HHA and Damage Sheild

[SuperBlue]

Okay, my Character Super Blue has a STR of 35, which gives him a base damage of 7d6. If I bought a 3d6 HHA with Damage Sheild, would I add my STR and make it a 10d6 Damage Sheild?

[Chaosliege]

from what I've been told, you prorate your STR. At 35 active points, by the time you figure the advantages, you're looking at about 3 dice added from STR, giving you a total of 6d6.

[Yamo]

The way I understand it is this: With 35 STR, you can apply a total of up to 35 STR to the attack, unless the attack's AP exceeds your STR, in which case you can only add an amount of STR equal to the AP of the Attack Power unless you also purchase any appropriate Advantages for the STR itself.

 

So, your HA would be 37 AP, to which you could add all 35 STR without difficulty, increasing damage to 10d6N. If your STR was 40, you could only add 37 STR to the attack, which still equates to 10d6. Using all 40 STR for an 11d6N attack would require also buying Damage Shield for it.

 

HOWEVER, a literal reading of the 5th Edition rules seems to indicate that this only applies to Normal Damage attacks defined as "weapons" in Superheroic campaigns and martial maneuvers with extra DCs. For other attacks, I believe you cannot do more than double the base DC in the attack; 3, in this case. Soooo...Super Blue could add a maximum of 15 STR for a total of 6d6.

 

I think. Maybe it is 10d6.

 

Gah.

 

I'm pretty much convinced that this whole section of the rules needs DRASTIC simplification. Questions like these tend to stop my games in their tracks for long stretches of calculation, confusion, and bickering. The whole damage adding section is the most awkward and baffling section of the rules. Twice as dense as the U.S. tax code and half as fun to work with. I hope it can be revised heavily in future printings of the 5th Edition rules.

[SuperBlue]

Whoa... first of all, the game I'm in uses 4e

 

Second, the reason I was asking was cuz my character's STR is powered by "Blue Energy," which he can also project. My reasoning behind using a HHA for damage sheild was this: The blue energy builds up to the point that it creates a backwash around him, causing damage to everything around him (ie, anyone who is dumb enough to waltz up and hit him)

[JohnOSpencer]

Originally posted by SuperBlue

Whoa... first of all, the game I'm in uses 4e

 

Second, the reason I was asking was cuz my character's STR is powered by "Blue Energy," which he can also project. My reasoning behind using a HHA for damage sheild was this: The blue energy builds up to the point that it creates a backwash around him, causing damage to everything around him (ie, anyone who is dumb enough to waltz up and hit him)

As I remember it, 4E had no actual rules to cover this, just options in the original UMA. Either 1)prorate your STR which would give you: 7 1/2d6 (3d6 plus 23STR) -or- 2)only add up to the base active points which would give you:4 1/2d6 (3d6 plus 9 STR)

Or just ask your GM. I would say go with option one for 4E. I had a multipower martial artist who did that and it ended up being quite fair.

 

John Spencer