Splitting Attack

[eepjr24]

So what determines if something is a Target? What if a UAV was flying through the affected area, would it be one? If so, what about another inactive UAV sitting on the ground? Or the bicycle sitting next to it? See the slippery slope now?

 

HM

This is part of why I like the AOE method. The GM has already made this decision for many other attacks. All they have to do is exclude whatever they consider "environment" if you buy that advantage. Then the Selective or Non-selective takes care of the rest.

 

- E

[Hyper-Man]

Tangent Topic - The whole idea of 'half damage' made me think about the rules for lifting and how every 5 points of STR represents x2 lifting cap[ability.  In the case of of the spreading rules it seems like a more consistent method would be to double the number of hexes that could be targeted for every 5 points/dice/DC dedicated.  Along the same line of thought, 'half damage' for a Normal Damage attack could be considered -1d6/DC instead of the literal halving (which was likely originally designed for the NND-like Killing Attack). 

 

HM

[eepjr24]

Tangent Topic - The whole idea of 'half damage' made me think about the rules for lifting and how every 5 points of STR represents x2 lifting cap[ability.  In the case of of the spreading rules it seems like a more consistent method would be to double the number of hexes that could be targeted for every 5 points/dice/DC dedicated.  Along the same line of thought, 'half damage' for a Normal Damage attack could be considered -1d6/DC instead of the literal halving (which was likely originally designed for the NND-like Killing Attack). 

 

HM

That would result in some wonkiness, though. So an armor piercing, penetrating 6d6 blast spreads twice as easily as a 12d6 regular blast per die? Maybe I could even see that one. But what about things like Damage Over Time or Difficult to Dispel or Indirect or IPE? Could be rather odd.

 

- E

[Hyper-Man]

Well, I didn't say it was fully formed and well thought out idea.

 

 

 

HM

[Christopher]

Tangent Topic - The whole idea of 'half damage' made me think about the rules for lifting and how every 5 points of STR represents x2 lifting cap[ability.  In the case of of the spreading rules it seems like a more consistent method would be to double the number of hexes that could be targeted for every 5 points/dice/DC dedicated.  Along the same line of thought, 'half damage' for a Normal Damage attack could be considered -1d6/DC instead of the literal halving (which was likely originally designed for the NND-like Killing Attack). 

 

HM

That is a very intersting way to look at it. That -1 DC is already halving the damage.

 

That would result in some wonkiness, though. So an armor piercing, penetrating 6d6 blast spreads twice as easily as a 12d6 regular blast per die? Maybe I could even see that one. But what about things like Damage Over Time or Difficult to Dispel or Indirect or IPE? Could be rather odd.

 

- E

Afaik spreading works on DC, not dice. We had those two things seperated for just such reasons...

[eepjr24]

That is a very intersting way to look at it. That -1 DC is already halving the damage.

 

Afaik spreading works on DC, not dice. We had those two things seperated for just such reasons...

Correct, which is why I was pointing out that doing it per 5 points would be wonky. Sorry if that was not clear.

[Sean Waters]

6d6 is a pretty huge attack in a heroic game with like 5 PD and 3 armor for your average thug, if any armor at all.  Its superheroics where you start to see that kind of attack bounce.  So it would again depend on the setting, but I'd call that a feature.  In a superheroic game, you'd want to make it an AVAD attack or AP at least.

 

6d6 is a pretty huge attack for a game with an average defence of 8, but he same applies: 21 (average damage) defence is 13 through defences, 10.5 v 8 is 2 or 3 through defences, and if there are more than two targets then nothing through defences.

 

What effect are you trying to model here?  What is the game explanation for the power?

 

Why not just have an AoE and a custom limitation (say -1/2) that damage through defences halves for each target hit (or each 2x people hit i.e. 1 target, full, 2 targets 1/2, 3-4 targets 1/4 and so on)?  That way you actually do get half damage per person hit - it is as if additional targets act like damage reduction for everyone.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah that's true in a heroic game, you'd be working with smaller dice.  AP or AVAD would be the way to go, for sure.

 

For some magical effects, it becomes less about the special effect (its maaaagic!) and more about the practical effect, particularly if you're trying to model something from another game.  What's the special effect of Magic Missile is a lot less significant than what it does.