Realm of Gadigan

Lord Gadigan, in 'Power Levels Explanation' wrote:A Better Answer to an Earlier Question

I said I would consider what, exactly power levels in the BA meant, and I have. I think this is a more refind, more explanatory answer that is a better guide to higher-Level stuff in the BA than the previous lists were. I still don't think it's perfect and hope to make it even better and more accurate over time, but I think that it should act as a good supplement to prior info to give people a better sense of the BA power-scale, particularly in regards to things above Level 100 (since I seem to recall a fair number of questions asked to me over PMs, AIM, and the like about that stuff semi-recently).

As a general pre-warning, while the scales in here are usually true, there's plenty of weird stuff out there that operates on a higher Level than things of its kind normally would (for example a house that can survive multiverse-destroying energy blasts).

Level 1, Very-Low-End Unusually Weak:

This is things at the bottom of the barrel power-wise. Things like microbes and such fall here.

Level 1, Low-End Unusually Weak:

This is things with unusually weak on them that also have high failure rates for their moves. Insects, tadpoles, small plants, and the like go in this category.

Level 1, Unusually Weak:

This is stuff that's less powerful than a competant adult human, but not down as low as insects and the like. Cats, small dogs, sheep, young (but normal human) children, and the like fall into this category.

Level 1:

A moderately competent adult human falls around here. It's the general minimum I wanted PCs to start at, which is why it's Level 1 (as opposed to Level 1 being the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel where the microbes and such are).

Level 2-19:

Power level continues to increase here, until at the upper end a person can fight units of opponents, destroy small buildings, and the like.

Level 20-39:

At this point, a person could fight and destroy a large building that was defended. Areas of effect have increased to be building-sized. Durability has similarly increased, with people able to take hails of normal gunfire point blank essentially unscathed.

Level 40-59:

People on this scale can destroy large buildings easily and wreck a city by fighting in it if enough of their attacks go wide.

Speed increasees to the point where people are zipping around cities during fights and can travel around a country in reasonable time.

Level 60-79:

Attacks here can devestate huge cities, and people can fight on a scale where they run around a country during a fight. Someone at the higher end here could wipe life from the planet with an attack, though not destroy the planet itself.

Beings zip around the worlds they're fighting on here, calling down huge meteors with astral powers and starting ice ages with cold magic.

Durability is similar, with people requiring attacks that would vaporize cities or more to kill.

Level 80-99:

Continents are being broken and oceans drained in these fights. This is the range where a being gets the ability to simultaneous effect the area of a planet / destroy a planet.

This is also generally where Deity Effects that provide worshipper benefits to (possessor Level - 1) individuals start to fall.

High-end individuals here can operate on a solar-system wide level, zipping around between planets and fighting with planet-and-sun-sized attacks.

Level 100-139:

The stuff here should generally both have and be immune to all of the High Arts effects. Note that this essentially makes them auto-win against all but the most prepared under-100 opponents. Despite this, the actual blanket immunity to under-100 probably isn't coming in until the next category (meaning an excessively well-prepared player who blocks all of the High Arts could potentially fight this stuff.

This is the solar system range. Entities here come in the size of stars.

Note that there is a massive power jump from the prior category to this one (even larger than most category jumps).

Level 140-199:

Stuff here can affect the entirety of a galaxy.

Battles take place faster-than-light on a galactic scale, and attacks gain an equally massive range.

This is the low-galactic range.

Level 200-399:

This is the high-galactic / low-universal range.

Galaxies are being blown up by the dozens and thrown like storms of shurikens here. People are moving far faster than the speed of light and moving from one side of a universe to strike at the other in seconds or less.

For purposes of this document, a 'universe' will be defined as a realm of existance of roughly the same size as the currently observed universe that Earth is in. This is not guaranteed to be the same use of 'universe' as in other parts of the site (for example, the Universal Control System KIRGA and the Primary Universe within the First Holy Empire are both far beyond the scope of a single 'universe' by this definition).

Level 400-599:

This is the universal range.

Want to light the universe on fire? Wave your hand and it is done. Durability ramps up to the point where multiple universe-breaking attacks are needed to fight stuff.

Attacks in battle here generally encompass a universal scope, and destroying reality around your opponent by blowing up the dimension they're in generally has ceased being an effective way to make stuff happen to them.

Fights between beings of this level, if not in a Level-appropriate location, can wander from massive dimension to massive dimension, wrecking reality after reality in the wake of the combatants.

Level 600-799:

This is the high-universal / low-multiversal range. (With an 'multiverse' being defined here as a collection of a universes together.)

Beings here can effect or destroy numerous universes with an action. Meta-gigases, constructed from thousands or more of linked universes, are built and wage war on this scale.

Level 800-999:

This is the high-multiversal range.

Multiversal clusters, each containing millions of universes, are wiped away by attacks here. The Primary Universe within the First Holy Empire can serve as a battlefield.

Level 1000-1999:

This is the low-megaversal range. (With an 'megaverse' being defined here as a collection of a massive, 'infinite' for practical purposes, number of multiverses and independant universes.)

Things here have risen above normal states of existance and can deal with things of lower Level on effectively infinite scales.

Beings here have completely transcended the ability of ordinary mortals to even comprehend the fullness of their existance.

Things of this level are exceptionally rare when an Ascension isn't going on and in its last stages.

Note that there is a massive power jump from the prior category to this one (even larger than most category jumps).

Level 2000-9999:

This is megaversal range.

A fully operative ex-Sovereign with full control of megaverse-shaping powers is somewhere in here.

Things of this level are exceptionally rare when an Ascension isn't going on and in its last stages.

Full deific beings are also floating in here somewhere.

Final bosses of Ascensions sit at the top of this category.

In general, the scope of things here is so far beyond where current characters are (and still somewhat hazy), so I'm going to be somewhat vague on what exactly is happening up here and where divisions of power between the things at this scale exactly are.

Things of this level are exceptionally rare when an Ascension isn't going on and in its last stages.

Level 10000-12000:

This is the omniversal range. (With an 'omniverse' being defined here as a collection of a massive, 'infinite' for practical purposes, number of megaverses. We're not talking the 'absolutely everything everywhere period' sort of omniverse here.)

Post-Ascension Ascendants are here, as are a select few other things. Still, nearly nothing is this Level.

Note that there is a massive power jump from the prior category to this one (even larger than most category jumps).

Level 12001+:

This is the high-omniversal range.

Things here are unreasonably powerful compared to mostly everything.

Spam-summoning Bez'Bekklin, The UCS-KIRGA, and other Ascension final bosses by the quintillions? Sure. Beating all of the Ascendants at once in a fight? Sure. At this point, pretty much anything short of bypassing an Absolute Holy Blessing or contesting Gadigan or The Saints is possible (nearly always trivially possible, in fact).

Nearly nothing is this Level. Ascensions don't even touch up here.

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As is a general reminder, this stuff is subject to change, particularly as it drifts further and further where PCs are. I continue to refine the power scale of the BA and its inhabitants, with my own thoughts, my experience with other systems and settings, and my experiences running quests for players on the site helping to refine my view of the overall structure of power.

Lord Gadigan, in 'What Do Stats Mean, Exactly?' wrote: Celas reminded me that people had wanted a list of how strong various ability scores made people. I thought I'd flesh out a mini-list.

Here's a few opening remarks on it:
* Level matters more than stat points for what you can do
* A character's theme matters in what the character can and cannot do; if you're meant to be good at something, then you're usually RP-wise better at it than similarly levelled individuals who aren't
* The list is subject to change over time as the level system and power scale are refined.

Those things being said:

A level 1 STR-themed individual, Joe the Mover, can, with a STR of 32, get a full-sized piano up a tall flight of stairs alone with a great deal of effort.
A level 3 STR-themed individual, Brutus the Bodybuilder, can, with a STR of 280, bench-press large weights without too much effort.
A level 15 STR-themed individual, Boris the Barbarian, can, with a STR of 5,810, carry the massive golden idol out of the ruined temple of K'Quark and back to town, using both of his hands.
A level 65 STR-themed individual, G'Dormah the kaiju, can, with a STR of 105,320, cause a blast and shockwave capable of leveling a city by stomping in its center.
A level 95 STR-themed individual, Garaphemas the Continent Giant, can, with a STR of 223,405, carry the supercontinent of Relgayia upon his back across the Worldsea.

A level 1 AGI-themed individual, Maria the Runner, can, with an AGI of 29, compete at a local or regional track meet with reasonable success.
A level 5 AGI-themed individual, Sensei Dan, can, with an AGI of 730, catch flies in midair with chopsticks easily.
A level 19 AGI-themed individual, the XM-Paradigm, can, with an AGI of 9,001, drive around as a car with top-end handling and racecar-level speeds.
A level 25 AGI-themed individual, Mikiri Sunohasha, can, with an AGI of 16,001, dodge the bullets fired at her by a local crimelord's henchmen's machine guns, accurately fling a kunai into his jugular vein, and leap out the window into the river unharmed.
A level 41 AGI-themed individual, the Horizon Breaker, can, with an AGI of 42,100, move at supersonic speeds with perfect handling in midair, easily doing loops around opponents and being able to stop nearly instantly.
A level 61 AGI-themed individual, the Moonleaper, can, with an AGI of 94,100, easily make the trip between a planet and its moon in the span of a minute or two.
A level 95 AGI-themed individual, Arsmetti the King-Eater, can, with an AGI of 224,000, kill everyone in the capital of L'Rannek before the first drop of blood from the initial sword wound hits the floor.


A level 1 CON-themed individual, Bob the Farmhand, can, with a CON of 31, work most of the day on the farm and be very tired at the end of it.
A level 3 CON-themed individual, Greg the Farmer, can, with a CON of 265, work all day on the farm and not be particularly tired at the end of it.
A level 15 CON-themed individual, Shinzo the Wanderer, can, with a CON of 5,750, conduct a two-week journey across the Parched Desert without having to stop for a break.
A level 25 CON-themed individual, Taffy Pig, can, with a CON of 16,005 spring back up, essentially unharmed, from having an 2-ton anvil dropped on his head after wobbling around like a funny pancake for a few seconds.
A level 50 CON-themed individual, Alateria the Guardian, can, with a CON of 60,000, safely traverse a river of lava, outer space, or the depths of an ocean trench without issue.
A level 68 CON-themed individual, Glborp the City-Ooze, can, with a CON of 112,685, roll steadily toward the 5th Planetary Military Force, recovering the damage done by their plasma tanks, implosion missiles, and destruction rays faster than they can dish it out with their two-hundred-thousand-man-strong army.

A level 1 MIN-themed individual, Bob the Accountant, can, with a MIN of 30, perform basic math reliably in his head.
A level 25 MIN-themed individual, Acteus the Calculator, can, with a MIN of 15,822 calculate trajectories to make his magic pool balls bounce around a corner and hit three thugs who are holding a group of captives hostage in the heads.
A level 62 MIN-themed individual, the Archagent James Illmarin, can, with a MIN of 96,400, resist the attempts of the Gazmah-Dori's conclave of 2,000 psychic interrogators to probe his mind when captured.
A level 91 MIN-themed individual, the Global Management Network Hypercomputer Core, can, with a MIN of 201,355, micromanage every single electronic device on a highly advanced planet, running a surveillance system that accurately predicts the future actions of all standard citizens while deftly maneuvering a multi-billion-strong robot defense force against the incursions of warfleets from the Ragannshan Sphere Collective.


A level 1 SPI-themed individual, Merla the Apprentice, can, with a SPI of 31, conjure up animal-shaped manifestations of glowing magic that dissipate after 20 or so seconds.
A level 5 SPI-themed individual, Yarkus the Sorceror, can, with a SPI of 702, conjure up sphere of flame that either hovers in his den, lighting it indefinitely, or can be flung into a group of zombies sent by his rival, Talahorn the Necromancer, killing them.
A level 29 SPI-themed individual, Brashka the Ice Witch, can, with a SPI of 20,706, place a village and five miles around it into a state of perpetual snowfall.
A level 69 SPI-themed individual, Salazar the Archmage, can, with a SPI of 116,327, fire mystic blasts from his hands that are equivalent in power and radius to nuclear bombs.
A level 97 SPI-themed individual, Melidandra the Lifeweaver, can, with a SPI of 231,500, bring into being creatures to populate an entire world, templating its spawn tables as they appear.