[M&M 2e] Exceeding Power Level

[jiriku]

I'm teaching myself the Mutants and Masterminds game, and I'm finding it very difficult to figure out which modifiers to attack, defense, damage, and toughness are limited by campaign power level, and which allow you to exceed it. Does anyone have some expertise on this?

Using the three sourcebooks I have access to (core rulebook, Ultimate Power, Mechs & Manga), here's my tentative grouping so far.

{table=head]May Exceed PL|May Not Exceed PL|Don't Know
Scoring a critical hit|Attack Focus|Improved Block feat
Accurate Attack feat|Attack Specialization|Improved Disarm feat
All-Out Attack feat|Defensive Roll|Improved Sunder feat
Defensive Attack feat|Dodge Focus|Autonomous Defense Actuators (mecha)
Taking the Aim action|Favored Environment|Pinpoint Accuracy System
Improved Aim feat|Favored Opponent|Twin Weapon Strike feat
Improved Defense feat|Rage feat|weapon with a disarm bonus
Inspire feat|Sneak Attack feat|weapon with a Dodge bonus
Master Plan feat|Throwing Mastery|Making a Slam attack
Power Attack feat|Accurate power feat|Knockback damage
Autofire extra|Break the Style feat|
Flurry feat|Zen Strike|
Withstand Damage|Target Tracking Interface (mecha)|
Optical Tracking (mecha)|Autonomous extra|
Guided extra|Mecha Dogfighter feat|
Taking the Outmaneuver action|Growth power|
Improved Outmaneuver feat|Shrinking power|
Taking the Aid action|Size modifiers to Attack and Defense|
Taking the Charge action||
Taking the Combined Attack action||
Taking the Total Defense action||
Assuming an Aggressive stance||
Assuming a Defensive stance||
lay down Covering Fire||
stand on higher ground||
take Cover||
kneel or drop prone vs. a ranged attack||
Growth Strike power feat||[/table]

Would anyone disagree with my placement of any of these items, or have a suggestion where the items in the third column belong? Have I left anything off?

[Fouredged Sword]

That is a well done and nicely built chart.

[Bharg]

What about the "Don't Know" column?

[Fouredged Sword]

Size modifiers do have to obey PL caps. It mentions in UP that the growth power is problematic due to the need to have your character built not to exceed the max damage cap when growing, and the decrease to hit as being there to midigate that somewhat.

A reading of improved block makes me think it ignores caps. But then again, it is ranked. That would become problematic quick.

The same goes for the other improved feats that are ranked. I would put them in the obey collum, due to posible abuse.

A slam attack has always been allowed to avoid PL caps in the games I have played. That is not a hard call, but that is what my experence has seen.

Knockback damage is also something that I would let ignore caps due to it's nature of being controled by the power of the power that caused it, but once again this is personal opinion and not rules lawyering.

[jiriku]

Is there a general principle here whereby anything that you can count on having round after round is capped, while anything that is situational or requires a tradeoff is uncapped?

How about Twin Weapon Strike? This one puzzles me, because it requires a considerable tradeoff (full-round action to use, -2 penalty to hit), and doesn't say that it's capped...but then the Under the Hood box on the same page refers to it as a capped ability. Seems like there's not much point using Twin Weapon Strike if it is capped, since you invest 3+ pp (two feats plus an extra piece of equipment), and you could just as well purchase a single weapon with a higher damage bonus, and avoid the crippling penalties and action restrictions.