Corrosive damage on a striker attack

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Necrope

ST-based +30%? Do you mean I can change the amount of damage done with an Innate Attack to be based on ST instead of levels of Innate Attack? Haven't been able to find anything about that, at least not in Basic Set - Characters.

ST-based first showed up in GURPS Powers, and later got an expanded treatment in GURPS Power-Ups 4: Enhancements. Depending on how you build it, it adds your thrusting or swinging damage on top of whatever you pay for with Innate Attack - Plane's version would probably deal thr+1d-1 imp. Particularly for low levels of Innate Attack, ST-based tends to be a bit of a point crock, at least when compared to normal Innate Attacks.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Plane

Do we know any examples of Innate Attack (melee) defined as a kick / bite / etc ?

The Innate Attack skill recognizes four cases: beams and the like sent from the hands (or presumably other manipulators), the eyes, or the mouth, and projectiles sent from the hands. GURPS Furries adds sprays, sent from the other end. Those are the only cases. An innate attack sent from the mouth is sort of like a bite, and would be more so if you made it a melee attack with reach C.

However, if the Innate Attack is delivered by a carrier, you don't need to make a skill roll for the Innate Attack itself, and so I don't think it's subject to the skill categories. The skill would be that used for the carrier attack. A kick can be delivered by Brawling or Karate, and a bite by Brawling.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by whswhs

... and a bite by Brawling.

Or Karate, with an appropriate Perk. For Innate Attacks with the Melee Limitation, the Innate Attack skill isn't used* - rather, the default is DX or Brawling, but the GM can allow a different skill, depending on how the attack is described - Boxing or Karate can work if it's intended as an enhanced unarmed attack (punching for the first, punching or kicking - or even biting with the Perk - for the second), Broadsword if it represents a summoned sword (or Rapier, depending on design and preference), and so forth.

As you note, of course, for Innate Attacks that are follow-ups, all that matters is if the carrier attack hits.

*Unless you built skunk spray with Melee, but given it's not something that can be readily Blocked or Parried, I'd expect something more like Jet, perhaps with a reduced range.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Unless you built skunk spray with Melee, but given it's not something that can be readily Blocked or Parried, I'd expect something more like Jet, perhaps with a reduced range.

I did in fact build most of it with Jet. One of its effects, though, was a ranged Obscure (Smell).

[Plane]

Originally Posted by whswhs

An innate attack sent from the mouth is sort of like a bite, and would be more so if you made it a melee attack with reach C.

B112 says "functions as a melee weapon. It has no range, but allows you to parry" and I assumed the standard assumption of melee weapons is that they're something held in a Fine Manipulator (hand)

Originally Posted by whswhs

However, if the Innate Attack is delivered by a carrier, you don't need to make a skill roll for the Innate Attack itself, and so I don't think it's subject to the skill categories.

Yeah I'm just talking about skill rolls for where the Carrier is delivered via Melee.

That bestows a similar -30% discount for a Followup if the carrier is Melee -30% for it's -0% if it's a striker...

So to figure out why it should be cheaper to be deliverable by an indestructible weapon (Innate Attack Melee) and not a destructible limb (striker) I could only think of perhaps four hypothetical benefits (none of which I can actually confirm with examples so they might be seen as house rules) that strikers have over IA(M) that would affect delivery options for the Followup

1) doesn't require use of an existing limb (ie a limited amount of parries with a cumulative -4)
2) doesn't require an empty Fine Manipulator to wield
3) not subject to Fine Manipulator related penalties like Weak Grip
4) Melee Weapons can be disarmed, Strikers cannot (only severed)

If we apply that stuff to IA (melee) then it'd help to explain why you'd buy Striker over IA (melee) at low ST levels, or why you'd prefer a Striker over IA (melee) as a carrier for a Followup.

Of course if it's possible to disarm/drop IA(melee) the weapon probably vanishes and can be resummoned in a "readied" state as a free action so if we did that it wouldn't be that big a difference. If you wanted to resummon a dropped IA(melee) prior to your next turn you could probably just call that a Power Dodge (can only do it once per turn) and you'd only need to roll if you were holding off resummon in response to something else.