Acid Damage, PD or ED?

[C_Zeree]

So, how do people play acid attacks? In your games does it work against PD or ED?

I could see arguments for both sides. ED, because it doesn’t hurt via inertia. PD because it has a physical component, lacking feel of lasers, fire, cold, & lightning. As you can see my reasoning is far more defined for ED, but I still have the inklings for PD because of the gut feeling.

[Super Squirrel]

I would actually say neither. Acid damage should be NND, Does Body with the defense being an appropriate based Life Support depending on the acid type. If it had to be either ED or PD I would rule it as PD because Acid is eating through the matter of the target.

[mattingly]

If I had to pick one or the other, I'd go with ED, since I tend to think of acid as "liquid fire."

[C_Zeree]

Originally posted by Super Squirrel
I would actually say neither. Acid damage should be NND, Does Body with the defense being an appropriate based Life Support depending on the acid type.
For me NND is determined by the manner of the attack:

The Slap hits you with his Acid Palm to the chest, and your Kevlar jacket will protect you. Demon Croak, Lord of Fiendish Frogs, licks a character with his caustic tongue; a man in chain will fare better than a loincloth sporting barbarian. On the other hand, if you have a cloud of bile yellow aqua regia floating your direction, get ready for a painful, messy, NND, does BODY experience.

[Insaniac99]

i would say it is both, so either you go with NND, or you do a combined attack (half PD damage, half ED damage) or you just flip a coin to decide.

[Fitz]

If it has to be one or the other, it would be ED since it does damage by directly attacking the molecular bonds of the substance it's in contact with, like fire.

[Blue]

I guess I'm in the minority. Between PD and ED, I'm thinking PD. Chemical reactions always seemed to be physical phenomenon to me.

I also tend to think of it as Killing damage rather than regular, so I generally wouldn't do an NND. That's a real head-scratcher though.

[Old Man]

BODY Destruction.

[Kintara]

Originally posted by Blue
I guess I'm in the minority. Between PD and ED, I'm thinking PD. Chemical reactions always seemed to be physical phenomenon to me. Hmm, interesting. If you think about this in terms of fire, if you make someone combust spontaneously, maybe that would be a physical attack (depending on how one makes them combust). On the other hand if your attack simply burns them (through the heat of fire), then it is energy.

Oooh, that's tough though, how do you make someone combust, except by using energy at some point? Hmm, a molecular agitation power, perhaps by some physical warping ability, would apply. That means that you should think closely on abilities that warp space itself.

Hmm, I wonder what other physical interactions need to be rethought, or thought of closely. As for acid, I don't know much about the actual mechanics of how acid attacks something. I would imagine it is mostly a physical process, and less an energy one (at least directly).

[Yamo]

Physical.

Despite what that awful new version of Dungeons & Dragons says, acidity is not a form of energy. :rolleyes:

[Fuzzy Gnome]

Definitely energy. Chemical reactions can convert chemical energy to heat, light, or electricity, and it ya can't improve 'em by adding STR. I don't think attacks get much more ED than that.

[schir1964]

Hero 5th Edition - Page 301, Chart "TYPE OF DAMAGE":
...
Normal Defense NND (does BODY) Corrosive substances, some lethal gasses
...
On page 299 there is a section just on Chemicals and severity of damage they do. All of them are considered Normal Damage NND (does BODY) attacks.

- Christopher Mullins

[pinecone]

I'm also an old grognard who thinks acid is a PD attack...I've always used RKA PEN for acid for that "What's eating you?" feeling :) I'd sertainly never argue if I saw it as a ED though....

[Steve Long]

FWIW, The UNTIL Superpowers Database defines it thisaway: "The basic Acid power is RKA 1d6, Penetrating, Continuous, and Uncontrolled, and works against Energy Defense."

However, that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. If you prefer to have acid work against Physical defenses, no one here at Hero's going to quibble over it. ;)

[Bartman]

Originally posted by Steve Long
However, that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
It will? Not at any I've ever been to.

That said. I would go with pd personally. And I also like the idea of penetrating beter than nnd. Obviously given the range of responses, there is no single right way in this case.

[CrosshairCollie]

I always went with acid as a physical attack, because it's a physical substance rather than an energy form, usually RKA Penetrating, sometimes Body Drain.

[Catacomb]

Always KA and always a body drain from my end.

[C_Zeree]

Originally posted by Bartman
And I also like the idea of penetrating beter than nnd. Obviously given the range of responses, there is no single right way in this case.
I think I'm beginning to agree with Penetrating as basic "acid" nature. I also think there's no right answer, it is what suits the GM. For me, I'm gonna' go with PD, just to be different, er...the same. :) I like the dicussion, to see others' stance on the matter.

[Al_Beddow]

Fire makes sense as an energy based attack due to the fact it is the energy released from a seperate reaction that is doing the damage.

Acid, on the other hand, has to make contact with a person. It's the reaction between the person and the acid that causes the damage, and any energy released is actually a secondary effect. Since the acid itself and not any heat released from it's reaction that causes the damage, it would be a PD.

That being said, it would be a PD causing BODY, with NND.

[SkyKnight]

Physical Attacks
Add kinetic energy to the target on a macro level. Fists, bullets and blades all attempt to cause discontinuous behaviour of the impact zone with respect to the surrounding material.

Energy Attacks
Add energy to or subtract energy from the target on a micro level. Fire, cold and sonics attempt to cause discontinuous behaviour within the target area on a cellular level or below.

Acid is kind of complicated, but since the damage does not depend on kinetic energy, I would say it defaults to Energy. Probably, it would be either NND Energy Blast or NND RKA. Defense would be anything that keeps the acid away, such as a PD force field (strange though it is, since the acid is actually energy damage) or power defense.

Drain is an option, but only if the recovery is bought to quite a long time. Acid damage that disappears every post-12 won't be very believable.