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Old 12-06-2017, 02:03 AM   #1
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Follow-Up and Penetration Modifiers

According to Follow-Up, 'If the carrier attack penetrates the target’s DR, DR has no effect on the Follow-Up attack’s damage or HT rolls.'

That's fine, but... what happens if the carrier attack doesn't penetrate the target's DR? It appears that the follow-up attack still applies, but DR protects normally. In that case it makes sense to have certain penetration modifiers on follow-up (though possibly at reduced value).
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Old 12-06-2017, 02:25 AM   #2
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: Follow-Up and Penetration Modifiers

It's pretty hard to find a modifier value that will be fair in all cases. Depending on what the carrier is and what the follow-up is, the fair value will range from '0%' to 'same as normal modifier value'.
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Old 12-06-2017, 06:18 AM   #3
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Follow-Up and Penetration Modifiers

Follow-Up attacks are explicitly forbidden from benefitting from any penetration modifiers (though the carrier can have them).
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Old 12-06-2017, 08:14 AM   #4
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Follow-Up and Penetration Modifiers

For penetration Enhancements, I'd say the normal costs should work just fine (in theory such are less useful thanks to the carrier potentially negating them by already punching through, but a reduction would either require some complicated pricing scheme or open itself to abuse, so the full value is probably the safest bet). The problem comes from penetration Limitations. As it stands, a 1d Small Piercing attack with a Follow-Up 3d Toxic attack will, against DR 5, likely have the carrier fail to penetrate, but deal somewhere around 5 Injury thanks to the Follow-Up. So, it makes sense that the Follow-Up could be Limited with Contact Agent or Blood Agent, such that it can only cause injury if the carrier penetrates DR. Of course, if the initial attack has an Armor Divisor of or above (3), or if it instead did 3d or more damage, Contact Agent and Blood Agent are barely Limitations at all, as if the carrier fails to penetrate, they wouldn't have caused injury anyway.

This actually implies a fairly elegant solution. Determine the penetration (factoring in both damage and armor divisors*) of the carrier, in dice, and subtract this from the damage of the Follow-Up. The remaining dice, minimum 0d, are what you modify. So, in the case of the heavy poisoned dart, above, that 3d Toxic attack is treated as 2d for purposes of applying the Blood Agent Limitation.

*Optionally, to account for the existence of Hardened DR and the like, use an average of base damage and penetration.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, you could use a similar scheme to reduce the price of penetration Enhancements on the Follow-Up. For a 1d(2) Pi attack with a 3d(5) Imp Follow-Up, the carrier has 2d penetration, the Follow-Up has 15d, so the difference is 13d. Divide this by the multiplier you used for the Follow-Up - 5 - to get 2.6d, so only apply the price for AD (5) to a base of [20.8], rather than a base of [24].

EDIT 2: On yet further thought, you should probably use penetration on both ends when the modifier is Armor Divisor (regardless of if it's the Enhancement or the Limitation). When the modifier outright negates penetration (like the Blood Agent Limitation) or DR (like the Blood Agent Enhancement), just use damage.
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