Killing Attacks vs. Energy Blasts

[TrickstaPriest]

I was thinking up some of the stats for a few powers I had been working on, and I discovered a problem. I couldn't really decide on whether certain powers should be killing attacks, or energy blasts; whether they should have armor piercing, penetrating, or merely be high in damage. So, I was curious to hear how people tend to split these categories up. I'm not just asking for help on the examples below, I'm also generally curious to how these categories are split by people.

 

For some examples, for a character who can project microwaves to "cook" someone and cause their body to boil, bubble, and possibly to burst, I'd personally treat it as a Killing Attack vs. ED, but I'm not certain on that. Another attack I've been working on, the NPC hurls nearly human-sized stone battering rams at high speeds. It could be an Energy Blast... but if it's thrown fast enough, should it be treated as a Killing Attack instead? This is a rather important distinction, since the character can "wind up" over a period of time (from a phase to a turn) to hurl them even faster.

[Hawksmoor]

Re: Killing Attacks vs. Energy Blasts

 

Hero is based on a conceit.

 

Most Attacks are not designed to kill. No matter how good or powerful they are.

 

The granularity of the system does provide for killing your opponent with normal attacks. Hence dice give a lower quanity of body. A super level attack if it does not kill a normal will hospitalize them for some time, but against a super villian the body of an EB will bounce.

 

Killing Attacks are different. Your desciptions were all angled from a killing attack perspective. Meaning that the effect on the victim was a key point of the description. That screams KA because normal attacks rack up STUN which while battering has no *long lasting* effect.

 

To differentiate I would suggest thinking about genre and designing attacks that fit with the genre.

 

Golden/Silver Age = Normal attacks predominate

Iron Age = Killing Attacks are used most frequently

Goofy Game = All attacks given the Does no Body limitation as a -0 limitation.

 

Hawksmoor

[Dust Raven]

Re: Killing Attacks vs. Energy Blasts

 

As far as when to use any given Power for what, I generally use the following guidelines.

 

If the attack is meant to:

Knock Out, crush, smash or hit target with raw force - Normal Damage (STR, EB, etc.)

Kill, rip, tear, break bones, boil the flesh - Killing Attacks

 

Also, if the attack:

Is a concentrated beam or rips through armor - consider Armor Piercing

Is so forceful that some of it avoids most armor - consider Penetrating

Is so forceful that all of it avoids most armor - consider NND, and possible Does BODY

[Vex]

Re: Killing Attacks vs. Energy Blasts

 

My own theory on it is, when in doubt go with Energy Blast....

[TrickstaPriest]

Re: Killing Attacks vs. Energy Blasts

 

Hmm... alright, I think I got it.

 

One of the peculiar things is that the genre that the game is played in kind of emphasizes both KA and EB a fair amount. There are some extremely nasty and lethal abilities, but at the same time killing people can get the character in a fair bit of trouble. Thus, if people use KA, they tend to have to "pull their punches", which can make things harder for them. However, the campaign is a fair bit darker than Silver/Golden Age, and people may kill an opponent depending on their morals and "if they can get away with it." However, the intent of the attack does seem to be a good way of handling that.

 

And thanks a whole lot with the splitting of Armor Piercing and Penetrating, Dust Raven. That distinction FINALLY makes sense to me.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Killing Attacks vs. Energy Blasts

 

When designing Power constructs you should "Reason from Effects", which is to say you decide what effect you want the Power construct to have and only then determine which Power or combination of Powers gives that Effect.

 

Thus if you say "This attack is microwave based and cooks targets from the outside in, whether they are wearing armor or not, is invisible to sight, and is stopped by Radiation shielding or hyper-dense structures", you might decide that a RKA with IPE: Sight, NND (LS: Immune to Radiation, Density Increase, or full coverage by Lead, Gold, and similar metals), does BODY is appropriate.

 

If you say "This attack is microwave based and burns the outer layer of targets, but has no affect on non-organic matter and has a bright red power signature", you might decide that an EB with a Limited Power "Does not affect those with LS: Immune to Radiation" (-1/4) and another Limited Power "Not vs Inorganic material" (-1/2) is appropriate.

 

 

It really depends on what you want the Power construct to really do. When you purchase a Power, you are really purchasing a game mechanic for a character to use.