Basic Action Super Heroes!

Does a non-burst Area alter the Defense roll in any way, aside from allowing multiple targets? It would seem, especially, that an attack covering a wide area would be somewhat harder to dodge than a single focused shot. Or would this be better represented with a hit bonus?

As written, I do not think area attacks (except Burst) have any effect on to hit or defense; it just lets you attack multiple foes.

There may be balance concerns with making area attacks give a to hit bonus (or defense penalty) in addition to the benefit of extra targets. That might be just too good for the cost of the area.

However, you could use the area as a justification for buying an extra rank of the power to add an extra to hit multiplier. For example, if you have Special Attack 3 (+3 DM) and add area to it, then maybe you would also bump it up to Special Attack 4 (+1 to hit, +3DM) to represent its extra chance to hit. So you're not actually getting an attack bonus for free as part of the area, but the area provides the justification for the attack bonus you are buying.

Does that make sense?

No special defense rules for lines, arcs, etc. If you want, you can always use points to increase the accuracy, though.