Official Unofficial Power Level Discussion Thread

[Bussani]

I just think that while other "stats" like speed and durability USUALLY go hand-in-hand with your raw power level, it's entirely possible for someone to have deficiencies or specialties in one thing or another.

I also feel that way. It could come from having a body or ki more suited to a particular "stat", or simply by being more skilled at putting your power into a particular thing. But while possible, having a balance is probably the best way to go.

[ZombieVito]

Vegeta is just too close to IPC, 17 and Piccolo (Kami).

[RandomGuy96]

For my mini-list? That one was just an experiment, and I always though 18 and Vegeta were quite close, or else the author wouldn't have bothered putting in all those comments about how important her infinite stamina was. Something like Vegeta being 80% of 18 works fine for me.

Anyway, another subject: Salza from Movie 5. How absurdly beastly must this guy be? He held his own against Piccolo- and, as I've said a billion times, this movie is confirmed to happen some time in the android training (Goku knowing Instant Transmission in Movie 6 and the Daizenshuu placing it there are dead giveaways). Piccolo was somewhere over a million on Namek, and has had over a year and a half to train since then (Gohan said he had been constantly training since Namek, before Mecha Freeza arrived). Piccolo gains power extremely fast, getting almost nine times stronger in two years in the Saiyan Saga, dozens of times stronger from sitting around on King Kai's planet in the Freeza Saga, and over a hundred times stronger in three years in the Android Arc. Salza has to be more than 50% of Piccolo's strength, since he did way better against Piccolo than, say, Nappa did against Goku, which should put Salza way beyond third form Freeza.

[Kaboom]

I don't think he necessarily "held his own" as well as some might think he did. All three of the Armored Squad were fodder for Piccolo, and in the end Sauzer's best feat against him was tearing his shirt.

Furthermore, something seems just plain wrong about the idea of any Freeza-empire henchmen being stronger than Freeza himself in ANY of his forms. The stronger-than-Ginyu official level for Sauzer is already giving him plenty of due credit in my book.

[RandomGuy96]

He did hold his own. Unlike the other two members, who were one-shotted, Salza kept up with Piccolo, deflected his blasts, engaged in one of those quick punch sequences with him, dodged almost all of his attacks, and actually gave him a little cut (pretty sure it actually broke the flesh, not just his shirt), which is more than Nappa ever managed to do to Goku, and Nappa was half as strong as Goku. I really don't see how it's possible to have Salza below 50% of Piccolo. I think that he's at least 60% of Piccolo, probably higher. 170,000 just doesn't work no matter how you slice it, because that creates the impression that Piccolo could've easily one-shotted him in a millisecond, which doesn't fit the circumstances or Piccolo's personality at all. He ordered Gohan to flee while he fought the squadron and actually used tactics to split them up and take them one on one. Salza also actually survived getting hit by Piccolo a few times without much trouble... which just would not happen if he was that weak; the first time he got hit, that would've been it.

What's wrong with him being stronger than Freeza's first few forms? He doesn't even work for Freeza, and he's apparently extremely high up in the empire, since he's the leader of Cooler's personal elite and is one of the few people who knows about Freeza's and Ginyu's true forms. That, and his first reaction to finding someone who killed Freeza is to charge. Frankly, being way higher than third form Freeza is the only logical place to put him considering how strong Piccolo must be. He simply couldn't do the stuff that he did if he was less than 5% of Piccolo, like 170,000 would suggest.

[Kaboom]

"Can't" is a 4-letter word.

Anyway, it's the same flawed logic that often gets used in regards to Nappa's 4000. What constitutes "putting up a fight" is up to a lot of interpretation. Furthermore, Piccolo seemed to be having fun toying with the Armored Squad the whole time. Just look at how he messed with Neiz, letting him think his electro-attack was doing something. Even if not, it could easily just be chalked up to dramatic effect, in that Sauzer only survived as long as he did to serve as a segue to reintroducing Coola.

In the end, Sauzer never really stood a chance against Piccolo, and there's no ultimately meaningful difference between him being at 170 thousand or 1.7 million. So I'd rather go with the one that is A) official, B) doesn't put him leagues and leagues above Neiz and Dore for no good reason, and C) doesn't put him above any form of mutha-lovin' Freeza. The ends don't justify the means, especially with reason C there.

[Zephyr]

Okay, I tweaked a few minor things, and added a great deal of stuff as well. The lower tiers were constructed and subsequently tweaked by trying to combine and make sense of my memory of those arcs and the official BP ratings of said characters.

For the post-Saiyan arc humans, I followed the logic that they tended to jump no more than a tier during each "training" period or time skip. Yamcha I had to be especially conservative with, due to his apparent inability to make much progress in comparison to the others.

What do you guys think? Did I make any serious errors or lapses in logic?

[RandomGuy96]

"Can't" is a 4-letter word.

Anyway, it's the same flawed logic that often gets used in regards to Nappa's 4000. What constitutes "putting up a fight" is up to a lot of interpretation. Furthermore, Piccolo seemed to be having fun toying with the Armored Squad the whole time. Just look at how he messed with Neiz, letting him think his electro-attack was doing something. Even if not, it could easily just be chalked up to dramatic effect, in that Sauzer only survived as long as he did to serve as a segue to reintroducing Coola.

In the end, Sauzer never really stood a chance against Piccolo, and there's no ultimately meaningful difference between him being at 170 thousand or 1.7 million. So I'd rather go with the one that is A) official, B) doesn't put him leagues and leagues above Neiz and Dore for no good reason, and C) doesn't put him above any form of mutha-lovin' Freeza. The ends don't justify the means, especially with reason C there.

You're doing A LOT of logic stretching there. Dramatic effect is not a valid reason. It's up to interpretation, but what is it not up to interpretation is that nowhere in the entire series have we seen someone several dozen times weaker than someone else do that well. Nappa at half of Goku did way worse. And saying that Piccolo was toying with them is false, or, at least, a very questionable interpretation; that doesn't fit Piccolo's personality, it doesn't fit the circumstances (Piccolo was making the save for Gohan, if he could one shot them he would), and it doesn't fit what Piccolo actually does, like splitting up the Armored Squadron so he can take them one by one.

1.7 million and 170,000 is a very big difference. But I'm not saying that he's 1.7 million, I'm saying he's at least around 6 million. Once again, there's absolutely no reason he can't be above Freeza's first three forms. None. And the fact that this number is "official" doesn't mean anything to me if it's not compatible with what actually is depicted. I take that number about as seriously as you take 470,000,000 for Cooler (coincidentally, both of those numbers come from the same magazine), and I'm pretty sure not many people take 170,000 seriously either. Why? Because it makes no sense at all. And I think the numbers for Neiz and Doore are very wrong too, not only because they're too low, but Salza should be stronger than either of them, not weaker than Doore.

@Zephyr: A few things.

Yamcha, Tien, and Krillin should be purple Raditz-league fighters, cause they're way closer to him than to Piccolo. Raditz is also at 1,500 not 1,200. Krillin was at 1,770, Tien was at 1,830, Yamcha was at 1,480.

I never saw any indication that Tao was stronger than Roshi. He also seemed weaker than Shen, who is officially at 120. Blue should also be in a lower tier (I know there's not a lower one currently on your list, but he's really weak).

I think your numbers for the post-Kaio humans are also way too low... they should all be at least Dodoria level in my opinion, especially considering how much time Tien spent there. I think that they should be Ginyu level to be honest. And Tien being weaker than Cui by the Buu Saga? That's just weird.

Goku's power level on arrival to Namek was 90,000 not 100,000. With kaio-ken x2 it was 180,000.

Androids 19 and 20 also seem really, really low... I guess I can't prove that false, but most people put them at at least 50% of Freeza.

Super Saiyan Namek Goku was 150,000,000 not 130,000,000.

SS2 number seems real low, but I recognize that the chart isn't really focused on the numbers themselves.

Cell 1st form should be purple in the Android 16 tier; Android 16 stated that they were exactly equal.

I maintain that Piccolo post-ROSAT should still only be Grade II level. His greatest feat was not being instantly killed by the Cell Juniors.

Hatchiyak being as strong as Super Perfect Cell also seems quite weird as he was compared to Movie 8 Broly, who SPC would one-shot.

Baby Vegeta and Omega Shenron are waaaaaaaaaaaaay higher than you have them. Especially Omega Shenron; Elder Kai flat-out stated that SS4 Goku was the most powerful being he had ever seen (he had seen Vegito), and Syn Shenron effortlessly destroyed him, to say nothing of Omega. On top of that, base GT Goku is flat-out stated several times to be as strong or stronger than SS3 Buu Saga Goku... and Baby Vegeta effortlessly trounced SS3 GT Goku. In his own base form.

And once again, Dabura being weaker than a Cell Junior seems really, really weird.

[Kaboom]

Dramatic effect is not a valid reason.

It is in the movies. Sauzer surviving against Piccolo is no more a "feat" than the base Saiyans fighting the Androids, or Tenshinhan's match with Trunks, or base Goku surviving against Janemba. Those are all supposedly very, very large power gaps. It's only a stretch by the series' logic, but the movies don't operate the same way.

The official numbers for the Armored Squad, in particular the 170,000 for Sauzer, are not invalid or impossible, period. That's all I really mean to say.

I'm pretty sure not many people take 170,000 seriously either.

Most people on Kanzenshuu wouldn't touch this thread with a 49½-foot pole (and as such the thread was stickied for their sake). Those that do typically don't have any problem with the official numbers because they don't over-analyze them to the unhealthy degree that folks in many other communities do.

[dbzfan7]

Dramatic effect is not a valid reason.

It is in the movies. Sauzer surviving against Piccolo is no more a "feat" than the base Saiyans fighting the Androids, or Tenshinhan's match with Trunks, or base Goku surviving against Janemba. Those are all supposedly very, very large power gaps. It's only a stretch by the series' logic, but the movies don't operate the same way.

The official numbers for the Armored Squad, in particular the 170,000 for Sauzer, are not invalid or impossible, period. That's all I really mean to say.

Movie logic really is the only answer to the weirdness of the movies. I don't even understand how Tenshinhan could even fight Trunks at all. Yet it happens in the only movie you could actually fit in canon.

[Zephyr]

Raditz is also at 1,500 not 1,200. Krillin was at 1,770, Tenshinhan was at 1,830, Yamcha was at 1,480.

Goku's power level on arrival to Namek was 90,000 not 100,000. With kaio-ken x2 it was 180,000.

Super Saiyan Namek Goku was 150,000,000 not 130,000,000.

I know what all of their official numbers are, the column on the left was meant to indicate the general "range" of BP's in each tier.

I never saw any indication that Tao was stronger than Roshi. He also seemed weaker than Shen, who is officially at 120.

Tao's 23rd TB BP is 210. Where is Shen's BP ever listed?

Yamcha, Tenshinhan, and Krillin should be purple Raditz-league fighters, cause they're way closer to him than to Piccolo.

Ah yes, very good point.

Blue should also be in a lower tier (I know there's not a lower one currently on your list, but he's really weak).

Cell 1st form should be purple in the Android 16 tier; Android 16 stated that they were exactly equal.

Thanks for pointing those out. Didn't have a very clear memory regarding those two.

I think your numbers for the post-Kaio humans are also way too low... they should all be at least Dodoria level in my opinion, especially considering how much time Tenshinhan spent there. I think that they should be Ginyu level to be honest. And Tenshinhan being weaker than Cui by the Buu Saga? That's just weird.

Tenshinhan, I'd be able to bump up a bit more for the post-Namek arc listings. Yamcha, however, has proven himself to simply be inept at keeping up with the gains of anyone else, even when he trains his ass off.

Androids 19 and 20 also seem really, really low... I guess I can't prove that false, but most people put them at at least 50% of Freeza.

Their placement is based mostly off of Piccolo (Androids)'s placement. I can't see any reason why 19 and 20 would be significantly different in power. 20 was shown, after absorbing a blast from Vegeta and plenty of energy from Piccolo, to be more than susceptible to getting a beating laid on him by Piccolo. As for Piccolo, while I did move him up a couple tiers, in general I just can't understand how a few years of training can pass up an "instant power boost". I mean, it took Tenshinhan 8 years to just about catch up with one of Goku's earlier ones (Super God Water). Thus, Piccolo can't be too much higher than he was on Namek, and 20, even after powering up, still got totally wrecked by him.

I maintain that Piccolo post-ROSAT should still only be Grade II level. His greatest feat was not being instantly killed by the Cell Juniors.

Weren't the Cell Jr.s said to basically have the same power as Perfect Cell? Vegeta in Grade II did basically get put out of commission by someone in that realm of power, while Piccolo managed to hold his own for a while. Of course, if I'm misinterpreting/misremembering the Cell Jr.s power line, then this is more flexible.

Hatchiyak being as strong as Super Perfect Cell also seems quite weird as he was compared to Movie 8 Broly, who SPC would one-shot.

There's no concrete comparison between LSSj Broly and Super Perfect Cell at any point. They're both shown to be more than capable of more-than-effortlessly beating the fuck out of characters at the post-RoSaT SSj level. That to me indicates that they're both in a higher tier, rather than a higher sub-tier. As for Hatchyack, well, this all applies to him as well, thus, he's in the same tier as LSSj Broly and Super Perfect Cell only he was (basically) said to be stronger than Broly. Thus, I put Broly a sub-tier below the others who dominated the post-RoSaT SSj level peeps.

Before I address your GT points, I suppose I should have mentioned that I'm basically cherry picking things from GT that make sense to me in the greater context of everything.

Baby Vegeta and Omega Shenron are waaaaaaaaaaaaay higher than you have them. Especially Omega Shenron; Elder Kai flat-out stated that SS4 Goku was the most powerful being he had ever seen (he had seen Vegito), and Syn Shenron effortlessly destroyed him, to say nothing of Omega. On top of that, base GT Goku is flat-out stated several times to be as strong or stronger than SS3 Buu Saga Goku... and Baby Vegeta effortlessly trounced SS3 GT Goku. In his own base form.

I don't recall Old Kaioshin saying that, but I'll take your word for it. Though I definitely don't recall base GT Goku ever being flat-out stated being stronger than Buu arc SSj3 Goku. I know there's the line regarding Rild being said to have a power "greater than Buu's", but I've also seen from multiple debates on the matter that the line has multiple possible contexts. In addition to that, how exactly did the Goku/Rild fight go altogether (can't remember the exact details of it)?

Baby Vegeta reaching that level in his "base form" definitely doesn't make sense. How would the presence of a parasite boost one's base-form power that much? I could understand if it boosted his potential a bit and allowed him to reach some sort of quasi-SSj3 (in his final pre-Golden Oozaru state), but to boost his base power more than multiple SSj transformations would?

And once again, Dabura being weaker than a Cell Junior seems really, really weird.

If you subscribe to the idea that Gohan was SSj1 against Dabura, then I don't see how it is weird. If you believe he was SSj2 against Dabura, then I can certainly see why you would find it weird. I suppose that shows which side of that debate I'm on.

[Saiga]

Just curious, why does everyone put Gohan in the Saiyan arc so low? It was said that his 981 figure was him suppressed, and he wasn't much lower than Kuririn's suppressed figure.

[Zephyr]

Kanzentai's combined battle power list and the strength checker both neglect to mention that he's suppressed in any way, and I don't remember that line in the manga or anime. He's not enraged or firing an attack at 981, but that does seem to be his regular-state-of-mind-fighting BP.

[RandomGuy96]

I know what all of their official numbers are, the column on the left was meant to indicate the general "range" of BP's in each tier.

Oh, okay. But I still say 1,500, in addition to being more accurate, would actually describe their ranges better than 1,200.

Tao's 23rd TB BP is 210. Where is Shen's BP ever listed?

That's his power level as a cyborg. He's at least twice as strong in that form IMO. Shen's power level is listed here: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... _chart.jpg

Tenshinhan, I'd be able to bump up a bit more for the post-Namek arc listings. Yamcha, however, has proven himself to simply be inept at keeping up with the gains of anyone else, even when he trains his ass off.

Not really. When determining where Tien, Yamcha, and Chaozu would be post-Kaio compared to Tien, I just go by how close they were to him in the Saiyan Saga, the last time we got a power level from them. Yamcha was about 5/6ths of Tien while Chaozu was exactly 1/3. They were also there for a pretty long time, like I said they should all be at least on the level of Cui or Dodoria. Goku multiplied his power by twenty there, BEFORE kaio-ken, and I'm -pretty sure Tien was there longer.

Their placement is based mostly off of Piccolo (Androids)'s placement. I can't see any reason why 19 and 20 would be significantly different in power. 20 was shown, after absorbing a blast from Vegeta and plenty of energy from Piccolo, to be more than susceptible to getting a beating laid on him by Piccolo. As for Piccolo, while I did move him up a couple tiers, in general I just can't understand how a few years of training can pass up an "instant power boost". I mean, it took Tenshinhan 8 years to just about catch up with one of Goku's earlier ones (Super God Water). Thus, Piccolo can't be too much higher than he was on Namek, and 20, even after powering up, still got totally wrecked by him.

He's sort of compared to a Super Saiyan by Krillin, and is in the same tier as Trunks if you ask me.

Weren't the Cell Jr.s said to basically have the same power as Perfect Cell? Vegeta in Grade II did basically get put out of commission by someone in that realm of power, while Piccolo managed to hold his own for a while. Of course, if I'm misinterpreting/misremembering the Cell Jr.s power line, then this is more flexible.

If they did, they would've one-shotted Vegeta and Trunks, not fought evenly with them.

There's no concrete comparison between LSSj Broly and Super Perfect Cell at any point. They're both shown to be more than capable of more-than-effortlessly beating the fuck out of characters at the post-RoSaT SSj level. That to me indicates that they're both in a higher tier, rather than a higher sub-tier. As for Hatchyack, well, this all applies to him as well, thus, he's in the same tier as LSSj Broly and Super Perfect Cell only he was (basically) said to be stronger than Broly. Thus, I put Broly a sub-tier below the others who dominated the post-RoSaT SSj level peeps.

Before I address your GT points, I suppose I should have mentioned that I'm basically cherry picking things from GT that make sense to me in the greater context of everything.

Movie 10 Broly's probably on the level of SPC, but I thought you were talking about Movie 8 Broly. There's nothing in that movie that really puts that Broly above normal (full power) Perfect Cell or Super Bojack.

I don't recall Old Kaioshin saying that, but I'll take your word for it. Though I definitely don't recall base GT Goku ever being flat-out stated being stronger than Buu arc SSj3 Goku. I know there's the line regarding Rild being said to have a power "greater than Buu's", but I've also seen from multiple debates on the matter that the line has multiple possible contexts. In addition to that, how exactly did the Goku/Rild fight go altogether (can't remember the exact details of it)?

Baby Vegeta reaching that level in his "base form" definitely doesn't make sense. How would the presence of a parasite boost one's base-form power that much? I could understand if it boosted his potential a bit and allowed him to reach some sort of quasi-SSj3 (in his final pre-Golden Oozaru state), but to boost his base power more than multiple SSj transformations would?

Well, he says that General Rildo is even stronger than Buu in his base form. Then he fights base Rildo in his own base form, and wins. At least that's what I remember. And there's nothing that really contradicts that line either. In fact, it's supported later when base Goku one-shots possessed Super Saiyans (Goten and someone else) and makes a fool of Super Perfect Cell.

It's GT. It doesn't have to make sense, but that's what's shown. If it did make sense, Goku would never come close to Ultimate Gohan, ever. Piccolo is also heavily implied to be stronger than Kid Buu at the very least.

If you subscribe to the idea that Gohan was SSj1 against Dabura, then I don't see how it is weird. If you believe he was SSj2 against Dabura, then I can certainly see why you would find it weird. I suppose that shows which side of that debate I'm on.

Even if Gohan was a SS1, he should still be stronger than Vegeta was at the Cell Games, and Vegeta was even with a Cell Junior. It also seems rather weird that they'd explicitly compare this guy to Cell (and then say he was stronger than they expected) if Cell could casually shit out beings stronger than him.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Piccolo gains power extremely fast, getting almost nine times stronger in two years in the Saiyan Saga, dozens of times stronger from sitting around on King Kai's planet in the Freeza Saga, and over a hundred times stronger in three years in the Android Arc.

And exactly how did you conclude in these?

Piccolo is also heavily implied to be stronger than Kid Buu at the very least.

When?

[RandomGuy96]

I didn't conclude those. That's just what's stated/implied in story. Piccolo went from 400 when Raditz arrived to 3,500 when Nappa arrived, according to the Daizenshuu, and he didn't even get to train with God. For comparison, Tien, Yamcha, and Krillin could only duplicate that feat by training with God. He went from 3,500 when he died to strong enough to baffle Nail, who was at 42,000. He went from a little over a million in the Freeza Saga to being implied to be over a hundred million in the Android Arc, given that he's pretty much lumped in with Trunks tier-wise and Krillin compares him to a Super Saiyan. Salza being above third form Freeza is just fact to me.

He takes control of hell, which would mean that he had to fight Rildo. He also survives a Kamehameha from a possessed Gohan. Let it be known that, officially, Gohan didn't slack off, so that was an Ultimate Gohan-level Kamehameha. Actually, given the implications here and the possession, it was likely far over 50 times as strong as an Ultimate Gohan level Kamehameha. Making him just stronger than Kid Buu (who by Toei logic was stronger than Super Buu) is actually pretty conservative, since base Goku was weaker than Piccolo in the last arc, and he's now stronger than Kid Buu...

Actually, now that I think about it, second form Rildo was over fifty times as strong as Kid Buu... and Piccolo had to beat him to gain control of hell. Oh, and ANOTHER thing: Rildo was shown to be stronger than Gohan. So never mind what I said, he's waaaaaaaaay above Kid Buu.

[Saiga]

Kanzentai's combined battle power list and the strength checker both neglect to mention that he's suppressed in any way, and I don't remember that line in the manga or anime. He's not enraged or firing an attack at 981, but that does seem to be his regular-state-of-mind-fighting BP.

I could have sworn Vegeta said he could tell all three were suppressed. Either way, we know Piccolo and Kuririn were suppressed so I thought it'd be most logical to assume the same for Gohan.

[RandomGuy96]

He was also scared of a Saibaman IIRC, which would support him only being at 1,000 when not enraged a bit.

[Saiga]

He was also scared of a Saibaman IIRC, which would support him only being at 1,000 when not enraged a bit.

I don't think so. He wasn't aware of his own power and didn't want to be on the battlefield to begin with. He could have easily been stronger than the Saibaiman and still been scared.

[Zephyr]

That's his power level as a cyborg. He's at least twice as strong in that form IMO. Shen's power level is listed here: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... _chart.jpg

Ohhhh, you mean Tsuru-sennin. Thought you were talking about the guy Kami "possessed" during the 23rd TB. Anyway, I have Tao above Roshi, because he was able to easily overpower Goku, who was essentially on par with Roshi.

He's sort of compared to a Super Saiyan by Krillin

Looking at the strength checker:

Chapter: 346 (DBZ 152), P12.4
Kuririn: “He’s st-strong…! What kind of training did Piccolo do…And he’s not even a Su-Super Saiyan…”

I can see it being possible to place Piccolo in SSj range, from this statement. However, it can also be interpreted as meaning nothing more than that Piccolo has an incredibly high level of power in comparison to everyone else. I'm interpreting it as the latter, because I don't feel that he can catch up with two massive power boosts on Goku's part with training alone. At least, not in a few years.

If they did, they would've one-shotted Vegeta and Trunks, not fought evenly with them.

Isn't it generally assumed based on: their auras, their knowledge of inferiority of the Grades in comparison to fpSSj, and their performance, that they were using fpSSj as opposed to Grade II?

Movie 10 Broly's probably on the level of SPC, but I thought you were talking about Movie 8 Broly. There's nothing in that movie that really puts that Broly above normal (full power) Perfect Cell or Super Bojack.

I personally don't see any reason to make that big of a distinction for Broly between the two movies. And while there may not be anything that puts him above the Perfect Cell Bojack tier, there's also nothing that puts him below the SSj2 tier either. Simply insufficient evidence either way. Thus, I arbitrarily went with my own preferred placement.

Well, he says that General Rildo is even stronger than Buu in his base form. Then he fights base Rildo in his own base form, and wins. At least that's what I remember. And there's nothing that really contradicts that line either. In fact, it's supported later when base Goku one-shots possessed Super Saiyans (Goten and someone else) and makes a fool of Super Perfect Cell.

It's GT. It doesn't have to make sense, but that's what's shown. If it did make sense, Goku would never come close to Ultimate Gohan, ever. Piccolo is also heavily implied to be stronger than Kid Buu at the very least.

Fair enough. I'd personally withhold my own judgment on the Rild/Buu/Goku/Piccolo/Gohan GT comparisons until I see it myself again (or some GT Strength Checker were to pop up ). But again, this is why I'm cherry-picking GT. Only using stuff that can fit into the conventional logic of the manga.

Even if Gohan was a SS1, he should still be stronger than Vegeta was at the Cell Games, and Vegeta was even with a Cell Junior. It also seems rather weird that they'd explicitly compare this guy to Cell (and then say he was stronger than they expected) if Cell could casually shit out beings stronger than him.

The Dabura/Cell/Cell Jr/Gohan placement is all based around Vegeta being fpSSj during the Cell Games. The relative strength of the SSj's between the Cell Games and the Buu arc, I feel, is plenty vague enough for this to work. We assume Gohan got a tad weaker, and Goku/Vegeta got a tad stronger. So, Buu arc Gohan and Cell Games Vegeta could reasonably be on par with each other. Cell, Cell Jr., and Dabura are all in this same general tier as well. This explains why Vegeta was holding his own against the Cell Jr, and Gohan was holding his own against Dabura.

- Dabura is compared to Cell, and them being in the same general tier shows this.
- Dabura and Gohan literally seem to be neck-in-neck, them being in the same sub-tier shows this.
- Vegeta is only a sub-tier below Cell Jr., meaning that he can fight evenly with it for a while, but eventually, he'll be overcome.

But of course, if you assume Vegeta is using Grade II during the Cell Games, and Gohan is SSj2 against Dabura, that would result in drastically different placements for those involved.

I could have sworn Vegeta said he could tell all three were suppressed

He does, kind of:

Chapter: 214 (DBZ 20), P4.3-5
Nappa: “981... 1,220... 1,083... Idiots! Do you really plan on defying us with that level of battle power...?!"
Vegeta: “These people change their battle power in response to the fight. Those figures can't be relied upon any more.”

I interpret that as meaning the earthling warriors in general tend to have that ability, so it's more or less useless to even read their powers.

He was also scared of a Saibaman IIRC, which would support him only being at 1,000 when not enraged a bit.

I don't think so. He wasn't aware of his own power and didn't want to be on the battlefield to begin with. He could have easily been stronger than the Saibaiman and still been scared.

While this may have just been arbitrary or lazy on the part of those publishing the BPs, Piccolo and Krillin are both given a suppressed BP and a true BP, while Gohan isn't.

This could also be explained by Gohan not having as much of a grasp on ki control as the others, and wouldn't know how to really mask his ki yet. I mean, he didn't really have as efficient a grasp on sensing it yet either, as shown by his slight difficulties tracking Yamcha and the Saibaman.