In my opinion, many of the issues in the system actually stem from the fact that they didn't go far enough with that. M&M has made a strong effort to divorce flavor from mechanics. This is something I want to take a moment to discuss, because it informs a lot of this guide. Mechanics with a by them come highly recommended for any appropriate character.įinally, minor note, but when mentioning specific mechanics I'm generally using the baseline of a PL 10 character. These mechanics have no real redeeming qualities. It may leave you worse off than you already were, cause you to burn points on literally nothing, or cost more to use than you would gain from a successful use. Useless: This mechanic is counter-productive. Weak: This mechanic is strictly weaker than others that can do effectively the same thing in a more balanced manner. Niche powers are usually more palatable in arrays. Niche options may still have great flavor though, so don't be afraid to take them where your budget can spare, but if the choice is between a niche option and a balanced option that both provide equally good definition to the character, go for a latter. Niche: This mechanic isn't bad, quite, but it probably has some flaw that makes it hard to use effectively, easy to get around, or only useful to certain characters. These are the sort of options you want to focus on most. In lower-optimization games, you may want to avoid these options entirely, or nerf them significantly.īalanced: This mechanic is solidly balanced and priced accordingly to its power. Use sparingly, and if you can balance out their use with less raw power elsewhere, do so, but snagging one or two of these for special "big gun" moves and such is fine. Strong: This mechanic is stronger than its cost warrants, but probably not so strong that it has to be nerfed. Fortunately, there are often ways to nerf or restrict them to allow them to fit in in a more balanced manner, which I will include where I have them. Overpowered: This mechanic isn't just too good for its price - it's just too good in general. If nerfing with customizable Flaws like Quirks and Limits, judge them more harshly than normal and keep the point discounts low. Avoid them wherever possible if you must use them, do so sparingly and work closely with your GM to establish some guidelines and limits that will keep you in line with other players. These are options that I literally don't trust myself in use on PCs in games. It can be nerfed or restricted, sure, but there's actually a pretty fine line where it falls into balance with comparative options it's easy to make it useless or pointless by going to far, or leave it overpowered by not going far enough. This guide will use the following color codes when judging mechanics:īroken: This mechanic is underpriced, overpowered, and complicated enough that I don't even have ideas for self-nerfing it into a more balanced format. Regardless, most of this information should be fairly accurate even in lower-optimization games, and I try to clarify where my own preferences might be assigning higher values than some groups would want to use.Īs a note, this guide is primarily written to assist players in building characters, but it can also be used by GMs both for help with creating balanced but challenging enemies, or identifying mechanics that could be improved upon or nerfed with house rules (or just banned outright). We each have our own optimization standards, and I am cognizant of the fact that mine is on the higher end of the bell curve.
Admittedly, not everyone will agree with where I set the "balanced" bar in all cases. This can mean too good for their cost (or, and especially, just too good in general), or it can mean too expensive when compared to another option that does the same exact thing in a more balanced manner. This means one has to avoid options that are unbalanced with the rest of the game. It is to define a character as precisely as one can while ensuring that all characters made using the same design principles are tightly balanced with each other.
The goal here is not to build the most effective character on the lowest budget possible.
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