Alright, we're looking at how figured characteristics are actually figured, and what each of the characteristics actually does in the game. This is a pretty busy page, so let's jump right in.
The figured characteristics, as mentioned last time, are Physical Defense, Energy Defense, Speed, Recovery, Endurance, and Stun Pips. Three of them are figured from Strength (PD, REC, STUN), four from Constitution (ED, REC, END, STUN), and just one from Dexterity (SPD) and Body (STUN). So these are pretty important characteristics to have good scores in.
Physical Defense is Strength divided by 5; Energy Defense is Con/5. Recovery is those two numbers combined. Endurance is just double the CON score. STUN is your BODY plus half your STR and half your CON. Finally, your Speed is 1 plus your DEX divided by 10. There's no indication yet about rounding partial numbers, though.
So, once the figured characteristics are figured, you can still add to them by spending more Power Points. If you want, you can even reduce some characteristics below the base of 10 to gain back points. So a dumb character with an INT of 6 would get 4 Power Points to spend on something else. You can reduce any or all of your primary characteristics, but only one figured characteristic. There's no specific reason given for this restriction, so use your imagination.
Okay, so now it's the individual characteristics themselves. We start with the primary ones, in listed order, and I'll include examples of characters that would be examples of each characteristic. Strength is first, and most people can figure out what Strength is used for. It determines your damage done in hand-to-hand combat, as well as how much you can carry, lift or throw. Five additional points of STR basically doubles your carrying capacity, and it's a cheap 1 Power Point per point of Strength. There are a lot of bricks in comics, from Superman to the Thing.
Dexterity represents coordination and agility. Your Combat Value (OCV and DCV) is based on your Dex. Some of your skills are also based on this characteristic, and it's an expensive one: 3 Power Points per point. Dex is the most expensive primary characteristic, which shows how important it is in the game. Spider-Man is the obvious example here.
Constitution is your overall health. It keeps you from being stunned, and adds to four of your figured characteristics. It's 2 Power Points to boost your Con. The Juggernaut is a great example of a high CON.
Body Pips is effectively your 'hit points'. Lose all your BODY points, and you're dead. Same cost as Con. Wonder Man would be a guy with a very high BODY score.
Intelligence is brain power, but not mentalist-type brain power. Reed Richards brainpower, not Professor X. It adds to some skills and your Perception rolls, and costs 1 point per point.
Ego is the Professor X type of brainpower. Strength of will, that sort of thing. It determines your base Ego Combat Value (ECV) for mental combat. 2 points per point.
Presence is your charisma. Presence actually does have a combat use, so it's important to not skimp out on it, and it's cheap at only a single point per point. Captain America is loaded with Presence.
Comeliness is your looks. 1 Power Point gets you 2 points of COM. Wonder Woman comes to mind, as do dozens of other heroes and heroines.
Alright, it's now on to the figured characteristics, starting with Physical Defense. You subtract your PD from both the STUN and BODY from normal (not killing) attacks of a physical nature, by which I mean physical impacts such as punches. As mentioned above, it's 1/5 of your Strength score, and costs 1 point to boost it by a point. I mean, most of the people who qualify as bricks would have a very high PD score, so pick one. I'll go with the Rhino, one of Spidey's villains. Quite a tough guy to hurt.
Energy Defense is your toughness against energy attacks such as fire, intense cold, or lightning. It's the same as PD except it uses CON as the base. Human Torch would have a very good ED.
Speed is just how many actions you can take in a 12-second turn. There's note here that Speed is the only value in the game that does not round off in favor of the character. Which means that all the rest of them do. So, if you have a STR of 28, your PD would be 28/5=5.6, which rounds up to 6. But Speed doesn't work like that. It's your Dex divided by 10, plus one more. So the base character (10 DEX) has a base SPD of 2. If your DEX is 18, your SPD becomes 2.8, which rounds down to 2. If you want to bump it up to 3, it will cost you 1 point per 1/10th of a Speed point. In this case, it would be a cost of 2 points to get you to SPD 3. If you want to bump it up further to 4, it costs an additional 10 points, for a total of 12. Flash would have a high SPD score.
Recovery is how fast you come back from being knocked out or exhausted. The base is your STR/5 plus your CON/5, and it costs 2 points per point of REC. Wolverine is the obvious example.
Endurance is how much energy you have to do things like fight or fly or blast people with your megabeam. It's double your CON, and it costs 1/2 a point to boost it by 1 point, or 1 point for 2 pips of END. Hulk has almost limitless END.
Finally, there's Stun Pips, which is your 'knockout hit points'. If your STUN is zero, you're out cold, but you're not in danger of dying. It's calculated, as mentioned above, as BODY + 1/2 STR + 1/2 CON, and it costs 1 point to bump it up 1 more point. There are more examples than I can count that would have a high STUN score. Again, it's a common thing with bricks.
So, that's it for the characteristics, or at least their basic descriptions. We'll get some more information on what your STR score is good for in the next installment. See you then.
In the meantime, if you're interested in the history of 3rd edition D&D, check out my 25 Years Ago... blog which is taking us through the publication of 3rd edition and its many, many add-ons. It's a lot of fun to go through this stuff, so come have a look-see.
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