[Rules question] Dragon breath

[Gurps Fan]

I asked a similar question to the Doctor and he gave me an answer:

Originally Posted by Me

I'd like to ask a question, which originally arose from my
gaming group, about "large-area injury":

The text on p.B400 says, "if your DR varies by location, your
'effective DR' is the average of your torso DR and the least
protected location exposed to the attack [. . .].", but isn't
this strange?

Examples: If I wear a full suit of plate armor with a
greathelm, do I get only a half of the normal armor DR against
area attacks just because the helm has the uncovered (DR 0)
eyeslit? Or, if I wear a full-body combat hardsuit and a helmet
with a visor, except that only my left hand is naked for some
reason, do I get half DR because my left hand has DR 0?

The result of the said rule seems quite counterintuitive. How
should I handle the large-area injury and partial armor
exactly?

Originally Posted by Kromm

> Examples: If I wear a full suit of plate armor with a greathelm, do I
> get only a half of the normal armor DR against area attacks just
> because the helm has the uncovered (DR 0) eyeslit?

Be careful with this logic . . . every piece of armor has "chinks" you
can target for half DR, but the large-area injury rules always use the
full DR of armor. An eyeslit is NOT DR 0 in 4e; it's a chink worth half
DR, because most weapons will catch an edge or have to force their way
between uprights in the visor grille. Hence, you *ignore* that and use
the helm's full DR for this calculation.

> Or, if I wear a full-body combat hardsuit and a helmet with a visor,
> except that only my left hand is naked for some reason, do I get half
> DR because my left hand has DR 0?

Yes! The entire point is that some effects force their way inside your
protection if you leave a large gap like this. Being immersed in acid,
engulfed in nerve gas, etc., can be deadly if you leave *any* opening.
Being bodily squished is far less dangerous if the whole body is within
a scaffold than if there's an aperture where pressure can be released.
Humans are highly resistant to constant, body-wide pressure but easily
turned to goo by pressure gradients across the body.

We're quite happy with the rules as written. You need to realize that
the sorts of attacks considered "large area" were carefully chosen for
this rule to make sense.

[transmetahuman]

I stand corrected about the eyeslits. Could've sworn it was a post by Kromm that I got my mistaken attitude from, but I'm not going to go looking.

[Lupo]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Be careful with this logic . . . every piece of armor has "chinks" you
can target for half DR, but the large-area injury rules always use the
full DR of armor. An eyeslit is NOT DR 0 in 4e; it's a chink worth half
DR, because most weapons will catch an edge or have to force their way
between uprights in the visor grille.

Does that mean that when you target eyes though a greathelm, you get half DR? I've always assumed you could *ignore* DR... may be this was changed in 4e?

I'll also note that realistically even small eyeslits should make a *big* difference when dealing with large-area attacks. I've always found realistic that low-tech armor effectively protects only at half DR against large-area injury, and so I've always counted the eyes as DR 0.

[TJA]

Yep, here as well.

The idea of eyeslits being chinks in armor, is rather strange :)

I mean, we talk something like a flamethrower here.

Also, using (0 + DR) / 2 gives exactly DR / 2 which together is like a chink that can be targeted at DR / 2.

[TJA]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

Base range *1/2 is not 2/20 but 5/50. Of course, Reduced Range is 1/5 at -20% (which does fit with your numbers).

The 1/2D rule is generic for anything that has a 1/2D attribute.

Oh, that a mistake - i changed to 1/5, as it was written in Dragons.

[TJA]

Originally Posted by Lupo

e.g. in that case they probably forgot to write "Reduced Range (Max only), -10%" instead of "Reduced Range, -20%"

Problem is, there is no "max only" - IIRC, that is explicitely forbidden.

[TJA]

Originally Posted by transmetahuman

I stand corrected about the eyeslits. Could've sworn it was a post by Kromm that I got my mistaken attitude from, but I'm not going to go looking.

I cannot see that and think that you first statement is more valid.
An eyeslit is not a chink - i provides no DR/2.

[RyanW]

Regarding eyeslits and armor chinks:

Originally Posted by B400

Roll at -8 to hit a chink in the foe’s torso armor, or at -10 for any other location (face, eyes, vitals, arm, etc.), instead of using the usual hit location penalty. If you hit, halve DR.

and

Originally Posted by B547

Hit location, through chink in armor: -8 for torso, -10 anywhere else (e.g., eyeslits)

[transmetahuman]

I was getting it mixed up with the way the DR advantage works with eyes: "...natural DR does not protect your eyes (or windows...". Bolding mine. Thanks for the reminder - urban fantasy games don't see much equipment armor, at least not with eye slits.

So. Large area damage versus someone with no natural DR, wearing full-coverage artificial armor: The weak point (the DR value that you average with torso DR) will be one-half of the DR (the chinks or eye slits) of the least-armored location. Often but not always half of helm DR.

If some location larger than "chinks" is unarmored, then the weak point is zero DR, and total DR vs. LAD is half of torso DR.

Versus someone with (only) natural DR (sans Force Field or Nictitating Membrane): Half of torso DR, because the eyes get zero and will always be the, or a, weak point.

Right?

[transmetahuman]

To simplify the process (I am smirking as I write this)... Versus Large Area Injury, effective DR is the average of torso DR and the lowest of:

* Force Field DR (natural or technological) + Nictitating Membrane + half (eye slits) of helm DR*. If no helm, Nictitating Membrane or Force Field, this is zero no matter what other natural DR you have.

* Natural DR + Force Field armor DR + half (chinks) of non-FF armor DR in the least-armored location.

Keeping in mind that this only applies to locations facing the attack without cover - your body provides cover for your eyes, for example, if you're facing away from certain attacks.

I think I've got it straight now.

* Or ultratech/magic transparent protective goggles at full strength maybe? Even nowadays we've got transparent stuff that should be worth some DR.