Short Question: Pyramid 3/65: Natural Weapons

Wavefunction · 02-02-2016, 09:33 AM

The thing here is that there is a kind of double-standard going on.

The argument for modified ST-based damage is that you're getting full value for whatever enhancement you're getting, it effects all your damage, so you should pay points based on the amount of damage you have. Makes sense.

However, Striker already breaks this rule, and to a lesser degree so do almost all the other 'natural weapon' type advantages. They change your damage type, which changes your wounding multiplier, which multiplies the injury you inflict, for a flat cost you get something that effects all the damage you do. Striker goes a step beyond this, it gives you +1 damage per die, so regardless of what you're base damage is, it's now gone up by roughly +30%, again for a flat cost.

So you can make an argument for or against modified ST-Based damage. If you're using Natural Weapons it adds a bit more weight to the against argument, since it gives a flat base cost regardless of the natural weapon. In the current system if you ignore modified ST-Based damage then you can have teeth that do cutting damage and ignore DR for 4 points (Sharp Teeth (Cosmic, Ignore DR, +300%)).

To address your side-note, I don't think there are any situations where ST-Based Innate Attacks would be better. Perhaps if you wanted to model a weird situation where only part of the damage is modified?

I personally really like Natural Weapons, I've used them for actual weapons bought as advantages in one of the games I'm currently running.

02-02-2016, 09:33 AM	#4
Wavefunction Join Date: Jul 2013	Re: Short Question: Pyramid 3/65: Natural Weapons The thing here is that there is a kind of double-standard going on. The argument for modified ST-based damage is that you're getting full value for whatever enhancement you're getting, it effects all your damage, so you should pay points based on the amount of damage you have. Makes sense. However, Striker already breaks this rule, and to a lesser degree so do almost all the other 'natural weapon' type advantages. They change your damage type, which changes your wounding multiplier, which multiplies the injury you inflict, for a flat cost you get something that effects all the damage you do. Striker goes a step beyond this, it gives you +1 damage per die, so regardless of what you're base damage is, it's now gone up by roughly +30%, again for a flat cost. So you can make an argument for or against modified ST-Based damage. If you're using Natural Weapons it adds a bit more weight to the against argument, since it gives a flat base cost regardless of the natural weapon. In the current system if you ignore modified ST-Based damage then you can have teeth that do cutting damage and ignore DR for 4 points (Sharp Teeth (Cosmic, Ignore DR, +300%)). To address your side-note, I don't think there are any situations where ST-Based Innate Attacks would be better. Perhaps if you wanted to model a weird situation where only part of the damage is modified? I personally really like Natural Weapons, I've used them for actual weapons bought as advantages in one of the games I'm currently running.