Elemental Attacks: Fire, Cold, and Lightning

Jinumon · 09-05-2016, 12:50 AM

Hey all,

Just a quick question regarding Limited Defenses. It seems like (based on previous threads) all three of the listed damage types would be considered burning damage, with varying modifiers (Cannot start fires, Secondary FP damage, Secondary stunning, etc.). My question is this:

How each of these damage types would be limited?

Each is more specific than Common, which would include all burning damage, but seems more broad than Occasional, which lists things like "magical electricity."

The obvious solution would be to simply use the half-way point, at -50%, but I just wanted to get other peoples' opinions, and whether or not they feel any of these categories ought to be more or less limited than the others.

Jinumon

Bruno · 09-05-2016, 07:39 AM

Heat and Fire is a cannon example for "Common". Cold is likely similar, and in your standard fantasy or supers setting where spells or superpowers of many kinds fly around, I'd call Lightning/electricity also occasional.

EDIT: Note that "heat and fire" is not "Only burning with a source of heat and fire" - it covers other heat and fire, regardless of damage type. Laser guns doing tight-beam impaling, or thermite cutting machines doing cor+incendiary? Still covered by Heat and fire. If you want "Burning damage that is heat and fire", that's a refinement of a Common category, and sounds right for Occasional.

starslayer · 09-05-2016, 09:18 AM

Agree with Bruno,

Further consider that 'heat, cold, shock' are largely descriptive- there are no specific modifiers that MAKE somethhing a heat, cold, or shock based attack.

However if you are forcing to some sort of elemental purity (IE only fire, ice, and lightning damage) then you are squarely in the 'magical electricity' zone, these are not common, because they are not covered by the 'mundane' sources of being too close to a fire, in too cold an environment, etc

09-05-2016, 12:50 AM	#1
Jinumon Join Date: Mar 2013	Elemental Attacks: Fire, Cold, and Lightning Hey all, Just a quick question regarding Limited Defenses. It seems like (based on previous threads) all three of the listed damage types would be considered burning damage, with varying modifiers (Cannot start fires, Secondary FP damage, Secondary stunning, etc.). My question is this: How each of these damage types would be limited? Each is more specific than Common, which would include all burning damage, but seems more broad than Occasional, which lists things like "magical electricity." The obvious solution would be to simply use the half-way point, at -50%, but I just wanted to get other peoples' opinions, and whether or not they feel any of these categories ought to be more or less limited than the others. Jinumon

09-05-2016, 07:39 AM	#2
Bruno Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canada	Re: Elemental Attacks: Fire, Cold, and Lightning Heat and Fire is a cannon example for "Common". Cold is likely similar, and in your standard fantasy or supers setting where spells or superpowers of many kinds fly around, I'd call Lightning/electricity also occasional. EDIT: Note that "heat and fire" is not "Only burning with a source of heat and fire" - it covers other heat and fire, regardless of damage type. Laser guns doing tight-beam impaling, or thermite cutting machines doing cor+incendiary? Still covered by Heat and fire. If you want "Burning damage that is heat and fire", that's a refinement of a Common category, and sounds right for Occasional. __________________ All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog

09-05-2016, 09:18 AM	#3
starslayer Join Date: Dec 2006	Re: Elemental Attacks: Fire, Cold, and Lightning Agree with Bruno, Further consider that 'heat, cold, shock' are largely descriptive- there are no specific modifiers that MAKE somethhing a heat, cold, or shock based attack. However if you are forcing to some sort of elemental purity (IE only fire, ice, and lightning damage) then you are squarely in the 'magical electricity' zone, these are not common, because they are not covered by the 'mundane' sources of being too close to a fire, in too cold an environment, etc