Armour blocks but is all or nothing...

[knasser2]

Hi,

 

Hopefully a simple one (though is it ever! ). I want to do a poison attack which does Normal Damage over time. That part I think is easy enough. However, obviously wearing plate mail shouldn't help you fight off poision so I need to disallow armour / resistant defence. That I could do with AVAD, it seems. However, whilst it makes sense that Armour wont help you fight off poison that's been injected, it makes a lot of sense that it should stop the stinger (Attack is a poison tail stinger) from injecting it into you in the first place. It should be harder to inject a knight in armour than a peasant in a cloth tunic. And I don't want it to render armour inconsequential.

 

So how would I do this? I'm guessing some sort of standard attack which does damage and which the armour can prevent normally to represent the stinger being stuck in and then a Linked or Triggered second power which is the damage over time one? And this only takes effect if the first attack manages to do damage. That sounds like what I want but not quite sure how to build it.

 

Thanks for any replies.

 

K.

[Doc Democracy]

I am thinking that you could easily do this with no normal defence. You define the defence as not when armour blocks an XD6 killing attack. You do not buy the killing attack, just roll the damage dice. If the damage rolled would not have been enough to overcome the armour, the NND has no effect.

 

My one issue is whether this defence is common enough for the rules....that is likely campaign specific.

 

 

Doc

[knasser2]

I am thinking that you could easily do this with no normal defence. You define the defence as not when armour blocks an XD6 killing attack. You do not buy the killing attack, just roll the damage dice. If the damage rolled would not have been enough to overcome the armour, the NND has no effect.

 

My one issue is whether this defence is common enough for the rules....that is likely campaign specific.

 

 

Doc

 

If it's as simple as that, then I'm happy. It's normal to wear armour in my game. You get the odd combatant without any but if someone is daft enough to fight naked then I'm fine with saying a successful hit automatically means the damage over time effect takes place. The only hiccup is that someone with sufficient armour such as full plate which gives Armour 7, would entirely immune unless I ramped up the damage. And if I did that then lesser armour would become ineffective against it. But what the hey - if a knight in full armour can ignore the little tail stinger, I can live with that. There's likely to be an upgraded version of the power that has AP effect anyway so it's all good.

 

Thanks for a really easy solution!

[Lucius]

I think the "standard" way such poison is done in things like the Bestiary is to use Damage over time with Attack vs Alternate Defene and the all or nothing defense is LIFE SUPPORT: IMMUNITY, with a Linked to a Killing Attack and a Conditional Limitation that the "Linked Killing Attack Must Do BOdy."

 

Giant Stinger: (Total: 13 Active Cost, 10 Real Cost) Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1 point (2d6 w/STR) (Real Cost: 5) <b>plus</b> +4 with stinger (8 Active Points); Conditional Power Only if target held in claws (-1/2) (Real Cost: 5)

 

Stinger Venom: (Total: 40 Active Cost, 12 Real Cost) Killing Attack - Ranged 1d6-1, Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Immunity; All Or Nothing; +1/2), Does BODY (+1), Damage Over Time (5-6 damage increments, damage occurs every Minute, +1 1/2) (40 Active Points); 6 Charges which Recover every 1 Week (-1 1/4), Linked (Giant Stinger; Lesser Power can only be used when character uses greater Power at full value; -1/2), No Range (-1/2) (Real Cost: 12)

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says if we increase Damage over Time increments to every seven days, we could have One Weak Venom

[Doc Democracy]

I was always worried that the standard power requires that body damage, ten wasp stings to kill you. :-)

 

I like the idea that BODY damage could be inflicted allowing the poison to work without having to buy the associated killing attack.

[knasser2]

I think the "standard" way such poison is done in things like the Bestiary is to use Damage over time with Attack vs Alternate Defene and the all or nothing defense is LIFE SUPPORT: IMMUNITY, with a Linked to a Killing Attack and a Conditional Limitation that the "Linked Killing Attack Must Do BOdy."

 

Giant Stinger: (Total: 13 Active Cost, 10 Real Cost) Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1 point (2d6 w/STR) (Real Cost: 5) <b>plus</b> +4 with stinger (8 Active Points); Conditional Power Only if target held in claws (-1/2) (Real Cost: 5)

 

Stinger Venom: (Total: 40 Active Cost, 12 Real Cost) Killing Attack - Ranged 1d6-1, Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Immunity; All Or Nothing; +1/2), Does BODY (+1), Damage Over Time (5-6 damage increments, damage occurs every Minute, +1 1/2) (40 Active Points); 6 Charges which Recover every 1 Week (-1 1/4), Linked (Giant Stinger; Lesser Power can only be used when character uses greater Power at full value; -1/2), No Range (-1/2) (Real Cost: 12)

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says if we increase Damage over Time increments to every seven days, we could have One Weak Venom

Thanks. I hate to do this because I like to do things by the book. But I'm reaching the point now where I'm becoming willing to cheat. And if the Xd6 must exceed armour approach is still balanced and simpler to use, I'm inclined to just go with it. The linked physical attack could work, but the damage from it would be so low (given what it's meant to represent) that it would be something like 1 Body.

 

I was always worried that the standard power requires that body damage, ten wasp stings to kill you. :-)

Well now, that depends on the size of the wasp...