[Plane]

The interesting thing on B437 is there's no emphasis on eyes being open, just the mouth and wound...

"Blood Agent: The poison must reach a mucous membrane (eyes,
openmouth, nose, etc.) or an open wound."

I don't know that the seal of one's lips protects the mouth to that much greater a degree than closed eyelids protect the eyes though, has anyone done any studies on that?

Closing your eyes even for short periods is a big problem in combat which is why basic rules probably assume you're not doing it (though blind fighters probably could, and people might do it in pitch darkness) whereas you can keep your mouth closed with minimal problems for short periods and just breathe through nose.

Originally Posted by ravenfish

I probably wouldn't spend too much effort on rules for closing eyes against blood agents. While the membranes of the eye are one entry point, there's also the mucous membranes of the nasal passages

I don't know what the penalty is for hitting those though, nor even the mouth. Probably something adjacent to the -6/-7 for jaw/nose in MA137 but I'm thinking -10 for a nostrils since it's smaller than an eye and -8 for a fully-opened mouth since it's larger than an eye.

I probably should've clarified that I meant the Blood Agent -40% limitation for targeted attacks on B110, not B102's Blood Agent enhancement for AE attacks.

About the only thing other than targeting eyes at -9 that I'm aware of for delivering blood agents is B162's "Wounded" hit location at -7

Originally Posted by ravenfish

which are harder to quickly- and even considering only the eyes, closing them doesn't create anything like an airtight seal. Ultimately, if you want anything more than a small bonus to the resistance roll, you'll need a sealed face mask.

Yeah but it doesn't need to be airtight to keep out standard non-AE blood agent attacks. My guess is targeting "the rim of the eyelids behind cover of the lashes" would be even trickier than the -9 to just hit the eye, like at least extra -2 (-11 net) for being behind partial cover.

Originally Posted by Varyon

An area-effect blood agent - which is probably what you're dealing with - has a lot more than just the eyes available to it. The nostrils, the ear canals, and the inner surface of the lips are all mucous membranes on the head, and you've got some down south as well (although clothing can help protect you there). Additionally, any cut, scrape, etc that hasn't at least scabbed over is a point of entry. So, yeah, if you aren't Sealed, a blood agent area of effect is going to get you, open eyes or not.

Yeah I'm sorry I failed to communicate this effectively, I didn't mean the "surrounds and touches every part of you" AE sort of blood agent, but the "I'm shooting a beam at you" kind of non-AE one.

Originally Posted by Anthony

Blood agents are prone to being persistent enough that they'll just get you when you open your eyes unless you first clean the area pretty thoroughly, but yes, the entire point of eyelids is to protect you from things getting in your eye.

Non-AE attacks can't take persistent and aside from basic set's AE of 2 yards (targeted hex and 6 adjacents) for +50 I've only seen the +25% for just-one-hex done.

Not sure if you could do an even smaller kind of AE like "a place smaller than a hex" whcih would exist mostly as a vehicle for legalizing Persistent and doing stuff like "I only need to target your face to hit you in the eye" type of thing, like maybe +10% for a 1ft bubble instead of a 3ft bubble?