Basic Action Super Heroes!

Howdy, I am running a game of BASH Fantasy tomorrow, and I am trying to figure out how many monsters to throw at my party. I'm reading through the section in the book about Danger Levels, and the text says that you compare the minion and villain DL to that of the heroes, but how do you determine the heroes' DL? Specifically, I'm trying to figure out what lvl 1 heroes would have.

It seems to me that the formula can't be the same to them, because then one first level character would be worth more than a dragon!

this got streamlined in BASH! Sci-Fi to make it easier. It was further refined in BASH! Fantasy: Legends of Steel (our next Kickstarter):

Take the most powerful Hero / Villain on a side and compare their point value (Each point of stats counts as 2 points of powers).

A group of Four minons is calculated as a Villain. Each extra Minion added is +1/5th value. Each Minion less is -2 points.

If one side outnumbers the others, add +1/5th value of the extra opponents.

If the difference is 11 or more less, the encounter is really easy. If it is within 5 points, it should be a good fight. If it is 11 or more greater than the Heroes, it will be a very hard fight, possibly deadly.

That said, this isn't perfect as point value doesn't exactly equate to lethality (there are a lot of powers that are not directly useful in combat, for instance).

Thanks for the detailed and thorough response, Chris! I'm looking forward to getting Legends of Steel when it comes out!