Resistant PD vs Resistant Protection

[FancyCreb]

So, a couple folks and I came across something odd in Champions 6e, in the 'choose your powers' section for the Brick.

 

For 25 points, the Brick makes 25 PD and 25 ED Resistant. So far so good.

 

For another 18 points, that 25 rPD/rED is made Hardened.

 

Now, this calculation appears to be done treating the resistant defenses as though they are 37 point powers with no advantages on them. Sort of as though they're simultaneously being treated as PD with an advantage and as Resistant Protection.

 

But, all of this aside, I realized that advantaged PD and Resistant Protection *isn't* the same when it comes to adding additional advantages to them. Resistant Protection ends up costing marginally more. Is there anything that makes Resistant Protection better than PD (Resistant) or is this just a byproduct of the way modifiers work?

[Simon]

This isn't really a rules question, so moving to the discussion forum.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah its a math thing, at a certain range, the advantage is a better cost than resistant protection.

[LoneWolf]

Resistant Protection does allow you to define it as Flash DEF, Mental DEF and Power DEF.  You can also apply the adders Protects Carried Items (10 pts) and Impermeable (0 pts).  It is also a standard power which means it can be put into a framework.   So if you want to get  Flash DEF, Mental DEF, or Power DEF through a VPP you can use Resistant Protections for this.  While many GM will allow you to put those in a VPP with good justification it is technically not allowed.  

[unclevlad]

Taurus is defined (6E2, p. 221) as 20 PD, 20 ED;  then in the powers, it's listed as Resistant (+1/2) for 10 PD and ED.

 

What this is, is a Special Power, called a Naked Advantage.  As such, it can't be put into any framework. I can't find where you're looking at the sample character...but if there's 2 Naked Advantages, one to make things resistant and another to make them hardened...they've been mis-applied.  The Hardened would technically NOT be on 74 points, it'd be on the 50...just as if you actually bought down to 0 PD as a Characteristic, and bought the 25 PD, with Resistant and Hardened, as a complete power.  

 

So the book is wrong in the pricing, it would appear, but a book/page number pointer would be useful.

 

EDIT:  I would also probably be a bit of a rat bastard as a GM here.  There would be 6 separate aspects:

PD
ED

Naked advantage:  Resistant (on the PD)

Naked advantage:  Resistant (on the ED)

Naked advantage:  Hardened (on the PD)

Naked advantage:  Hardened (on the ED)

 

ANY of the 6 could be targeted by a Drain attack separately.  If you buy this as Resistant Protection (25/25, hardened) I have to attack THE WHOLE power.  Say I roll 22 points of Drain effect...halved to 11.  If my target is your PD, you lose 11 points.  The naked advantages don't help.  If I have to target your Resistant Protection, that 10 points of effect only actually nets 3 PD and ED...because 3/3 hardened costs 11, and you have to Drain the whole combination, not the parts.

 

Last point.  Doing your entire defenses as resistant and hardened is *extremely* expensive, and not necessarily beneficial.  I'm not saying it's wrong;  I've got at least one character build where the core concept is 3 levels of Shrinking...with Normal Mass.  So, yeah, 8 inches tall, 200 pounds.  GAH!!!!  His density is 500 (!!!) which is 3x the density at the sun's core which Wiki says is estimated at 150 g/cm3.  So his defenses are all resistant and hardened on that basis.  (4 levels of DI does much the same;  that puts your density at 16, and tungsten's density is 18, so it's like something hitting solid tungsten.  TRY to actually chip it.)  Yeah, fine, you'll pretty much never take BODY from a standard type of attack, but you're taking more STUN than might be prudent on bigger normal attacks.