These benchmarks deals mostly with City of Heroes supers. Think of starting characters in the role-playing game as about level 10-15; they will have a fair selection of powers. But the power curve is much flatter in T3 than in the computer game; a hero who is used to fighting Hellions can still fight Warriors and a hero used to fighting Devouring Earth still find some challenge in Outcasts.
The benchmarks vary a lot by archetype. Blasters are all about damage; tankers all about soaking damage. But this is much less strict than in the computer game; characters need not even have an archetype. At the same time, these limits are what separate characters from each other, so give them careful consideration.
Attributes
Heroes have good attributes. If built by template, a good set of primary attributes would be 11, 9, 7, 6. If you have a powerset that involves a super-attribute (such as Super Strength), use Attribute Enhancement.
Skills
Roughly speaking, levels in City of Heroes translate to skill in T3. As mentioned above, the skill curve of T3 is much flatter than that of CoH.
| City of Heroes Level | T3 Skill Level | City zones |
|---|---|---|
| 1-5 | 11 | Atlas Park, Galaxy City |
| 6-10 | 12 | King's Row |
| 11-15 | 13 | Skyway City, Steel Canyon |
| 16-20 | 14 | |
| 21-25 | 15 | Talos Island, Independence Port |
| 26-30 | 16 | |
| 31-35 | 17 | Brickstown, Founder's Falls |
| 36-40 | 18 | |
| 41-45 | 19 | Peregrine Island |
| 46-50 | 20 |
Damage and Resistance ratings
In order to keep everyone competitive, it is desireable that characters have damage and soak values on the same scale. The following table lists a range of damage and soak values that are reasonable for starting characters of each archetype. These are maximum values; lower ratings are of course possible, especially if you use Fu, Guns or other tricks that let you outperform your base values.
| Archetype | Damage | Soak |
|---|---|---|
| Blaster | 15 | 8 |
| Brute | 12 * | 12 |
| Controller | 13 * | 7 |
| Corruptor | 13 | 7 |
| Defender | 12 | 7 |
| Dominator | 13 * | 7 |
| Mastermind | 12 | 6 |
| Scrapper | 16 | 12 |
| Stalker | 14 * | 10 |
| Tanker | 13 | 15 |
| * Archetype schticks modify this value in many cases | ||
| Reduce if heavily into Fu or Guns |
Of course characters with a lot of dodge powers are expected to go lighter on the soak value and defenses such as armor might up these values against certain kinds of attacks. In general, it is ok to have a focus on certain damage types, especially if you are in the lower range. Armor or Damage Resistance is not limited and damage that can be resisted by armor can do about two points more than this.
Combat Skills
Certain skills and the skills that go with them are combat-oriented and these are restricted by archetype.
Blast
Most supers use Blast schticks in one way or the other, even if many use blast only in Melee. The notable exceptions are Masterminds and Scrappers. A few Stalkers and Tanks also eschew blast. Note that you must have either Super or Sorcery to use Blast schticks.
Super blasts tend to have few effects by many Metablasts. For example, most blasts will be Armor Piercing, making physical armor something you use against physical attacks.
| Frequency | Origin | Archetype |
|---|---|---|
| Common | Magic, Mutant, Science, Technology | Blaster, Brute , Controller *, Corruptor, Defender, Dominator *, Stalker , Tank |
| Uncommon | Alien | Mastermind, Scrapper |
| Rare | Natural | None |
These blasts almost always use the Melee metablast.
* Blast effects are heavily modified for Controllers and Dominators.
Fu
Fu requires that you develop the Martial Arts skill and focus a great deal of effort; not very common among supers. When used, it is usually by Naturals. Martial Arts relies more on Dodge and burst damage than on base damage and soak values. Tankers that use fists or melee weapons do so in order to profit from their high Body scores; they do not use Fu schticks.
| Frequency | Origin | Archetype |
|---|---|---|
| Common | Natural | Scrapper, Stalker |
| Uncommon | Alien, Magic, Mutant, Science | None |
| Rare | Technology | Blaster, Brute, Controller, Corruptor, Defender, Dominator, Mastermind, Tanker |
Guns
A few supers use Guns as an alternative to Blast, but it is pretty rare; more so in the role-playing version. Guns require that you develop the Guns skill, which few supers do. Those who do are mostly villains of the Natural or Technology origins.
| Frequency | Origin | Archetype |
|---|---|---|
| Common | Natural, Technology | Mastermind |
| Uncommon | Alien, Mutant, Science | Blaster, Corruptor, Stalker |
| Rare | Magic | Brute, Controller, Defender, Dominator, Scrapper, Tank |
Sorcery
Sorcery powers are available to all origins and need not be magical at all; in fact they never are to Technology supers and rarely so for anything but the Magic and Natural origins. Instead they represent a broader degree of control over something that given by normal Super powers. They require you to develop the Sorcery Skill. This broader control is common among more versatile supers.
| Frequency | Origin | Archetype |
|---|---|---|
| Common | Alien, Magic, Mutant, Science | Controller, Corruptor, Defender, Mastermind |
| Uncommon | Natural, Technology | None |
| Rare | None | Blaster, Brute, Dominator, Scrapper, Stalker, Tank |
Each sorcerer must have a Tradition, and this applies even to those who do not actually use magic. Most use Power Incarnate. Appropriate traditions for non-magic sorcerers include Power Incarnate, Psionics, Technomagic, and Wild Psionics.
Magic-using supers have a much wider selection. Common versions are Elementalism, Power Incarnate, and Wizardry, but these traditions are also possible: Archaic Magic, Astrology, Bondage Witchery, Chinese Alchemy, Druidism, Dynamic Magick, Elemental Magic, Hedge Magic, Incarnation, Infernalism, Mysticism, Naming Magic, Necromancy, New Age Occultism, Techno Occultism, and Teurgy.
Super
The staple Super schticks almost define the genre, but not every super has them. Powerful but limited in focus, they fit focused archetypes. Natural and Technology supers must explain any power they get as a gizmo or through some other plot device.
| Frequency | Origin | Archetype |
|---|---|---|
| Common | Alien, Magic, Mutant, Science, Technology | Blaster, Brute, Dominator, Scrapper, Stalker, Tank |
| Uncommon | Natural | None |
| Rare | None | Controller, Corruptor, Defender, Mastermind |