Range, Area & the Variable enhancement

[AngryGhost]

After being away from BASH! for awhile I always come back to the same problem, which I am sure has been answered before.

when purchasing a power such as Nullify or Special Attack which is

1-5 pts, Range, Area

is 5 the maximum amount of pts I can put into it, from which I must also account for any Range or Area I want

or

can I take it at 5 and then invest in Range and Area separately, up to their max of 5 (being 15 points)

I would have gone with the first one

otherwise if you take Variable as an enhancement then things get reeeally messy.

But

The second one seems to be the valid choice because otherwise you wouldn't have powers such as Slow

1pt, Range, Area

which can only have Range and Area if you spend more than 1 point in it.

So which is the way to actually work this out? - I cant really see special attack 5 + Range 5 and Area 5 + Variable being workable so it must really have a limit of 5pts for all aspects, but then where does that leave powers like Slow etc?

I think that Area and Range are enhancements for certain powers, but with some, like Special Attack, would I be right in ruling that they cannot be taken as enhancements, at least not if Variable is used.

[BASHMAN]

Range and area are bought IN ADDITION TO the level of the power. So you can have Special Attack 3 (+3DM) that has no range for 3pts, Medium Range for 5pts, or Close Range small Burst for 5pts. One of the things I tried to do in the 2nd Printing of UE was to address this issue and make it more clear, as the first printing it did seem to work that your level in the power included your range and area; but it should not.

Variable as an enhancement means you take points OUT of the power's level to turn them into Range or Area; not the other way around (another thing I tried to clarify in the 2nd printing). So if you have Special Attack 5 [Variable] and you make the attack have Long Range, it drops the power's level down to 2, effectively. It's a trade-off.

Allowing someone to have Variable on a power that already has listed Range or Area is a Narrator's call. I'd allow it; but I'd also make sure it wasn't being abused.

Hope that helps.

[AngryGhost]

That does clear it up, thanks.

...however, I do have the second printing...

If there ever was another printing/edition, for people who are simpletons like me, I think there is good argument for further clarification here. Perhaps a sidebar and/or extended example of certain rules like Variable, Special Attack etc highlighting their utility, as their usefulness can get lost in the other rules as people look at the more obvious powers -eg Flight, Teleportation etc.