Villain Creation

[jhilahd]

This might be an obvious question, but I couldn't find a place in the book for it.
How do you decide on points for creating a villain?
Do you set it equal to the points of your heroes?
Do you wing it and just give your villain what you think they need?
This is one of the ares that is stumping me so far in the game.
Help?

[BASHMAN]

I usually wing it and just give the villains what Ithink they need to model what I want them to have. That said, I do tend to make "big time" villains 5 or more points more powerful than the heroes- not by intention, simply because that's how strong they are. The weaker villains, I tend to build around 25 pts.

Sometimes they are more powerful than the Heroes. When that happens, I set the campaign level a bit higher. So when the PCs fought some all-powerful dragon, I said my usual 30pt game was 35pts for that night; so that they'd have extra hero points to use. There is no mathematical formula for this. If you forced me to come up with one, I'd say: set the level for that night's game somewhere between the most powerful villain they'll face and the most powerful Hero on the team.

[BeardedDork]

This is an issue I've struggled with. Is there some kind of rule of thumb for balancing minions and a villain against a party of heroes?

[BASHMAN]

Here's what we do for BASH! Fantasy (the newest ed.) does. It could probably be adapted for supers:

Danger Level
When you are the Narrator, sometimes it’s hard to gauge what your Heroes should be able to take on in a fight and what they should have no chance against. To help with this, you can use the Danger Level table below. Danger Level works by comparing the point value of a monster to the Character Points value of the Heroes’ characters. If the numbers are close, it should be a good fight. If the monster’s number is far below the Heroes, the monsters should be easily defeated. If the monster’s points are far higher than the Heroes this is a fight they cannot expect to win (though sometimes it’s good for Heroes to learn the importance of running away from an unbeatable foe).
When sizing-up the two sides that will be in a combat, use the most powerful Hero or Villain as the baseline for their side. If the other side is composed entirely of Minions, consider a group of four Minions to be equivalent to a Viilain of the same point cost (-2 for each less than four in the primary group). For each additional Hero or Villain, add +1/5th their point cost to the baseline. For each additional Minion, add +1/10th their point cost. Always round down, but each additional combatant adds a minimum of +1.
For example, a group of four carnivorous apes is 21 pts, while a group of seven would be 27 pts (21+6=27), and a lone carnivorous ape would be considered 15 pts (21-6=15). A battle with two mummies (30 pts) and seven skeletons (5 pts) would be 43 pts (30+6+7). A group of four Minotaurs (25 pts) would be 40 pts. Likewise a group with four 25 pt Heroes would be worth 40 pts.
Once you know the point value for each side in a battle, you can compare them on the chart below and decide to adjust things to fit how you want the scene to play out. Note that this is not a flawless system – there are some monsters who are more deadly than their point value would indicate and vice-versa – but it should give you a good general guideline. As a good rule of thumb, you want to avoid having battles that are too easy or deadly. Most should be challenging, with a few easy battles to let the Heroes really flex their muscles. Daunting battles are best for major plot points, such as at the climax of an adventure.
Danger Level Monsters’ points compared to Heroes
Too Easy-------11 or more points less
Easy-------------6-10 points less
Challenging-----Within 5 points
Daunting--------6-10 points higher
Deadly----------11 or more points higher

[Boost]

One of the things cool about BASH though is that a weaker villain (point wise) can be built that is stronger than the heroes because they are not equipped to handle them. For instance I had a 22 point stone monster that almost wiped the floor with the heroes in the first game I narrated. Why, because neither of them were built to fight someone with such a high soak.

It's something you should also keep in mind when building the villains, the above was accidental, and they winded up fetching a big leaguer in the universe to take him out for them.