ideas for "give DR to a body part" sort of Afflictions

[Plane]

Looking for input on how to brainstorm approaches here. We're basically going to look at approaches to Affliction (Advantage +??%) and how it could be flexible.

For simplicity I want to work with DR in the more basic form without stuff like "Limited" to damage types, Ablative or Tough Skin, though I guess you could pair Force Field + 20 / Flexible -20 (cancel each other cost out) if it would work better conceptually.

DR 1 (Partial: Left Arm -40%) [3] would for example be a +30% enhancement on Affliction, and it would only allow you to give +1 DR to the left arms of people.

I figure you can't just say "Partial: One Arm" and get to choose which arm, as you don't get that kind of flexibility when buying DR as an advantage. You'd probably have to buy Left Arm DR and Right Arm DR as Alternative Abilities to switch between them via a Ready maneuver, which would be 3+3/5 = 4 or a +40% Affliction.

What I was thinking about, more broadly, is "can't give whole-body DR, but can give it to one part at a time".

You can use Selective Effect to limit whole-body Paralysis to a single limb (there's a penalty to hit to do this) so you could probably do that to limit raw DR (no "partial" limitations) to a single hit location, but AFAIK there's no obligation w/ Selective Effect to limit your effects, which is what I'm thinking here.

Or possibly, instead of buying Selective Effect on Affliction (Advantage) it might be possible to buy Selective Effect on DR itself?

DR 1 (Selective Effect +20%) [6] might for example let you optionally remove that 1 DR on any body part of your choice without removing it on other areas. This would let you for example get a needle with a life-saving drug in your arm while keeping the rest of yourself protected, a lot more useful tha Switchable +10% which would requiring dropping DR everywhere to get that needle.

The 6-point ability (+60% advantage enhancement) I think would end up being cheaper than Alternate Abilities buying DR w/ Partial, since you need to round those 1/5 costs up to the nearest point.

Even if you didn't round up costs until the end (sum the decimals first) I still think Alternative Abilities would be cheaper, even though it prevents you from using whole-body DR while Selective Effect does not.

There is the long road of "buy DR for every single body part as Alternative Abilities" but I think in the long run that ends up being more expensive than buying whole-body DR w/ Selective Effect.

One idea I had for Selective Effect might be that you're OBLIGATED to use it (you can't use whole-body effect?) unless you take the Selectivity enhancement to be able to turn Selective Effect off? I'm skeptical that's actually required though, and even then, +30% total enhancements on DR would probably still be a lot cheaper than buying Alternative Abilities for each variation of DR (Partial)

[whswhs]

I would say 30% + 30%/5 = 36%.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I would say 30% + 30%/5 = 36%.

That would just be "left arm or right arm" but not give "left leg or right leg" as options

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Plane

That would just be "left arm or right arm" but not give "left leg or right leg" as options

Yes, that's exactly what I meant it to represent. You could apply the same logic to having four options, of course.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Yes, that's exactly what I meant it to represent. You could apply the same logic to having four options, of course.

yeah, at a certain point it starts to get more expensive than full DR w/ selectivity though, so I'm trying to think of using that as the base price w/ some kind of limitation about being forced to be selective

[naloth]

Actually this sound a bit like a power I did a while back to turn body parts hit to stone. Offhand I can't recall the % values I used, but the effective limitation was the random hit location rather the whole target. Something like:

Affliction (Paralysis, only body part hit; DR, only body part hit)

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Plane

I figure you can't just say "Partial: One Arm" and get to choose which arm, as you don't get that kind of flexibility when buying DR as an advantage. You'd probably have to buy Left Arm DR and Right Arm DR as Alternative Abilities to switch between them via a Ready maneuver, which would be 3+3/5 = 4 or a +40% Affliction.

As an Affliction, you could use Alternative Enhancements, and negate the need for a ready maneuver. (Of course, you would end up paying more to do less.)

Originally Posted by Plane

What I was thinking about, more broadly, is "can't give whole-body DR, but can give it to one part at a time".

You can use Selective Effect to limit whole-body Paralysis to a single limb (there's a penalty to hit to do this) so you could probably do that to limit raw DR (no "partial" limitations) to a single hit location, but AFAIK there's no obligation w/ Selective Effect to limit your effects, which is what I'm thinking here.

Or possibly, instead of buying Selective Effect on Affliction (Advantage) it might be possible to buy Selective Effect on DR itself?

Selective Effect would work, but again, you're paying more to do less.

This is a situation I would just eyeball, as it involves rules I'm not overly fond of...

The RAW way to do it would be with "Either or Limitations" where you multiply the selective "Partial" limitations together to get the value. Both of which are undervalued as limitations IMO.

Torso, -10% x Eyes, -80% (max) x Left Arm, -20% x Right Arm, -20% x Left Leg, -20% x Right Leg, -20% x Left Hand, -40% x Right Hand, -40% x Left Foot, -40% x Right Foot, -40% x Skull, -70% x Neck, -50% x Face -50% x Left Eye, -80% x Right Eye, -80% x Groin, -30% = -0.000011010048%

So despite it being a significant limitation to utility, it's not really mathematically valid to get points back unless the GM decides to bump it up.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

The RAW way to do it would be with "Either or Limitations" where you multiply the selective "Partial" limitations together to get the value. Both of which are undervalued as limitations IMO.

Torso, -10% x Eyes, -80% (max) x Left Arm, -20% x Right Arm, -20% x Left Leg, -20% x Right Leg, -20% x Left Hand, -40% x Right Hand, -40% x Left Foot, -40% x Right Foot, -40% x Skull, -70% x Neck, -50% x Face -50% x Left Eye, -80% x Right Eye, -80% x Groin, -30% = -0.000011010048%

So despite it being a significant limitation to utility, it's not really mathematically valid to get points back unless the GM decides to bump it up.

You actually got me thinking about another approach about the undervaluing of partial...

There is a "Bane" limitation for damage types where instead of 'my DR only works against Cutting" it's like "my DR works against everything except cutting"

These values tend to be lower, but what if we defined partial or limited as "a bane to every type/location except that part" ? you could probably get most of it up to -80% that way

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Plane

You actually got me thinking about another approach about the undervaluing of partial...

There is a "Bane" limitation for damage types where instead of 'my DR only works against Cutting" it's like "my DR works against everything except cutting"

These values tend to be lower, but what if we defined partial or limited as "a bane to every type/location except that part" ? you could probably get most of it up to -80% that way

I think you are thinking of "Limited" which is specifically for attack forms and damage types. It's not really kosher to give Limited the balloon animal treatment and twist it into Partial, the very next defined special enhancement...

I'm not sure if it ever saw print, but Limited limits to a single type of resistance, and to do everything but x kind of damage, Kromm suggests:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Remember that things like "Common," "Occasional," and "Rare" are shorthand for "Common as an attack," "An occasionally encountered creature," and "Rare as an environmental condition." They are pegged to the context of specific advantages and disadvantages. Use, say, the rarities set for Detect or Neutralize with DR at your peril. My general feeling is that DR with a "hole" against something ought to get -15% for a Very Common flaw, -10% for a Common one, -5% for an Occasional one, and just be a quirk for a Rare one.

If this schema is used, you will be paying less for partial than you would for limited, not the other way around.