mutants and masterminds 3e- how does it work?

[Grod_The_Giant]

So I just received the Mutants and Masterminds rulebook (3rd edition) as an early Hanukkah present. I was very excited, being a big fan of comic books and having heard good things about the system, so I sat down right away to read the book. The character creation rules look excellent-- simple and versatile. I had no trouble figuring out how to build a character... well, almost no trouble.

I say that because I'm having a hard time figuring out how combat works, exactly. I THINK I figured out how to fill out everything on the character sheets, more by looking at the examples than by understanding what the book told me. There are, however, a few points that leave my confused.

• How do you calculate attack rolls?
• How do you determine damage?
• Your health is your Toughness score, right?
• What are the virtues of the various ways of boosting abilities/attacks (buying points straight, buying attributes as powers, taking skills, taking advantages and so on)

Clarification would leave me very happy.

[chadmeister]

[*] Your attack roll is based off either your Fighting (Close Combat) or your Dexterity (Ranged) ability. To that you add your Close/Ranged Attack advantages and any relevant Close/Ranged Attack Skills.

You doll 1d20 and add to this total, then compare to your opponent's Dodge or Parry + 10. If you tie or beat it, you hit.
[*] To do damage, the defeneder rolls their toughness bonus +1d20 and compares it to your strength or damage ranks +15. If they make the save they take no damage.
If they miss the save by 1-5, they take a cumulative -1 to all further damage saves.
If they miss by 6-10 they take the -1, and are dazed for 1 round
If they miss by 11-15 they take the -1, and are staggered
If they miss by 16+ they are incapacitated.
[*] Your toughness determines how well you can take damage, other "health" effects are represented by fortitude (resisting poison gas, etc)
[*] Generally if you are going to want all the bonuses the ability will grant you anyway, you should just buy the ability, but most of the abilities are probably more expensive than buying the bonuses you want separately.


So Captain Amazing has Strength 12, Fighting 5 and 3 points of Close Attack.
Mr. Evil has Parry 12 and Toughness 8.

Captain Amazing rolls 1d20, gets 15 and adds 8 for his Fighting and Close Attack. 23 beats the target of 22 (Parry of 12 + 10)

Now Mr. Evil has to roll his toughness save to avoid damage. He rolls 10 and adds 8. 18 vs. 27 (for strength), is failure by 9. Mr. Evil is now Dazed. Any further damage saves he makes until he heals is at -1, and since he's dazed he only gets 1 action next round, move or attack.