Burn DR [Basic]

[myrmidon]

As a GM, I am working to build a superhero with flame-based powers using about 500 points. The part I am having trouble figuring out is his skin. His skin is like charred wood, which provides 10 basic DR. This costs 50 points. The skin is also extra-resistant to burning damage, providing an additional 50 DR versus burn. Using the Limited Defenses special limitation for burn damage, this costs 150 points. Combined, these two cost 200 points, which is a lot! It seems (in my inexperience) that the burn DR is overpriced for this situation. It's only supposed to protect from extreme heat; the basic DR provides the protection versus poison or skin contact (see Tough Skin). Would taking Tough Skin for the burn DR make sense? I know what I'm describing for the burn DR doesn't match the theme of Tough Skin, but it kind of matches the mechanics. Is that reasonable or am I missing something here? Thank you all in advance.

[sir_pudding]

Tough Skin is a limitation because it is vulnerable to Contact Agent. Contact Agent isn't valid for Burning Immate Attack. So no.

If you want protection against heat (not damage) that's tempurature tolerance.

[myrmidon]

To clarify: by "extreme heat", I mean burn damage.

[Donny Brook]

The problem, obviously, is that Limited DR is badly mispriced.

[Fred Brackin]

If the DR protects only v. fire that'sa category more limited than "burn". Burn covers electrical attacks and quite a few other things.

[sir_pudding]

50 points of DR vs. one of the most common kinds of damage in many games should be worth a lot. It's five times more than you need to protect against any source of burning damage in High-Tech short of nuclear weapons.

Supers often benefit from IT:Damage Reduction
With Limited Burning, one level is 30 points.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

If the DR protects only v. fire that'sa category more limited than "burn". Burn covers electrical attacks and quite a few other things.

B46 has heat/fire equivalent to burning damage, interestingly. Presumably because it protects against heat/fire sources that aren't burning damage, like Afflictions, fatigue damage from heat, and I guess therombaric explosives.

Burning damage from fire would probably be Occasional, I'd think.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

50 points of DR vs. one of the most common kinds of damage in many games should be worth a lot.

While true, there's a general problem with limited DR: GURPS doesn't care about who chooses whether a power works.

If you have a power that only works to attack half of your possible opponents, you're the one picking who you use it on, so -20% is fair.

If you have a power that only works to defend against half of your possible opponents, your opponents are picking who attacks you, so it should be more like -60%.

[myrmidon]

I was thinking more of general protection versus heat and fire, which sir_pudding pointed out is equivalent to burn damage under Limited Defenses.

The idea is to protect from plasma torch levels of fire damage, 1d-4d(5) burn. The reasoning is that the superhero produces a plasma torch from his hands. Plasma torches have a 5 armor divisor, which means it takes a lot of DR to stop it. Can Hardened reduce an AD to less than one? (For example, does Hardened 4 reduce an AD of 2 to an AD of 0.5?)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by myrmidon

ICan Hardened reduce an AD to less than one? (For example, does Hardened 4 reduce an AD of 2 to an AD of 0.5?)

Nope, Hardened stops at 1.

Note that f you put 3 levels of Hardened on your basic DR you don't need the special DR.