I’m honestly not looking to rebuild the whole damage and defense system, but the issues raised in this thread have been very interesting. I just want to tune damage and defenses into a setup I can present to my players without overloading them with math.
I get that damage is on a curve, but I’m trying to break it down into simpler chunks for build guidelines: damage classes, PD/ED, Damage Negation, STUN and BODY.
So a typical character is doing 12d6, has a 14 PD and ED and six Damage Negation dice (STUN only). If they want their character to take eight hits before falling over, then they need around 50 STUN and probably a recovery in the 8-12 range. Tougher characters would do more damage or maybe have a bit higher defenses or both.