Maximum size of dice pool OR limits on spending PPs for dice

[skalchemist]

The little sidebars in various places list out the possible dice you can have in your pool...

One Affiliation die
One Distinction, either as a d8 or a d4
One power from each of your Power Sets
One Specialty
One of your opposition’s stress or complication dice, if any
One asset, if any
One push die, stunt, or resource, if any

That's seven/eight dice (depending on # of power sets). Now, given that the last item costs a PP sometimes, what is the maximum size the dice pool can reach with more PP? Or to phrase the question in a different way, what are the limits on spending PPs to get more dice?

I suspect, from reading elsewhere on these forums, that the maximum size is 14/16 (at a cost of 7/8 more PPs), you can have at most one more die from each item in the list. But I can't find that in the rules explicitly.

A closely related question: in the list of ways to spend a PP on page OM10, are these items all a one time thing on a single roll, or can you do each item multiple times?

Some related questions...
1) if more than one resource applies, can you spend PPs to use all of them AND spend PPs on stunts/push dice? Can you even spend PPs to roll more than one resource?

2) Page OM11 specifies you can spend PPs to add another TRAIT die, and then limits traits to Power Sets and Distinctions. Does that mean you cannot spend PPs to add in another Asset?

3) Do Watcher opportunities break any of the limits described above? For example, maybe normally you can only have one Stunt die, but you can have more if you can a) think of something cool and b) the Watcher gives you opportunities to use. If the Watcher rolls 3 opportunities, and I have 3 plot points, could I add 3 push dice?

As you can see, I am very confused on the limits of the size of dice pools and where the dice can come from.

[EldritchFire]

The limit is, really, 3-fold:

1) Narrative
2) Mechanics
3) Plot Points

Allow me to explain.

Narrative constraints come first. No matter how well you narrate Iron Man blasting bad guys with missiles and repulsors, you can't add in his strength die.

Mechanics are second. Even if you narrate well, Spider-Man can't use his durability die in an action roll, the rules don't allow it.

Lastly, plot points. Each die per category is free, each additional is 1PP. So Iron Man could spend a PP to include both repulsors and missiles in his action pool.

Also, speaking of PPs, it's very expensive to add additional push/stunt dice in a roll. It costs 1PP for the die, and 1PP to add it to your pool, for a total of 2PP to add each additional push/stunt die.

-EF

[Beast]

Couldn't you technically use your durability die in an attack roll in certain situations. Like the Fastball Special. Like say Colossus was throwing someone particularly dense at someone else. Like say Blob. So Blob is thrown as a Support action from Colossus... towards a Sentinel. His density is going to be a bigger impact in the attack than anything else. Just a thought.

[EldritchFire]

Couldn't you technically use your durability die in an attack roll in certain situations. Like the Fastball Special. Like say Colossus was throwing someone particularly dense at someone else. Like say Blob. So Blob is thrown as a Support action from Colossus... towards a Sentinel. His density is going to be a bigger impact in the attack than anything else. Just a thought.

OM73: "Durability is usually included in reaction dice pools."

So it's possible. That does sound like a time it could be used in an action pool. I guess I should retract that statement, hey?

-EF

[Mouse]

Having huge die pools is generally not all that important. Once you hit about 5-6, you're really a lot more concerned with the types of dice you're adding rather than the number of them. So most of the time, if you've got a pool of something like 7d8, you're better off using Focus to turn it into 5d8+1d10, because then you have the option of using a d10 Effect Die.

The exception to this is when you plan to keep lots of Effect Dice. Usually, if you're doing that, you have something like Area Attack; this potentially allows you to build huge pools of dice, although the larger the pool built in this fashion, the greater the chance that Opportunities are going to reduce you to using d4 EDs for a bunch of your targets.

While you could in theory spend a boat load of PPs to build your pool into the teens, in practice all you're doing beyond a point is make more Opportunities to build up the Doom Pool. Because without other shenanigans -- even more PP or SFX -- you're still keeping 2 dice for your total and one for effect.

So this isn't really an answer to your question. It's more just pointing out that there isn't much of a point of building a pool into the teens most of the time. Unless you're being tricksy, you're not going to be using them for anything.

[skalchemist]

From reading the replies, I realize that my question is a bit misleading, and not really getting at what I really need answered. All of the replies here are helpful, and thanks for them, but I'm going to try again in a new thread.