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<blockquote data-quote="Ben Robbins" data-source="post: 2985274" data-attributes="member: 38705">Actually that raises a slippery but important question:&nbsp; can you buy things that exceed PL and just not use them?By the rules the answer is no.&nbsp; PL limits apply to spending points and building characters, not actually using powers.So in the TK example, it would be illegal to buy TK rank 20 in a PL 10 game unless you had a 0 ranged attack bonus.&nbsp; To get that effect you could do something clever like Flaw 10 of the ranks so that they were for &quot;slow movement only&quot; aka nothing violent.&nbsp; Or the GM could let you take ranks of Super-Strength to add to your TK 10 (a very sensible solution).Some people have put forward overbuying as a way to get insurance against things like Drain (I have 20 protection, but I'm only using 10 of it, so I can have 10 drained and still be fine) or to adapt on the fly (I bought 14 attack and 14 damage, and sure I'm only going to use a total of 20 but I'll pick each round), but technically it's a no go.&nbsp; IMHO letting character overbuy stats but theoretically not use them can get complex pretty fast.Yep, so long as by that you mean different blasts with different attacks, through attack specialization or the accuracy power feat (my palm repulsors are blast 10 using my normal 10 ranged attack bonus, but my microlaser is blast 6 and has accuracy 2 giving me +14 to hit with it).&nbsp; It's pretty common to have a different attack/damage ratio for ranged and melee attacks (via attack focus).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ben Robbins, post: 2985274, member: 38705"] Actually that raises a slippery but important question: can you buy things that exceed PL and just not use them? By the rules the answer is no. PL limits apply to spending points and building characters, not actually using powers. So in the TK example, it would be illegal to buy TK rank 20 in a PL 10 game unless you had a 0 ranged attack bonus. To get that effect you could do something clever like Flaw 10 of the ranks so that they were for "slow movement only" aka nothing violent. Or the GM could let you take ranks of Super-Strength to add to your TK 10 (a very sensible solution). Some people have put forward overbuying as a way to get insurance against things like Drain (I have 20 protection, but I'm only using 10 of it, so I can have 10 drained and still be fine) or to adapt on the fly (I bought 14 attack and 14 damage, and sure I'm only going to use a total of 20 but I'll pick each round), but technically it's a no go. IMHO letting character overbuy stats but theoretically not use them can get complex pretty fast. Yep, so long as by that you mean different blasts with different attacks, through attack specialization or the accuracy power feat (my palm repulsors are blast 10 using my normal 10 ranged attack bonus, but my microlaser is blast 6 and has accuracy 2 giving me +14 to hit with it). It's pretty common to have a different attack/damage ratio for ranged and melee attacks (via attack focus). [/QUOTE]

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