Am I doing this right?

[knightwriter]

I have a barbarian that wears chain and plate giving him a rpd of 7. He also has a natural pd of 10 due to his background. When he gets hit with a HA of say 12 points of stun damage, the armor of 7 deletes all but five points but then his pd of 10 would negate all other damage.

 

Is this correct?

 

Thanks for the help.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Am I doing this right?

 

Yep. It's going to take an average of 6d6 Normal damage to inflict Stun past his defenses (at least when he's hit in an armored location).

[Christopher]

Re: Am I doing this right?

 

I have a barbarian that wears chain and plate giving him a rpd of 7. He also has a natural pd of 10 due to his background. When he gets hit with a HA of say 12 points of stun damage' date=' the armor of 7 deletes all but five points but then his pd of 10 would negate all other damage.[/quote']

Of such a combination is usually written as: 17 PD (7 Resistant).

 

The only difference between normal and resistant is, that Resistant applies against Killing Body Damage (it's like normal and then some).

 

Note that this specific amount of PD/rPD might violate the campaign limits (asuming we talk about heroic games).

[gojira]

Re: Am I doing this right?

 

Note that this specific amount of PD/rPD might violate the campaign limits (asuming we talk about heroic games).

 

Specifically, 17 PD is a heck of a lot. You're getting into superhero territory there. Now if your barbarian is named "Conan" and you're playing a fairly high powered fantasy game, then that might be all right. But it seems at least likely to me that your GM would put the kibosh on that much PD.

[knightwriter]

Re: Am I doing this right?

 

This is our first time playing the Hero System and so we are working out a some of the specifics of the game. It's our standard game now...we love it. What would be a reasonable PD for a barbarian or any other 'tank' type character? His chain and plate armor gives him a RPD of 7, so is a PD of 10 to high?

 

Specifically' date=' 17 PD is a heck of a lot. You're getting into superhero territory there. Now if your barbarian is named "Conan" and you're playing a fairly high powered fantasy game, then that might be all right. But it seems at least likely to me that your GM would put the kibosh on that much PD.[/quote']

[Christopher]

Re: Am I doing this right?

 

This is our first time playing the Hero System and so we are working out a some of the specifics of the game. It's our standard game now...we love it. What would be a reasonable PD for a barbarian or any other 'tank' type character? His chain and plate armor gives him a RPD of 7' date=' so is a PD of 10 to high?[/quote']

What point total are we talking about?

The Total "Categories" are on 6E1 34.

The corresponding Limits are on 6E1 35.

 

For "Standart heroic" for example we have:

175, including 50 Complications

3-8 DC

6-10 PD/ED (3-5 rPD/rED)

The resistant Defenses should be about 50% of your defenses in this chase, because heroic games feature more Killing Attacks.

The Values take certain that a max DC Attack vs. Max Defense on average end like this (of course there are exceptional rolls):

8d6 Normal Damage = 8 BODY, 28 STUN. 0 BODY and 18 STUN after defenses

2.5 d6 Killing Damage = 9 Killing BODY, 18 STUN. 4 BODY and 8 STUN after defenses.

 

That way normal Damage excells at Stunning/K.o. the target, whereas Killing damage excells at killing. Some groups bump up the defenses a little bit more, but that can only experience tell you.

 

On thing is to make certain that no character should excell at every value. A tank might have top defenses, STUN, BODY, CON and REC, but should not have the maximum DC and CV's too.

There is often a "everything at maximum" tendency, espeically in superhoric games (so anybody has 14 DC attacks with maximum defenses).

 

That at least is true for creation. How to handle XP spending is another question. One Idea is to say: You can't increase it beyond the limits of the next level, until your point total archives that level. Bascially a growing maximum similar to a level system.

[gojira]

Re: Am I doing this right?

 

This is our first time playing the Hero System and so we are working out a some of the specifics of the game. It's our standard game now...we love it. What would be a reasonable PD for a barbarian or any other 'tank' type character? His chain and plate armor gives him a RPD of 7' date=' so is a PD of 10 to high?[/quote']

 

 

It depends on the power levels and genre you are playing. Right now, your Barbarian is basically immune to small arms fire. An entire troop firing handguns at him while the Barbarian charged wouldn't stop him. Ditto for rains of arrows, knives, most "lighter" hand weapons, etc. If that's how you want your games to play, fine. If you want your characters to wade through lesser foes as if they don't exist, that is a valid fantasy genre that some folks like to play.

 

If you want a more gritty or realistic fantasy genre, then sticking to the limits Christopher mentions usually give you the feel you want. About 2-5 points of inherent PD, and about 2-5 points of resistant armor on top of that.

 

 

Addendum: If your group is enjoying the game as-is, I don't see a need to change that. Only if you're dissatisfied with the tone of the campaign and the way combats play out should you start adjusting things.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Am I doing this right?

 

If that's his Schtick, to be nigh indestructible within the campaign, that's a good top-end to stop at.

 

You can whittle him down, you can even hurt him on occasion, but he's extremely tough and it'll take a lot of doing to drop this guy. Which is fine, usually, for one character in the group to have this kind of build - you really only run into trouble when everyone is up this high. And as long as the GM doesn't try to make things so this thug drops as fast as the other PCs the game should be good, it has to be understood this character is designed to go down slow and fighting.

[Christopher]

Re: Am I doing this right?

 

It depends on the power levels and genre you are playing. Right now, your Barbarian is basically immune to small arms fire. An entire troop firing handguns at him while the Barbarian charged wouldn't stop him. Ditto for rains of arrows, knives, most "lighter" hand weapons, etc. If that's how you want your games to play, fine. If you want your characters to wade through lesser foes as if they don't exist, that is a valid fantasy genre that some folks like to play.

 

If you want a more gritty or realistic fantasy genre, then sticking to the limits Christopher mentions usually give you the feel you want. About 2-5 points of inherent PD, and about 2-5 points of resistant armor on top of that.

 

 

Addendum: If your group is enjoying the game as-is, I don't see a need to change that. Only if you're dissatisfied with the tone of the campaign and the way combats play out should you start adjusting things.

When you want the guidelines, but still the "wade through lesser enemys", I would just increase the power level of the characters (but leave the foes on normal level).