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Old 12-13-2020, 09:57 AM   #1
nick_coffin
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Calculating injury for Diffuse targets

Injury Tolerance: Diffuse (B60) states that this advantage reduces the damage you suffer from most physical blows, but doesn't give an example on how to determine actual injury.

Does damage type, hit location, Vulnerability, or similar effects that modify wounding modifiers, affect wounding modifiers against Diffuse targets?

The box on B380 states that imp and pi* attacks never do more than 1 HP, regardless of penetrating damage... To me, this implies you do all the normal damage calculation, including adjusting the wounding modifier by damage type and hit location, then reduce damage to the maximum of 1 or 2 points. Is that a correct interpretation?
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Old 12-13-2020, 10:10 AM   #2
RedMattis
 
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Default Re: Calculating injury for Diffuse targets

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Originally Posted by nick_coffin View Post
Injury Tolerance: Diffuse (B60) states that this advantage reduces the damage you suffer from most physical blows, but doesn't give an example on how to determine actual injury.

Does damage type, hit location, Vulnerability, or similar effects that modify wounding modifiers, affect wounding modifiers against Diffuse targets?

The box on B380 states that imp and pi* attacks never do more than 1 HP, regardless of penetrating damage... To me, this implies you do all the normal damage calculation, including adjusting the wounding modifier by damage type and hit location, then reduce damage to the maximum of 1 or 2 points. Is that a correct interpretation?
Diffuse generally assumes that you're basically a Slime, sand-elemental, big ball of bugs, etc.. Note that while it doesn't state that it contains "No Head", it does state that "Most foes cannot slam or grapple you", which prevents just about anything special about targeting the head. Having or not having a head is basically a 0-point feature for a diffuse creature I'd judge.

p.380 Also states that attacks which aren't AoEs deal 1 (piercing-type) or 2 (other) of injury (note: injury, not damage) at most per attack. In practice this could be read to mean that a 1 point of cutting damage to the neck would double (and cap at) 2 damage. But generally we can probably expect most attacks to just do a flat 2 damage always, so it doesn't really matter. Practically speaking you might as well judge that there are no hit-locations since you also (p.60) cannot be crippled.

An example of a Diffuse character would be a Water elemental dude. He takes the rough shape of a human, but if you cut through his arm it will simply rejoin with his torso. Though likely with some internal disruption in his being, since the 2 point of injury remain. If he is human-sized he likely has 40 hit points (p.558), so the injury would be fairly minor. Probably you'll want creatures like this to have at least some level of regeneration unless they are f.ex. made up of a bunch of insects. Possibly a limited Regeneration at Fast/Very Fast/Extreme is suitable for an elemental/slime, etc.
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Old 12-14-2020, 07:51 AM   #3
nick_coffin
 
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Default Re: Calculating injury for Diffuse targets

I was leaning towards simply stating that wounding modifiers for both hit location and damage type are ignored, for many of the same reasons you mention above. However, the intent is not clear in RAW.

A reason why this may matter is if a given attack has nearly equal chance of no damage versus damage, it gives the attacker some tactical ways to change his chance of causing damage (by targeting hit locations with a greater wounding modifier, like the head or neck or using an attack with a higher wounding modifier, such as impaling).

Any combat with a diffuse foe (without explosive or area of effect damage) is going to come down to trying to wear the foe down a few hp per blow, and maximizing both the amount of damage, and the number of times damage is done, will be important.

Edit: B552 states that eyes, limbs, and extremities can still be crippled. It also says to "ignore special knockdown, shock, and wounding modifiers (emphasis mine)." I read that to mean you use the standard wounding modifiers by damage type, but ignore the special "per hit location" wounding modifiers. Agree?

Last edited by nick_coffin; 12-14-2020 at 07:57 AM.
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Old 12-14-2020, 07:56 AM   #4
Kromm
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Default Re: Calculating injury for Diffuse targets

I would say that Injury Tolerance and Hit Location (p. B400) is about as clear as it can be: "The Injury Tolerance advantage can alter the effects of hit location [...] Diffuse . . . All injuries use the wounding modifiers from Injury to Unliving, Homogenous, and Diffuse Targets (p. 380)."
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Old 12-14-2020, 08:01 AM   #5
nick_coffin
 
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Default Re: Calculating injury for Diffuse targets

Thanks, Kromm. That makes it clear. The rules for this are spread out a bit, which made it difficult to find this text. I was simply reading through the combat section (Chapter 11) and hadn't reached Chapter 13 (Special Combat Situations) yet.

Of course, the text on B380 does not list any wounding modifiers ... thus I assume it should be the standard wounding modifiers by damage type, but not by hit location?
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Old 12-17-2020, 12:09 AM   #6
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Default Re: Calculating injury for Diffuse targets

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Originally Posted by nick_coffin View Post
thus I assume it should be the standard wounding modifiers by damage type, but not by hit location?
I don't see a problem with using hit location, but it's probably only going to matter if it's a capless AE attack and AE attacks usually use Large-Area Injury rules where hit location I think defaults to being torso.

The rare situation where it could come up would be if just a small part of your body was exposed to AE (like just a hand)
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Old 12-17-2020, 04:15 PM   #7
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Default Re: Calculating injury for Diffuse targets

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Originally Posted by Plane View Post
I don't see a problem with using hit location, but it's probably only going to matter if it's a capless AE attack and AE attacks usually use Large-Area Injury rules where hit location I think defaults to being torso.

The rare situation where it could come up would be if just a small part of your body was exposed to AE (like just a hand)
I think it is up the the GMs judgement. An example of a diffuse entity would be a swarm of bugs; it might not have any hit-locations aside from a genetic 'bugs'.
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