The following basic rules apply to the purchase of Powers with Character Points.
WHO CAN Buy POWERS
Not all characters have Powers. You can build a modern spy or a Fantasy swordsman with only Characteristics, Skills, and Talents (though he may need Powers to simulate some types of equipment or special abilities). On the other hand, a super- hero or a wizard can easily have many different Powers.
The GM should define which Powers char- acters in his campaign can purchase, and how they can use them. He may also require certain Limitations or Advantages on all Powers char- acters purchase — many Heroic campaigns have strict limits on which Powers a character can purchase, what he can purchase them for, and how many Active Points an ability built with Powers can have. For example, in a campaign focusing on psychic PCs, characters could purchase Mental Powers, but might have to take the Concentration Limitation on them. Superheroic campaigns, such as those based on comic book superheroes, allow characters to purchase Powers with few restric- tions. The GM decides whether to allow a Power in the campaign, and if so, how characters must purchase and use it.
If the GM wants to let characters buy only a limited group of Powers, he may want to consider making those Powers (perhaps in a slightly altered form) into Talents (see 6E1, Chapter Four).
HOW TO Buy POWERS
Characters purchase Powers by paying the Character Point cost listed under each Power. These are the same Character Points used to buy other game elements, such as Characteristics and Skills. The minimum cost of any Power, regardless of how it’s defined or the Limitations applied to it, is 1 Character Point. A character cannot “buy” a Power for 0 Character Points.
The amount of points paid for a Power often determines what the character can do with it.
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volume 1: character creation n chapter Five 119 For instance, if a character has 50 Character Points
in Blast, he may do up to 10d6 damage with it. Most Powers have a variable cost — the more Character Points spent on the Power, the better the Power becomes. However, some Powers (such as Desolidification and Extra Limbs) have a fixed cost; beyond a certain level, spending more points on them doesn’t improve them.
Ordinarily, once a character has bought all of his Powers, he can’t shift points from one Power to another. But because there are so many Powers, the first characters a player builds might not have exactly the Powers he wants. The GM should allow a player to rebuild his character once he gains more familiarity with the rules.
Few characters are all-powerful when built, but they improve as time goes on. After each game, the GM may award a character Experience Points (6E2 292). The character can spend his Experience Points just like Character Points. For example, he may use them to improve the Powers he already possesses. The GM may even allow him to buy totally new Powers — a character can buy Powers (or anything else) after character creation, if he has a valid in-game rationale for doing so. Usually this involves an expansion or evolution of the character’s existing powers.
Although characters build all their powers from the same list of Powers, each power is a new and unique power unlike any other character’s power. Five different characters’ Blasts 10d6, even if they have the same special effect, are each unique.
A character can purchase the same Power more than once if he wants. This makes the most sense if each use of the Power differs from the others in some way (for example, it has different Power Modifiers).
active points anD real points
As you work with Powers, you should keep in mind two important concepts: Active Points and
Real Points.
The Active Points in a power (also called the “Active Cost”) is the total cost of a power after all Adders and Advantages are applied (before you reduce the cost via Limitations or other modi- fiers). For example, a Blast 8d6 has 40 Active Points (8 x (5 points per d6)); a Blast 8d6, Armor Piercing has 50 Active Points ((8 x (5 points per d6)) x (1 + ¼)). The Active Points in a power determine how much END it costs, the Skill Roll penalties for using it (if any), whether it fits into the reserve of a Multipower, and so forth.
The Real Points in a power (also called the “Real Cost”) is the final cost of a power after you apply all Advantages and Limitations. In short, Real Points is the actual number of Character Points a character spends to buy the power. For example, a Blast 8d6 with no Limitations has a Real Point cost of 40; one bought with the Limita- tion OAF costs 20 Real Points (a base of 40 Active Points, subject to a -1 Limitation). For a Power with no Advantages, Adders, or Limitations, the Active Point and Real Point costs are the same.
“coMpounD” poWers
A “compound power” is a power built with two or more Powers. A partially-Advantaged or partially-Limited power (6E1 366) also qualifies as a compound power. Generally, compound powers are built as and function just like any other power, but there are special rules for certain aspects of them.
The Active Points in a compound power equals the sum of the Active Points the character combines to create the power. For example, a Blast 8d6 + Sight Group Flash 4d6 has 60 Active Points (40 + 20). For information on the END cost, Skill Roll penalty (if any), and Multipower reserve allocation (if appropriate) for compound powers, see 6E1 130, 390, and 400, respectively.
Generally, a character cannot Link two instances or uses of a single Power to form a compound power. He can create a partially- Advantaged or partially-Limited power, or even a two-part power that adds together without being partially Limited, but he receives no Limitation for doing so.
Example: Gravitar has the ability to manipulate gravity. One of the powers she uses to represent this is Telekinesis — she has Telekinesis (60 STR). However, there are times when she wants to focus all her efforts into moving objects through gravitic manipulation. Therefore she buys a slot in her
Gravitic Powers Multipower defined as Teleki-
nesis (+40 STR). That Telekinesis can’t be used on it’s own; as the plus sign indicates, it only adds to her base STR 60 Telekinesis. She does not get to apply the Linked Limitation to the +40 STR Tele- kinesis, or otherwise Limit it, just because she can only use it with her standard Telekinesis — that’s simply how she chooses to define this particular compound power.
MiniMuM costs
In some campaigns, GMs may choose to impose minimum costs on Powers (beyond the minimum cost of 1 Character Point that applies to everything in the HERO System). This means characters must buy a certain minimum amount of every Power they buy. For example, if the minimum cost of Mental Blast is 20 Character Points, characters must always buy a minimum of Mental Blast 2d6 whenever they buy that Power. Minimum costs do not include Adders or Advan- tages. A character cannot, for example, satisfy a minimum cost of 20 Character Points for Tele- portation by buying Teleportation 10m, x4 mass — he must buy a minimum of 20 points’ worth of unmodified Teleportation, or 20m.
Minimum costs are most appropriate for Superheroic games, where larger-than-life char- acters have lots of points to spend. The GM can, if desired, set an appropriate minimum cost for each Power to reflect this. Minimum costs are rarely appropriate for Heroic games, where characters often need just a few Character Points to build a particular ability.
The most important effect of minimum costs relates to Adjustment Powers such as Drains. If an Adjustment Power reduces a Power below its minimum cost (including any Advantages applied to that Power), the victim cannot use that Power, even if it wasn’t reduced to 0 points. When the lost points return to a level equal to or above the minimum cost, the Power functions again (albeit at reduced strength until all lost points are regained). However, if a Power has a fixed minimum cost established by the rules (like Deso- lidification, which always costs 40 points), then all points in it (including points for Advantages) must be removed before it ceases to function (see 6E1 138).
Example: For his comic book superhero campaign, Andy establishes a minimum cost for Blast of 10 Character Points (2d6). Starburst buys a Blast 8d6 with the Advantage Armor Piercing
(+¼). If a villain Drains Starburst’s Blast to, say,
10 points, Starburst cannot use it, since 10 is less than the Power’s (minimum cost x Advan- tages), or 12 points. At the next Post-Segment 12 Recovery, when Starburst’s Blast recovers to 15 points, he can use it again, but it will only be a Blast 2d6, AP until he recovers more points.
other reQuireMents
The GM may establish any other requirements he deems appropriate for purchasing Powers. For example, he could establish a Characteristic minimum as a prerequisite for buying a particular Power, or require a character to buy Power A before he buys Power B. This does not, however, entitle characters to a Limitation or any reduction in the cost of the Power.