Correct me if I'm wrong, because I've only played once.

But one really doesn't need more than two defensive abilities. One checkoff, and one power. The value ought to be fairly high (4-5), because you're almost always going to be using it as a response rather than as an action.

Your "1" abilities should be pretty versatile. More often than not, they're going to be your openers, things you use on conflicts that have just appeared on the table, so you want them to do lots of different things.

Sounds like pretty solid advice. If I've got a power like "Force Field" or "Invulnerable", I'd generally put it at 3 or 4, yeah... because as you said it's going to be used when someone rolls a die to 4 by punching your character. I don't want to have to work my imagination too hard for that one.

Of course, any ability can be used in any situation. Which abilities are "easier" to use is purely a question of imagination and artistry required. Using "Laser-Death-Beam" to attack requires no thinking. Using "Dashing good looks" to attack requires a little thinking ("I stab him, and damn do I look good while I do it!") Using "No need to breathe" to attack takes a bit more creativity ("I grab him and fly into outer space... one of us needs air, and I know it's not me").

I say that not to imply that you don't already know it, just to make the notion explicit: Talking about defensive abilities is a mental short-hand for "things that I don't have to get creative with in order to apply defensively". With that short-hand made clear, I'll reiterate that I agree with your strategy for placing those abilities.

A refinement on this idea.

For attitudes, I'm experimenting with giving the character a kind of "emotional progression"... low numbers are more default emotions, higher numbers show the character's reaction to stress.