How Vulnerable is Vulnerability

[Alden Loveshade]

This is a complicated question about Vulnerability, but I'll try to break it down.

I certainly understand there's a difference between Weakness (B161) and Vulnerability (also B161). But it seems like there can be some overlap between the two.

Specifically, imagine a character with a Vulnerability to heat/fire as listed in Limited Defenses (B46). In the same way a boulder that fell on a character with a Vulnerability to crushing damage could cause additional damage whether it was dropped on him purposely or got loose, I think the heat/fire Vulnerability character could receive more damage from heat/fire whether it was natural or from an opponent. Thus fire from a fireplace could do more damage to her than to her non-Vulnerable friend.

But would this also apply to things like losing fatigue from heat, or to heat stroke (B434)?

[Kromm]

Vulnerability cares only about its chosen descriptor. If the descriptor fits, then whether you experience a deliberate attack, an incidental hazard, or plain bad luck, Vulnerability multiplies the harm you suffer. And unless that descriptor is also a damage type – as in "Vulnerability (Cutting ×2)" – multiplication applies to HP loss from all damage types, FP loss from the fatigue damage type, and all losses to things that cause direct HP and FP depletion without a formally defined damage type. If only FP are multiplied, you must add Fatigue Only, -50%.

For instance, Vulnerability (Heat/Fire ×2) means you suffer double HP loss from standard burning heat and flame, whether it's from a dragon, a flamethrower, a bonfire, or a critical failure while doing something with a flaming cocktail, hot stove, Roman candle, or cutting torch. You also lose double HP to weird-science "heat rays" that happen to be defined as corrosion, cutting, or impaling instead of burning. You suffer double FP loss on hot days. And Fire-college spells or pyrokinetic attacks that blast away FP or HP directly without mentioning a damage type would cause double effect as well.

BUT . . . Vulnerability applies strictly to things that could inflict HP or FP on anyone. It's for effects that are baneful to everyone and extra-nasty for you. If something that doesn't normally harm most people harms you just by being nearby, you have a Weakness.

You can have both. There's nothing wrong with a werewolf having Vulnerability (Silver ×4) – which means that silver daggers and bullets that would harm anyone hurt her more, and that silver nitrate that would burn any living tissue is nastier for her – and Weakness (Silver, 1d/minute) that causes her to lose HP if she wears silver jewelry, picks up a silver sword, or is put in a cell with silver bars. However, the triggers are unrelated. Vulnerability is set off by events that would cost anybody HP or FP, while Weakness is activated by proximity to a substance or a condition that's harmless to most people in normal concentrations.

[Alden Loveshade]

Thanks a bunch, Kromm! My character's NPC fiancé who lives near the desert is going to have to get a better air conditioner or, better yet, move. Meaning my PC may have to move too. Sigh.

[Alden Loveshade]

Here's a closely related question. Would it be a cheat to use one or more levels of Temperature Tolerance (B93) for higher temperatures to allow the character to function normally in temperatures over 80 degrees? That is, have both Vulnerability to fire/heat and Temperature Tolerance? (The character is "human" in a supers campaign).

[starslayer]

While it seems kind of 'wrong' I don't see the conflict.

Vulnerability is for damage sources- fire/heat is for lasers, heat guns, flamethrowers, dragon breath, burning attacks, etc.

Vulnerability 'environmental hazards' would be what would double heat exhaustion.

[GodBeastX]

Originally Posted by starslayer

While it seems kind of 'wrong' I don't see the conflict.

Vulnerability is for damage sources- fire/heat is for lasers, heat guns, flamethrowers, dragon breath, burning attacks, etc.

Vulnerability 'environmental hazards' would be what would double heat exhaustion.

That is opposite of what Kromm just posted.

If you are vulnerable to a type, and that type comes into play, whether environmental or otherwise, you take more than what it normally does. So if "heat" is causing FP loss, you lose more with multiplier.

Weakness, as stated, would be something that doesn't normally damage. FP is a damage.