Resistant Defence vs. Damage Negation.

[knasser2]

Hi,

What is the logic behind having both Damage Negation and Resistant Protection powers. I get the thematic difference between someone who is, say, made of slime and can ignore being stabbed and a knight in armour whom the same blow will simply slide off. But mechanically is there anyhing particular to separate the two? Are there scenarios in which reducing damage classes and reducing damage are meaningfully different when attacked?

 

I'm creating a devil creature that has resistance to fire and it just got me wondering what I may have overlooked.

 

Thanks,

 

K.

[Netzilla]

You may want to peruse the following:

http://www.killershrike.com/GeneralHero/GeneralThoughtsOnDamageNegation.aspx

http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/70243-thoughts-on-damage-negation-6e/

http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/87302-damage-negation/

[Cantriped]

Damage Negation is sort of an ackward power in practice (there are lots of odd corner cases where it isn't clear how it should function), so I rarely use/allow it in my games.

 

Mechanically the factors that differentiate Damage Negation from Resistant Protection are that:

1:  It is based entirely on special effect as opposed to mechanical effect (like Damage Reduction). So you can have Damage Negation (Magic), and it won't matter if the spell use against you is built as Blast, RKA, or Drain (BODY/STUN), the defense it equally effective (the same goes for Penetrating, or Armor Piercing attack spells).

2:  Because it counters dice of effect rather than points of effect it has vastly different effects on incoming damage. For example;

10 rPD (15 APs) completely protects you from up to 5d6 Normal BODY Damage, but only 1 1/2d6 of Normal STUN Damage.

Meanwhile 3 levels of Damage Negation (also 15 APs) completely protects you from up to 3d6 of Normal BODY and STUN Damage.

3:  Damage Negation is applied before all other defenses, so it is obviously intended to be used in addition to more common defenses as a way to prevent low DC Constant/DoT attacks from being debilitating effective. Damage Negation should never be used as the character's only Defense Power.

[knasser2]

Oh wow! I'd thought it was simply some mildly different way to resist damage - probably mainly for thematic reasons or a hold-over from previous editions.

 

There are a lot of worms in that can! I think I will put it back on the shelf for now and look at it again another day!

 

Thanks for both replies. That example of the Normal BODY versus Normal Stun is rather eye-opening, especially.

[Penthau]

It also subtracts dice from AP, Penetrating and AVAD attacks before they are applied to your defenses, even if you don't have the defense. So the standard +1 NND has dice subtracted (10 AP worth) from it instead of taking it all because you don't have that specific defense. The guy that reduces his dice to put AP and penetrating on his attack is going to be especially affected by damage negation.

 

I don't allow it except as a special effect defense, like vs fire, magic or lasers, especially attacks that can have a variety of modifiers on them.