculated by multiplying 12 by 3.5, the average on a 1d6 and subtracting the amount of stun we would take on an average hit.  The big takeaway from this is that we should have 27 PD/ED on average.  For more on this calculation read the next paragraph, but all you really need to know is the number 27 for defenses.
 
15 points of stun done on average is in most games a good gauge as to the amount of damage the GM wants to occur.  This makes about 3 hits on a player with 40 stun on average before they go unconscious.  Let's look at what happens if you increase your defenses to 30.  At 30 points, only 12 will get through on average.  A 40 stun PC would then expect to take about 4 hits.  Go to 33, then it's about 5 hits.  At 35, only 7 points of stun is leaking through and it would take 6 hits before going unconscious.  Now this is all well and good from just calculating damage, but you need to remember that most attacks will have around a 62.50% chance to hit if you are at average DCV.  So you can effectively double the amount of hits to attacks.  So at 30 points of defense, 4 hits would be about 8 attacks or about 2 turns of combat.  Most combats last about 1-2 turns, really.  Combatants start to run out of end, charges, and/or stun by the second turn on average.  You can do better calculations at 62.50% but for the most part doubling works fine.

OK, so we know what our power level is.  We start to buy characteristics.  The first characteristic I buy is OCV/DCV.  It's your main mode to hit in combat.  In games prior to 6th edition, this would mean buying Dex.  In 6th edition, OCV and DCV is separated out.
 
We are using an average of 8 in both CVs.  So we set the value to 8.  We have a starting value of 3 and it costs +5 points to go up or -5 points to go down.  To go up to 8 means paying 25 points for OCV and 25 points for DCV.  
 
This is great for this example, but what if we want to hit a little more often or be more nimble and not be hit?  Well, you could add one or two more OCV.  In general, when you go up in CV, the GM expects you to give a little in another way.  So, if you go up in OCV then most GMs will expect you to go down in the number of dice you do.  Thus, in this example, if we wanted to have a 9 OCV, the GM might expect us to lower our damage from 12d6 to 11d6.  With a 10 OCV, the GM might be expecting us to lower our damage to 10d6 and so on.  Some GMs might allow a drop in speed so that you can hit more often but have less chances to do so.  In comparison, if you want to raise your DCV, you should lower your PD and ED.  Every 1 you increase your DCV over average, your PD and ED should drop about 3.5 on average.  So for a 9 DCV, your PD and ED should be about 23-24.  A 10 DCV and your PD/ED should be 20.
 
So how effective is +1 OCV or +1 DCV over the game average?  On OCV, +1 over the average means you will hit 12% more or go from a 62.5% chance to 74% chance( a difference of 11.5%).  But going to +2 OCV over average just means going to 83.8% (a difference of 21.3%).  And going +3 OCV over average is a difference of only 28.2%.  So what is happening?  Well, HERO uses a bell curve instead of a linear to hit chart.  In D&D/Pathfinder, a +1 means a 5% increase in a chance to hit.  This is a linear progression mainly because you are using a single twenty sided die.  So a +3 in D&D is a +15% increase in your chance to hit.  In HERO, the farther you get from a 10 on three dice, the less effective the bonus becomes.  You don't need major bonuses to hit to change the odds in your favor.  SImilarly, a +1, +2, +3 over average DCV will result in getting hit by an average OCV of 8 at 50%, 37.5%, and 25.93% on average.
 
It's a balancing game for the GM who wants to make sure everyone has fun and are about equal.  To be fair, this is much harder than just making a character.  A GM usually has to do this for EACH villain and also make sure the players do not run roughshod over the game.

Thanx Jason!!! You found the files and fixed it - and everything else - you have restored my hope in Hero Games here in 2020!!!
 
 
Thanx Again
 
Wildcat

Hello all. Quasi-lurker here and just joined after getting HD. Made my 1st Sup with and got very confused with how it made its calculations. I will post it separately to get your learned opinions. 
 
Oh... and a long time ago I played Champions E1, (then life blindsided me) so a lot had changed since then.