M&M/DC Adventures: Basic Rules Questions

[Zozma]

I've been reading through DC Adventures, which I've been lead to believe is basically a reskinned Mutants and Masterminds third edition. It's a good system, but I find it to be fairly poorly organized and so I want to clarify some basic rules, and ask questions about things I don't quite get.

1. Combat Formulas
The information is spread across several chapters and seems to be incorrect in places. Tell me if I got the gist of how combat is meant to work.
Attacker's D20+Modifiers vs. Defender's Parry/Dodge +10.
On hit, Defender's D20+Toughness vs. Attacker's Damage Rating +15

Do resistances work the same way?

2. Movement and Attack Exploitation
What's stopping a hero with the Move-By-Action advantage and a high speed from attacking and then nipping off to a different state between turns, putting them out of reach?

3.Arrays and Dynamic Arrays
Tell me if I understand arrays: powers that require actions have diminishing returns due to players only being able to use one standard action per turn, so arrays exist to reduce costs of standard-action powers and make builds that require variety more viable. The downside is that only one can be active/used at a time.

Alternate effect powers in an array cost one point, but their cost upon "buying" must be lower than the core power. This is ultimately redundant, though, right? You'd just pick the most expensive power in the selection and make the other powers the ultimate effect.

In a dynamic array, you pick two or more powers in an array and raise their cost by one. By dividing the rank of the powers between the dynamic powers, you can have more than one active at a time.

Do I have all that right?

[BlueHerring]

Ooh, I can answer these!

1. Combat Formulas
The information is spread across several chapters and seems to be incorrect in places. Tell me if I got the gist of how combat is meant to work.
Attacker's D20+Modifiers vs. Defender's Parry/Dodge +10.
On hit, Defender's D20+Toughness vs. Attacker's Damage Rating +15

Do resistances work the same way?

You've got it down for the most part, but the only offensive effect with a +15 to the resist DC is Damage. Affliction, Nullify and Weaken all are Effect Rank +10. So, a sample attack would be:

Attack: 1d20+10 vs. DC 20 Parry (10+10 Parry)
On hit: 1d20+10 vs DC 25/20 (25 in the case of Damage, 20 in the case of Affliction/Weaken/Nullify).

Nullify/Weaken/Affliction are balanced by being easier to resist because they can seriously change the course of a fight. I've used a Weaken to set up a PL 14 enemy to drop in a single hit from a PL 12 NPC, all as a PL 10 player.

2. Movement and Attack Exploitation
What's stopping a hero with the Move-By-Action advantage and a high speed from attacking and then nipping off to a different state between turns, putting them out of reach?

GM Fiat, mostly. M&M kinda falls apart if there's no gentlemen's agreement due to things like Summon and Metamorph existing.

That being said, a GM could rule that you can't attack what you can't sense, so if you can't identify what you're attacking, that might be a problem.

3.Arrays and Dynamic Arrays
Tell me if I understand arrays: powers that require actions have diminishing returns due to players only being able to use one standard action per turn, so arrays exist to reduce costs of standard-action powers and make builds that require variety more viable. The downside is that only one can be active/used at a time.

Alternate effect powers in an array cost one point, but their cost upon "buying" must be lower than the core power. This is ultimately redundant, though, right? You'd just pick the most expensive power in the selection and make the other powers the ultimate effect.

In a dynamic array, you pick two or more powers in an array and raise their cost by one. By dividing the rank of the powers between the dynamic powers, you can have more than one active at a time.

You've got the general idea of Alternate Effects down, but the cost for any AE is actually the cost of the most expensive power, extras (minus Alternate Effect) and flaws included. So, if I wanted to build an array of six powers, I'd be using 35 points (30 for the base effect, 5 points for each of the alternates).

Dynamic arrays are in a similar boat, but far less practical. They'll basically never see use in a combat situation (because you can only take two standard actions a limited amount of times), but they can be useful for utility arrays (Like Movement and Speed in a Dynamic Array demonstrates that a certain character can go super duper fast, but loses a lot of the specific tricks that they can pull off while doing so).

[Sith_Happens]

2. Movement and Attack Exploitation
What's stopping a hero with the Move-By-Action advantage and a high speed from attacking and then nipping off to a different state between turns, putting them out of reach?

Nothing... But there's also nothing stopping a villain with two brain cells to rub together from readying an attack to go off as soon as you're back in range.

[Zozma]

Nothing... But there's also nothing stopping a villain with two brain cells to rub together from readying an attack to go off as soon as you're back in range.

I assumed Ready actions would be the best way to deal with players who wanted to do something like that, but would require most villains be built with some sort of range options when player inevitably invest in hit-and-run range attacks. Which is better than building villains to specifically counter superspeed, I suppose, and a bit of a necessity when flight, teleportation, and leaping are so easy to acquire.

[Beleriphon]

Dynamic arrays are in a similar boat, but far less practical. They'll basically never see use in a combat situation (because you can only take two standard actions a limited amount of times), but they can be useful for utility arrays (Like Movement and Speed in a Dynamic Array demonstrates that a certain character can go super duper fast, but loses a lot of the specific tricks that they can pull off while doing so).

Dynamic arrays are good for non-standard action powers. I'm fond of Dynamic arrays of Flight and Super-Strength (power lifting, whatever you want to call it) so you can Superman types hovering slowly along at 1 rank of Flight, but carrying moons over their heads.

[Zozma]

I've come up with a few more questions after reading the manuals a bit more, and decided to ask here rather than start a new thread. These are mostly unsexy bookkeeping questions, but any help would be appreciated :).

1.Enhanced Traits: I can't tell whether the DC Adventure manuals include enhanced trait values in core abilities for the character sheet, whether they're meant to be added in, or if they're just inconsistent. Should it be assumed that enhanced traits, provided they're free actions, are always "on" unless something prohibits the player from performing a free action? It's not like Superman has to rev himself up to increase his lifting strength, for example. Should a player include enhanced traits in their core abilities or keep two separate values for every trait that's enhanced?

2. Descriptors: There's much ado about the importance of descriptors in the manuals, but with a few minor exceptions they never seem to come up in character sheets. Are players meant to keep a list of the descriptors that effect their powers, or is the feature really just mostly unused fluff? Or are the names of abilities meant to effectively sum up the descriptors in play; heat vision is pretty self-explanatory in that regard, for example.

3. Power Level Limits and Damage: If I understand the rules correctly, players can't exceed their power level damage under any circumstance, correct? So a PL 10 character will never be able to exceed an effect rating = 20 - accuracy, even if they use improvised weaponry, steal and use a weapon of a more powerful villain, or do something drastic like drive a space shuttle into something? I understand the importance of this limitation, mechanically, but I feel like my players would find it a hindrance on their creativity or their suspension of disbelief.

4. Balancing vs. Enemies: One of the fun/frustrating/exciting parts of M&M/DC Adventures is that there's little in the way of pre-made enemies. The book has a few suggestions on how to balance the Power Level of villains versus players, but I wanted to seek out the community's advice on what makes for a good encounter. What's a good level for waves of mooks, for tougher elites, and for super villains relative to the PCs? Are their certain abilities and combinations of abilities that have more weight than their costs would suggest?

[Sith_Happens]

1. I usually see people note both the enhanced and unenhanced values for everything on their sheets, right next to each other for convenience of course.

2. As long as you can describe what a given power does in-universe and how your character got it you've just implied all of its descriptors. That's why they're called "descriptors." As such IMO you don't really need to list them.

3. Technically speaking power level caps are at least mostly just a character-building limitation, so all the examples you just named should be fair game (though in the first case I'm not sure what sort of improvised weapon is going to be that powerful in the first place). On the other hand, if the players keep the villain's weapon afterward or find a way to regularly ram space shuttles into things then they should definitely get capped. A little arbitrary? Yeah, but like you said it's crucial for game balance.

4. I'll let someone else answer this one.

[Beleriphon]

I've come up with a few more questions after reading the manuals a bit more, and decided to ask here rather than start a new thread. These are mostly unsexy bookkeeping questions, but any help would be appreciated :).

1.Enhanced Traits: I can't tell whether the DC Adventure manuals include enhanced trait values in core abilities for the character sheet, whether they're meant to be added in, or if they're just inconsistent. Should it be assumed that enhanced traits, provided they're free actions, are always "on" unless something prohibits the player from performing a free action? It's not like Superman has to rev himself up to increase his lifting strength, for example. Should a player include enhanced traits in their core abilities or keep two separate values for every trait that's enhanced?

Depends. An enhanced trait can power stunt. Natural abilities can't. The DCA characters (Superman, Wonderwoman, Black Adam, Darkseid, et al) generally don't make things like Superman's strength Enhanced as an effect. Its a editorial decision, not a mechanical one.

I personally reserve enhanced traits for things that are clearly outside of the character's nature. Thor for example has a natural attribute for strength of say 30, but Iron Man has Enhanced Strength 20. But at the same time Tony can power stunt his Enhanced Trait into a new super suit ability.

[quote]

2. Descriptors: There's much ado about the importance of descriptors in the manuals, but with a few minor exceptions they never seem to come up in character sheets. Are players meant to keep a list of the descriptors that effect their powers, or is the feature really just mostly unused fluff? Or are the names of abilities meant to effectively sum up the descriptors in play; heat vision is pretty self-explanatory in that regard, for example.

Power names should cover what descriptors, you can add more if you feel it is necessary for your game. Most descriptors are generic enough not to need it, but that level of detail is a table dependent thing.

3. Power Level Limits and Damage: If I understand the rules correctly, players can't exceed their power level damage under any circumstance, correct? So a PL 10 character will never be able to exceed an effect rating = 20 - accuracy, even if they use improvised weaponry, steal and use a weapon of a more powerful villain, or do something drastic like drive a space shuttle into something? I understand the importance of this limitation, mechanically, but I feel like my players would find it a hindrance on their creativity or their suspension of disbelief.

Exceptions are as always appropriate. There are some things that work independently of a character's PL rating, falling damage for example. Using temporary weapons is fine, but I'd generally only allow it an attack penalty to match it to the newly revised PL limits the character just got by using an unfamiliar weapon.

4. Balancing vs. Enemies: One of the fun/frustrating/exciting parts of M&M/DC Adventures is that there's little in the way of pre-made enemies. The book has a few suggestions on how to balance the Power Level of villains versus players, but I wanted to seek out the community's advice on what makes for a good encounter. What's a good level for waves of mooks, for tougher elites, and for super villains relative to the PCs? Are their certain abilities and combinations of abilities that have more weight than their costs would suggest?

The DCA Heroes and Villains volume 1 and 2 cover a wide swath of the DC Universe, and most characters can stand in for generic mooks or anything else with a palette swap. The books also have a section for generic mooks. Generally speak anything half of the PL of a character is a cake walk, anything 50% higher is a serious challenge, and actually requires the group to work together to take it down. A solo villain for a group of four or five at PL10 should probably be something between PL12 and PL14 depending on the abilities, immunities and make up of the team.

Abilities that can screw with that are any variant of Summon since its a very quick way to screw the action economy. Anything that gives a character more actions per turn in any way turns things upside down really fast.

[JoeJ]

Depends. An enhanced trait can power stunt. Natural abilities can't. The DCA characters (Superman, Wonderwoman, Black Adam, Darkseid, et al) generally don't make things like Superman's strength Enhanced as an effect. Its a editorial decision, not a mechanical one.

Which honestly seems a little weird to me. Superman, in particular, power stunts his strength quite a lot in the comics. Or at least, I can't think of a better way to describe squeezing coal into diamond, or punching a hole between dimensions.

[Elderand]

Which honestly seems a little weird to me. Superman, in particular, power stunts his strength quite a lot in the comics. Or at least, I can't think of a better way to describe squeezing coal into diamond, or punching a hole between dimensions.

It's possible to use an alternate effect on the damage portion of strength, even permanent strength. that's what superman power stunt with. The disadvantage is that you get only half as many points to play with.

[Sith_Happens]

Oh yeah, I just remembered this encounter difficulty calculator someone whipped up that I've had bookmarked for forever. I don't have enough actual play experience to speak for how accurate it is but it's a thing that exists.

[GAZ]

I think that you absolutely should list all of your descriptors because things like Nullify and Immunity only work on the matched descriptors. For instance both Blizzard and Iceman have the Ice or Cold descriptor on all of their attacks, so people Immune to Cold Damage or Cold Effects can shrug either of them off. On the other hand, Blizzard's powers also have the Technological descriptor while Iceman's have the Mutant descriptor. So an EMP based Nullify would only effect Blizzard, while somebody like Fabien Cortez or Leech would only effect Iceman. Most descriptors are super easy to figure out though, Superman = Kryptonian, with additional Heat vision and Ice breath. Thor = Divine with additional Lightning stikes.

[Zozma]

Thanks for all your help, everyone! I don't want to take up too much space addressing all the useful information given by each user individually, but everyone's insight has given me a much better grasp of the rules.

It's possible to use an alternate effect on the damage portion of strength, even permanent strength. that's what superman power stunt with. The disadvantage is that you get only half as many points to play with.

The rules seem to exclude permenant effects of all kinds from power stunting. Is that rule referenced somewhere in M&M? It seems like a sensible house rule, regardless.

As an alternative, what a power can and can't power stunt into is mostly left to the DM's discretion, right? If the players agreed on it I think it would be fair for players to stunt other powers (perhaps Improved toughness, which most Brick characters seem to have) as a strength stunt on the premise that the character has superhuman strength even if the rules don't recognize it as such, and that other powers can be used as a base powerpoint guideline for alternate effects.

[GAZ]

The rules seem to exclude permenant effects of all kinds from power stunting. Is that rule referenced somewhere in M&M? It seems like a sensible house rule, regardless.

It's in the book under "Damage" in the effects section.

"Strength And Damage: Strength provides a 'built-in' Damage effect: the ability to hit things! You can apply effect modifiers to the damage your Strength inflicts, making it Penetrating or even an Area effect! You can also have Alternate Effects for your Strength Damage; see the Alternate Effect modifier for details. Like other Damage effects, a character’s Strength Damage is close range and instant duration by default."

Since a power stunt is the use of Extra Effort to "Temporarily gain and use an Alternate Effect" and Strength Damage can get AEs applied to it, then Strength Damage can be stunted off of.

As an alternative, what a power can and can't power stunt into is mostly left to the DM's discretion, right? If the players agreed on it I think it would be fair for players to stunt other powers (perhaps Improved toughness, which most Brick characters seem to have) as a strength stunt on the premise that the character has superhuman strength even if the rules don't recognize it as such, and that other powers can be used as a base powerpoint guideline for alternate effects.

Pretty much. Keep in mind that there is no way to get just Toughness though. The effect that would grant a bonus on Toughness saves is Protection. Which means that you cannot Power Stunt off of the Toughness component of Stamina the way you can off the Damage component of Strength. You can still stunt Protection off Damage if you want to for a super strength block or that fighting upstream against the energy blast thing that superheroes always do.