Temporary Wounding Limitation

Varyon · 10-30-2014, 10:25 AM

I've made some mention of this in the past, but how would one build an attack where some or all of the damage involved only lasts for an exceedingly short time? For example, in many settings illusory attacks can kill/incapacitate a victim, but the damage itself either vanishes entirely or is greatly reduced after a few seconds. For my own purposes, I'm working on a weapon that attacks the soul, but in this setting souls are incredibly resilient things so if you don't manage to kill the target outright they tend to spring back rather readily.
(And, yes, I do need point values for the weapon in question.)

I'm thinking this would be best handled by a new damage Limitation: Temporary Wounding. Ideally, there would be a few tiers of the Limitation, representing how long the injury persists before vanishing. As true No Wounding typically between -60% and -70% (No Wounding + No Incendiary Effect for Burning for -60%, No Wounding + No Blunt Trauma or No DR Reduction for just about everything else), I'm thinking Temporary Wounding (which applies to all aspects of the damage - Incendiary effect for Burning, DR reduction for Corrosion, Blunt Trauma for just about everything else) would be worth -50% if it's only an instantaneous effect - you roll damage to see the severity, resolve that (so if you roll over 50% HP, the target has to resist Knockdown/Stunning, for example), and then the damage is gone. Something that lasts a full second - allowing it to temporarily "stack" with subsequent attacks and for effects like being below 1/3rd HP to apply - is probably around -40%. Lasting up to 3 seconds is -30%, up to 10 seconds is -20%, and up to 30 seconds (pretty much "this battle") is -10%. Damage that lasts up to a minute might be justifiable at -5%, and anything longer is going to be a Feature - foes recover more readily, but that means it's a bit easier to capture them without mortally wounding them first. How does this sound to people?

For the nitty-gritty of precisely what "temporary wounding" means, here's what happens when the damage's duration runs out. Any Shock penalties that were inflicted don't vanish (note this only matters for the -50% version). Most statuses that are normally inflicted by damage, such as Knockdown/Stunning, Crippled/Severed Limbs, Unconsciousness (from failing the HT roll from dropping below 0 HP), and Death, also don't vanish, unless naturally recovering the HP would have eliminated the condition (so Temporary Crippling vanishes, for example). Statuses that are more ongoing than the mere binary switches from above or that result from being at a given threshold of injury - reduced Move, continual HT checks to avoid unconsciousness, pain, lasting injuries, Mortal Wounds, etc - do vanish when the duration expires. Bleeding shouldn't be a factor with the above short time periods, but if it is (possibly due to houserules) any blood loss is also temporary (you can make the blood loss permanent as a +5% Enhancement; this means any lost blood stays lost, but bleeding stops when the duration expires). If the attack also has Symptoms, those end when the damage expires, so be certain to apply Limiting Enhancements to Symptoms.

10-30-2014, 10:25 AM	#1
Varyon Join Date: Jun 2013	Temporary Wounding Limitation I've made some mention of this in the past, but how would one build an attack where some or all of the damage involved only lasts for an exceedingly short time? For example, in many settings illusory attacks can kill/incapacitate a victim, but the damage itself either vanishes entirely or is greatly reduced after a few seconds. For my own purposes, I'm working on a weapon that attacks the soul, but in this setting souls are incredibly resilient things so if you don't manage to kill the target outright they tend to spring back rather readily. (And, yes, I do need point values for the weapon in question.) I'm thinking this would be best handled by a new damage Limitation: Temporary Wounding. Ideally, there would be a few tiers of the Limitation, representing how long the injury persists before vanishing. As true No Wounding typically between -60% and -70% (No Wounding + No Incendiary Effect for Burning for -60%, No Wounding + No Blunt Trauma or No DR Reduction for just about everything else), I'm thinking Temporary Wounding (which applies to all aspects of the damage - Incendiary effect for Burning, DR reduction for Corrosion, Blunt Trauma for just about everything else) would be worth -50% if it's only an instantaneous effect - you roll damage to see the severity, resolve that (so if you roll over 50% HP, the target has to resist Knockdown/Stunning, for example), and then the damage is gone. Something that lasts a full second - allowing it to temporarily "stack" with subsequent attacks and for effects like being below 1/3rd HP to apply - is probably around -40%. Lasting up to 3 seconds is -30%, up to 10 seconds is -20%, and up to 30 seconds (pretty much "this battle") is -10%. Damage that lasts up to a minute might be justifiable at -5%, and anything longer is going to be a Feature - foes recover more readily, but that means it's a bit easier to capture them without mortally wounding them first. How does this sound to people? For the nitty-gritty of precisely what "temporary wounding" means, here's what happens when the damage's duration runs out. Any Shock penalties that were inflicted don't vanish (note this only matters for the -50% version). Most statuses that are normally inflicted by damage, such as Knockdown/Stunning, Crippled/Severed Limbs, Unconsciousness (from failing the HT roll from dropping below 0 HP), and Death, also don't vanish, unless naturally recovering the HP would have eliminated the condition (so Temporary Crippling vanishes, for example). Statuses that are more ongoing than the mere binary switches from above or that result from being at a given threshold of injury - reduced Move, continual HT checks to avoid unconsciousness, pain, lasting injuries, Mortal Wounds, etc - do vanish when the duration expires. Bleeding shouldn't be a factor with the above short time periods, but if it is (possibly due to houserules) any blood loss is also temporary (you can make the blood loss permanent as a +5% Enhancement; this means any lost blood stays lost, but bleeding stops when the duration expires). If the attack also has Symptoms, those end when the damage expires, so be certain to apply Limiting Enhancements to Symptoms.