Need some help

[Grailent]

Okay, so, I'm not really super familiar with m&m. I'm reading the proper rules and all, so hopefully I'll eventually be decent with it.

 I decided to join this site because it's an established, fairly popular pbp. I've played others like this before, since it's a general genre of appeal to me, and I wanted to try out a different character rp wise. Personality and history and the like I have a good grasp on. The request for help in this thread is almost entirely stat and game related.

The character is basically a one man rescue service, focused mainly on duplication and healing. He'll have some sort of enhanced mobility (Super Speed, phasing through walls, etc.) I'm pretty much sold on emotion manipulation, maybe mind shield. Focus on being evacuation guy rather than fighter, though having some feats to help out others is probably good. He's essentially a normal human, stat wise, though a pretty good one.

If this is the improper use of this sub-forum, I apologize. Even if the system does click pretty quickly, any tips or advice is still appreciated.

[Vahnyu]

This is absolutely the proper use of this subforum, Grailent, and welcome to the site! M&M is quite peculiar a character-building system, for all the freedom it offers, but hopefully, I'll be able to give you some helpful directions.

The first thing you must do, when building a PC, is choose their intended Power Level (henceforth abreviated as PL). As it currently stands, you start with 3 PC slots. One is a PL7 slot, and the other two are PL10 slots each. Your character will be using one of those three slots.

Your PL determines your character's upper limits. The corebook explains this in detail, so I'll focus on a few other things that are specific to this site. When you choose your PL, you are expected to operate within that PL, on average. This means:

• your chosen attacks' attack bonus and damage/power bonus should average at exactly your PL. This applies only if your PC relies on making attack rolls to use their powers. Nevertheless, by this site's houserules, you are required of buying up to 1/3rd (rounded up) of your maximum attack bonus (which is equal to your PL plus your highest applicable tradeoff, a number that can range from -5 to +5) as normal attack ranks (2 power points per rank).
• your area damage/power bonus and/or your perception range damage/power bonus should equal your PL. This applies only if your PC relies on using powers that have the Area(non-targeting) extra and/or the Range[Perception] extra.
• your defense bonus and Toughness Save bonus should average at exactly your PL. Per the houserules, 1/3rd (rounded up) of your total defense bonus (which is equal to PL plus your defense tradeoff, a number that can range from -5 to +5) must be bought as normal defense ranks (2 power points per rank).
• your non-Toughness Save boni should average at about PL-2. This means that when added together, your Fortitude, Reflex, and Will should equal about 3*(PL-2). This can vary a bit, and need not be exact, but the closer you adhere to this, the better. Of course, if you can afford it, feel free to go higher than that, but endeavor to have your Saves average at at least that much.
• your character's grapple bonus should not go higher than 3*PL. Again, this may vary a bit, but try not to be excesive. Other than that, feel free to completely ignore grappling, though do note that your character may end up pined far more often than you'd like.

Next up, let's tackle trade-offs. Trade-offs work by adjusting your character's PL limits. They can apply to either defense/toughness or damage/attack. If your character has a +3 defense tradeoff, they have a -3 toughness tradeoff. If they have a -2 defense tradeoff, they have a +2 toughness tradeoff, etc. The same goes for your attack/damage tradeoffs. Do note that you can have different types of defense/toughness and/or attack/damage tradeoffs specified. For example, a character may have normal attack/damage tradeoffs for melee attacks, but they have a +2 attack/-2 damage tradeoff for ranged attacks. In this case, they should make sure to buy at least (PL+2)*1/3 of their total attack bonus as normal attack bonus. Another character may have a normal defense/toughness tradeoff for when they are normal, but they may have a -5/+5 defense/toughness trade-off for when they transform into human steel. In this case, they should make sure to buy at least their PL*1/3 of their total defense bonus as normal defense bonus.

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Other than that, I have no more advice than to try your hand at making your own PC. If any questions pop up, I'll be sure to try my best at answering them, as will everyone else. Pop by the chat to get immediate feedback. Also, make sure you read the Newbie Guide and the House Rules while making your character. Finally, looking at other active PCs and their sheets will hopefully give you an idea of how the end product should look like. But above all else, have fun!