Campaign Scale and Villains

[Ratix]

Just concluded my first session. We had a blast, though couldn't get to the big villain of the issue. Oh well, save it for later.

What I'm curious about is, how are villains intended to be constructed compared to the campaign scale? Should they be about the same? Would a single villain at campaign scale be expected to challenge a group of heroes, assuming he had the Narrator Setbacks from all of them to work with? If not, what would be a good challenge?

For that matter, how many Narrator Setbacks are recommended? I seem to recall 2 per Hero, but I can't actually find the specific entry anywhere in the book.

[BASHMAN]

A single 25 pt villain against four 25 pt heroes would get creamed. You'll need to add in some minions & possibly have more than just one Villain if they are on equal points.

Of course, you could always have a 40pt Arch Villain give a Monologue and take on an entire team of 25 pt heroes by themself!

It says 2/Hero in the section on Setbacks in Chapter 2.

Of course, if the villain is part of someone's rogue gallery or Arch Enemy, then they'd have more to work with.

[The_Strangler]

Sorry to resurrect an 8 month old post. I know that's usually a no-no. I'm just really happy I found someone that had the same question.

I've got a similar issue where I want to create an Arch-villain that can match up to 4 world class heroes at once by himself(ex, The first Fantastic Four vs Dr Doom in the F4 movie ending). I would think a formula or chart could be put together as a Narrator's guide for this type of thing. I realize setbacks, power suites, hero points, etc probably play more of a part than character points in a battle but a general guide would be nice if there isnt one out there already.

Of course, you could always have a 40pt Arch Villain give a Monologue and take on an entire team of 25 pt heroes by themself!

Based on this, how about:

Nearly Impossible - (Average of all hero CP) X 2.5
Difficult - (Average of all hero CP) X 2
Challenging - (Average of all hero CP) X 1.5
Easy - (Average of all hero CP) X 1.25

So a team of four world class heroes(sum=160pts;avg=40) against a 60pt villain might be a medium battle while an 80pt villain would be a hefty challenge? Is this anywhere in the ballpark for those experience Narrators and/or Bashman? Thanks!

[BASHMAN]

I've run Villains who top out around 50 against groups of characters. The key is if it is "the big fight" to have the guy do the monologue- as this will give him the extra Hits needed to make the fight long and interesting.

That said, I have had fights that are "long and interesting" where the villain had less Character Points than the heroes. Some builds just are harder to win against (like a gigantic Robot with armor may be cheaper in points, but can soak a lot of damage and is immune to a lot of things).

The downside of that, is the Giant Robot would be more predictable than the 50pt Arch Villain.

Which reminds me- the Arch Villain advantage is also very useful (3 Setbacks for a Villain Die instead of 5) and the "Devoted Henchmen" is really useful (that disintigration beam you shot at me? I threw one of my minions in the way so it wouldn't hit me).

[Nestor]

Ah, yes. The "Ablative Armor defined as Wall of Minions" power.

[MrJupiter]

Ah, yes. The "Ablative Armor defined as Wall of Minions" power.

Good one!