Quote:
Originally Posted by Plane
B262 gives IT:Diffuse to Body of Earth (your body is sand or earth) and Body of Water, so I'd think that it would provide some cover. They don't get a +10 to HP like Body of Air and Body of Fire do, so if it were based on a % of HP, somehow Air would come ahead.
IT:Homogenous is used for Body of Ice/Metal/Stone so they would get 1/4 their HP as cover DR.
It feels like maybe Earth/Water should come ahead of Fire/Air in terms of stopping power but I'm not sure how to justify it.
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Body of air/fire have +10 HP, because -10 ST reduces HP to 0. So, since (mechanically) the creatures shouldn’t have 0 HP, the meta-trait provides them with +10 HP.
In other words, a creature made of air/fire has 10 HP (not 20), and this is a compensation for lacking ST.
On the other hand, bodies of earth/water lack +10 HP, because these meta-traits do not have -10 ST.
Body of earth (meta-trait) features 2 DR, so it could add to the 2 HP of damage a diffuse creature can take as per RAW 380.
I would say a human sized body of air, is not enough to impede your actions (as in my previous paragraph) and does not provide cover DR because it is not “hard enough” (not flesh, metal, stone, etc.). The creature itself could defend you with a maneuver, but not passively. It could also provide you with its diffuse property if it had “affects others”.
The injury modifiers only apply to injury against the bodies provided with them; it means the body of a creature made of a diffuse element won’t have diffuse cover DR (because it does not exist, AFAIK).
If the creature is made of an element which has a cover DR score (ice, metal, stone, etc.), then cover DR might apply.
If diffuse passive cover could provide cover DR, then it would be a big issue fighting in our atmosphere (because we are surrounded by a very large body air), under the rain, etc.
You could argue you cannot strike properly while inside water, sand, mud, etc. but that’s another situation, because here, you are surrounded by the element in enough amount to impede most of your actions (also consider size modifier, i.e. pool of water). A
GURPS 3e book, Trans-human Space: Under Pressure (p.53), elaborates on underwater combat; damage is reduced to 1/3, 1/2 or 2/3 depending on the melee attack. But that’s another dynamic.