Reduced Penetration Confusion

[Astromath]

Reduced Penetration says, "splits the attack into two equal parts..."  It seems by the example, it splits the dice and not the DCs.  My problem is how to split something odd like 1 1/2 d6 HKA into two equal parts.  By the rule, it should be two 3/4 d6 HKAs, but Hero System doesn't deal with anything other than 1/2s.

[Simon]

Think in terms of DCs -- a 1 1/2 d6 HKA is 5 DCs.  With Reduced Penetration, you'd split that into two 2 DC rolls (there's no "partial damage class") -- 1/2d6 or 1d6-1

 

You always round down for cases like that -- golden rule: you can't get a bonus out of the Limitation.  If the target does not have any applicable defenses, you should not be better off with Reduced Penetration than without.

[unclevlad]

An alternative is to roll normally, then split into 2 equal parts.  If it's odd, then one half gets the spare point.  This works for any application of Red Pen.

 

With killing damage, this is probably more fair.  Let's say it's 2d6 killing;  the split into a pair of 1d6's for BODY is trivial.  But the impact is tricky.  3 and 4 on the dice, may well give massively different net BODY than 6 and 1...even if, without the Red Pen, both would be 7 BODY.

 

Fundamentally, the fewer dice you're rolling, the greater the standard deviation, and therefore more randomness comes into play.  Also, this is more fair than Simon's suggestion because you shouldn't LOSE potential damage from the limitation.  The limitation relates to defenses;  splitting as noted is costing you a DC.

Also note that another option would be to roll 1d6 and 1/2 d6.  You're still splitting the DCs into 2 as-equal-as-possible parts, which IMO is staying closer to the spirit of the rule than forcing the attack to lose a DC.