Armor Piercing Clarification

[RDU Neil]

I may have missed this, but I did a search on Armor Piercing and didn't see any thread specifically adressing this.

 

Question: In 5th Ed, am I correct in understanding that, if you buy a Hand Killing Attack, and put AP on it. (Say 2d6k + AP for 45 Active points)... you get to add your STR (say 15 STR so add 1d6K to the attack) and get full AP on the total 3d6 attack... even though you didn't buy AP on your STR.

 

 

Is this correct? If so, it makes things simple, but I find this very unbalancing. HKAs are already the most easily abusable attack out there, and giving any Power Advantage on the HKA to the STR automatically only seems to make it worse.

 

Just my opinion, but I wondered if I was misinterpreting the rule.

 

Thanks

[Blue]

Hmm. Don't remember seeing that. But then I'm notorious for missing details like that. I'm likely to make my players pay for it anyway, even if the book says otherwise.

[RDU Neil]

Originally posted by Blue

Hmm. Don't remember seeing that. But then I'm notorious for missing details like that. I'm likely to make my players pay for it anyway, even if the book says otherwise.

 

In the past, the rule was to "pro-rate" the damage added by STR as if it had a +1/2 advantage.

 

Example: A 15 STR would not add a full d6 of AP Killing... but instead add 1/2d6K AP. 15 points being 10 STR with 1/2 advantage.

 

I was just under the impression that the "pro-ration" concept was tossed with 5th ED... but I did see it casually mentioned in the Rules FAQ over something that had nothing to do with AP.

 

Thanks, though.

[Old Man]

See FREd p 270-272 Adding Damage.

Specifically p 272 Advanatages.

[Marcus]

Shadowpup has the right of it.

And HKA is the SECOND most-abusive basic attack. (There one was a flying, invisible, HKA in one of my parties. That was pretty much his whole fight strategy... go invisible, make move-bys with the blades out and a martial manuver. Things-Just-Died)

 

HA is by far the first. Be-all-end-all dont go there awful, if you use it in certain ways.

[misterdeath]

Simple form: You prorate HKA, you do not prorate HAs.

 

So, if it were a 2d6 HKA, Armor Piercing, 15 points of STR would be 10 points more of HKA, so the new HKA would be 2 1/2d6. It'd take 22 STR to make a full die (3d6 AP RKA).

 

Aside: This occurs with all the advantages, so if you had double AP, double Pen (+2) then 15 points of STR would give you 5 points of damage.

 

If you had a 6d6 HA, Armor Piercing, all 15 points add, so you get 9d6 AP HA.

 

D

[RDU Neil]

Thanks all. I understand the pro-rate rule... just had read something on the board that implied it was tossed out. Wanted to clarify without reading all of 5th again.

 

Also, I agree with Markus. HA is THE most unbalancing attack in the game. I never needed a "Damage Class" limit in my games, prior to HAs spreading around. Point cost kept things nice and balanced, in my experience. HA just allows you to ramp up damage to really high level, with really low points.

 

Ugh.

 

House Rule #1 in my game. You can't push HKAs or HAs. They are already unbalanced by adding with STR. That keeps them mildly in line.

 

(Of course, all this stems from the simple fact... likely never to change... that STR is way undercosted at 1 for 1. It should be 2 for 1, and all these other issues would go away. Funny thing... the same problem exists in that other game, M&M, as well. STR and DEX are hugely undercosted for their value in that game, STR in particular, because it is the one way to break the PL limits on damage. You'd think they'd have learned from previous games, but nope.)

[TheEmerged]

From where I type, the new rule seems to have been made for the sake of simplification. Since I understand how the old rule works, I'm ignoring the new one