Damage
From D20advanced
| DAMAGE | ||
| Type: Attack | Action: One (active) | |
| Range: Touch | Duration: Instant | |
| Resistance: Toughness (staged) | Cost: 1 point per rank | |
You have a damaging attack. Make an attack roll to hit the target. The attack’s damage bonus equals your rank. Damage is a basic damaging effect, but has many possible variations using different power feats and modifiers.
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Damage and Range
The basic Damage effect is touch range, usable as a melee attack. It does not take the user’s Strength modifier into account unless the effect has the Mighty FX feat (see FX Feats, following), in which case the user’s Strength adds to the damage bonus. A ranged Damage effect is usable at either melee or normal (rank x 100 feet) range. A perception range Damage effect works at any range, without the need for an attack roll, so long as the user can accurately perceive the target. So a Damage effect usable at melee and normal range that adds the user’s Strength is a Mighty Ranged Damage effect. See the following power feats and modifiers for more information.
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FX Feats
- Accurate: This FX feat is functionally the same as the Attack Specialization feat, except it is a quality of the FX itself rather than a measure of the character’s skill or talent in using it.
- Affects Insubstantial: Depending on the descriptors, this FX feat can represent Damage attuned to a particular wavelength, dimensional phase, radiation band, or supernatural source, allowing it to affect insubstantial targets.
- Mighty: Damage FX with this FX feat stack with your normal Strength damage, allowing you to apply your muscle-power to enhance the FX. One rank of the Mighty feat is sufficient for a touch range Damage effect to stack with Strength (which is also touch range). For a normal range Damage FX, each rank of Mighty allows 1 point of Strength damage bonus to stack with the FX. So a character with +4 unarmed damage needs Mighty 4 to add his entire Str bonus to his ranged Damage FX. For perception range Damage FX, every 2 ranks of Mighty allow 1 point of Strength damage bonus to stack. Strength over the amount allowed by the Mighty power feat rank doesn’t stack and doesn’t apply to the FX. The GM should decide on a case-by-case basis if ranged or perception Mighty feats are appropriate.
- Precise: A Damage FX with this feat may be capable of precision cutting, etching, welding, or the like, depending on its descriptors. Ranged Precise Damage FX also gain the benefits of the Precise Shot feat: ignoring the –5 penalty for allies in melee with a target.
- Split Attack:' This FX feat is commonly used with Damage FX to represent the ability to make a single “focused” attack or multiple smaller attacks against different targets and may suit characters with multiple clawed limbs, two- (or more) handed fighting styles, dual weapons, and so forth.
- Subtle: Damage with this FX feat may involve a medium that’s harder to notice: a near-invisible gas, for example, or an attack that occurs too quickly for the eye to follow. A Subtle Damage FX may be suitable for making surprise attacks under the right circumstances. To be most effective, Subtle Damage FX need to be normal or better range, since it’s considerably easier to know the source of touch range Damage (although, if the Damage is delayed in some way, perhaps not even then).
- Thrown: You can “throw” your Damage FX to hit a target at a distance, with a range increment of (Thrown feat rank x 10) feet and a maximum range of five increments (Thrown feat rank x 50 feet). This feat may represent a throwing weapon or the ability to “throw” a natural melee attack like quills or claws. If you have a Mighty Thrown Damage FX, you can add your Strength bonus to the damage, but no more than the rank of the Damage FX or the Mighty feat, whichever is greater. Once you have used Thrown with a Damage FX, you cannot use it again until you recover it. This may involve picking up a thrown weapon, re-growing a natural weapon, building up a sufficient charge, or the like. The exact circumstances are up to the GM, but it should usually be something you can do automatically at the end of a combat. For a “throwing attack” you can use every round, either because of unlimited ammunition or a weapon that automatically returns to you after it hits, apply the Range extra to make your Damage FX normal or perception range, possibly with the Reduced Range drawback.
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Extras
- Action: It’s recommended the GM not allow free action Damage FX, due to their potential to allow characters to make an overwhelming number of multiple attacks. Reaction Damage FX are best handled by the Aura extra although the GM may find other suitable applications of Reaction Damage FX, provided the circumstance doesn’t create an FX so useful as to be unbalancing.
- Alternate FX: Since Damage requires a Toughness resistance, this extra is a +1 modifier when changing that resistance to Fortitude or Will. A Fortitude Damage FX may involve direct damage to a target’s physiology, bypass normal physical protection, perhaps even an insidious physical degradation. Will Damage bypasses the body altogether to strike at the mind or even soul. In either case, the result of the resistance is the same, it’s just a different resistance that’s used, and damage is applied in the same manner, regardless of its source; characters don’t have separate tracks for “physical” and “mental” damage, for example.
- Area: This is a common extra for Damage involving explosions or spreading or engulfing attacks like gases, fiery clouds, and so forth.
- Aura: Damage is a common basic FX for an Aura. It may represent a damaging energy surrounding you or some sort of automatic or reflexive counterattack against anyone who attacks you.
- Autofire: This extra is common for Damage FX, particularly Ranged Damage like an automatic weapon.
- Contagious: Contagious Damage remains so until the target recovers from it (including if the damage is treated with Healing or Regeneration). It may represent a damaging medium like a chemical agent coating the target. Depending on the FX and its descriptors, the GM may also allow certain other FX to counter a Contagious source of damage.
- Duration: Damage with a duration longer than instant continues to affect its target on succeeding rounds, requiring a new saving throw each round on the attacker’s initiative. This usually represents an ongoing damaging FX of some sort. This sort of Damage should have some reasonable means by which it can be countered, such as dousing or smothering fiery ongoing Damage.
- Penetrating: This extra allows Damage to overcome the effects of Impervious Toughness, especially appropriate for keen or super-sharp weapons.
- Range: The standard Damage FX is touch range. One application of this extra creates a damaging FX usable at normal range (although still useful at melee range as well), while a +2 extra gets you a perception range Damage FX.
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Flaws
- Action: A two action Damage FX suits an attack requiring some preparation or additional “build-up.” For example, a “haymaker” punch might be a Two Action Mighty Damage FX. Generally speaking, Damage FX requiring longer than a full-round action are not useful in combat and tend to be better suited as plot devices, wherein a villain’s death-ray needs to charge up for a minute or two, for example, giving the heroes time to stop it before it’s too late.
- Distracting: A Distracting Damage FX is a bit of a trade-off in combat, requiring some risk. It’s good for things like attacks that need bracing (such as certain weapons) or require extra concentration (taking attention away from potential threats).
- Limited: Damage can be Limited in a number of ways. The most common include only certain targets (living creatures, machines, or supernatural beings, for example), or a reduced effectiveness against some targets. For the latter, apply the Limited flaw only to some of the FX’s ranks, such as Damage with half effect against targets wearing armor (meaning half its ranks have the Limited to Unarmored Targets flaw).
- Range: Reducing the range of a Damage FX to personal is more than just a flaw: it converts the effect into more of a drawback, since the only one you can damage is yourself! For characters with some sort of inherent or automatic ability to damage themselves, consider an appropriate drawback instead. For example, minions that automatically self-destruct when they’re captured have a fairly severe Weakness, worth about 10 character points. Of course, for non-player characters, you can choose to just treat such things as plot devices and not worry about their point-values.
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Drawbacks
- Full Power: You can only use your Damage FX at its full damage bonus, meaning you can’t “pull” your attacks and use it at a lower rank to inflict lesser damage and you’re likely to cause more property damage or collateral effects. The GM decides when, and if, this drawback is truly a drawback for a Damage FX.
- Minimum Range: Your Ranged Damage FX cannot be used at close range. This is a 1-point drawback if you must use the FX at one-quarter its maximum range and 2 points for one-half maximum range. A Ranged Damage FX only usable at its maximum range has a Limited flaw.
