ok so ive been licensed for about 3 months now (tech) and im still confused about some of the part 97 stuff. like i know i have HF privileges on 10m and a slice of 15m i think? but what i dont get is the power limits. my buddy told me theres different limits depending on the band and mode but i cant find a straight answer reading through the actual FCC rules, the wording is really dense.

also what exactly counts as a third party communication and do i need to worry about that yet or is that more of an advanced thing. i just want to make sure im not doing something that could get me in trouble before i even get started. sorry if this is a dumb question

Not a dumb question at all, the actual Part 97 text is genuinely rough to read if you're not used to legal/regulatory language. For Technician HF privileges you've got CW on certain segments of 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters, then phone and image on 10m from 28.300 to 28.500 MHz. Power on HF is 200 watts PEP max for Techs on those segments I believe, though on VHF/UHF you can run up to 1500 watts if your radio can even do that which most cant.

Third party traffic is basically when you let someone who isnt licensed use your station to communicate, like letting your wife say hi to someone on the other end. It's mostly relevant for international contacts because there are countries that have third party agreements with the US and ones that dont. For domestic stuff it's less of a minefield but you still need to stay in control of the station. Honestly for right now just focus on getting on the air and you can dig into the edge cases as they come up. The ARRL has a band plan chart that's way easier to read than the raw FCC text.

yeah the third party thing tripped me up too when i was studying. basically just dont hand the mic to someone unlicensed and walk away, you gotta be there supervising the whole time. i dont think most new hams ever really run into an issue with it unless theyre doing something like message handling for served agencies or whatever