Penetrating

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Emerald_Flame300
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Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 12:53 pm

Penetrating

Post by Emerald_Flame300 »

Forgive me if this has been already discussed and I realize that it is a "bread and butter" concept... BUT.... Penetrating.

If I read it correctly, Penetrating only really works against Impervious protection. The Penetrating rank counts as double and is substracted from the Impervious defense. The example in the book is a little confusing (for me).

Can somebody grab the crayons and help me out?

Thanks
FuzzyBoots
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: Penetrating

Post by FuzzyBoots »

You are correct that it only applies against Impervious protection. But it functions by making the Penetrating rank the amount that applies against the person with Impervious protection even if the rank of the effect is less than half of the rank of Impervious. So if you have Damage 6 with Penetrating 4, it will do 6 Damage to anyone with Impervious 13 or below, and 4 damage to anyone with higher ranks of Impervious.

2E indeed basically "doubled" the rank (if bought at full ranks) of the Damage for the purpose of breaking through Impervious in that you added it to the rank (Impervious also protected from all effects below that Extra's rank). So in the same case, Damage 6 with Penetrating 4 would do six ranks of damage against Impervious 10 and below.
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Emerald_Flame300
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Re: Penetrating

Post by Emerald_Flame300 »

Ok...

This seems a little... odd. But at least now I have a better understanding.
Thanks
FuzzyBoots
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Re: Penetrating

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Eyeh, I'm not a huge fan of 3E Impervious. The 2E version was considered potentially overpowering, not helped that one of the archetypes (the Battlesuit) had Impervious Toughness 12, which required at least an 11 to get through, and one of the archetypes (the Martial Artist) had a Damage 5 attack such that, even with Power Attack, there was no way to scratch the Battlesuit. Honestly, unless you did a large Toughness tradeoff, or fought very Attack-shifted characters, Impervious didn't do much except against minions. The 3E version, because it operates on a multiplicative model (halving its impact) means that it doesn't build arithmetically as with straight bonuses up and down.
greycrusader
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Re: Penetrating

Post by greycrusader »

I've settled on the house-rule that on a failed Toughness save, Impervious reduces the effect of any attack below its rank by one "step" (so failing a roll by 5 or less results in NO damage). Penetrating simply subtracts its ranks from those of an Impervious defense.

Impervious works against critical hits, EXCEPT for a natural 20 (unmodified),which bypass it.

All my best.
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