Sphenoid bone

Plane · 09-14-2020, 01:50 PM

I was thinking since there is actually a thin layer of bone between the eye and the brain, what if instead of eye hits ignoring skull DR they only acted like chinks and cut skull DR in half?

This still wouldn't protect the eyes (like Nictitating Membrane or DR w/ Forcefield) since the DR would apply AFTER the eye HP was depleted.

Eye HP could probably also apply "cover DR" to "Sphenoid DR" which is lost if Eyeball Pluck is used. You could probably treat it like 2 wounds (for bleeding) and 2 rolls vs HT (1 for eye cripple, 1 for hit to brain) as a tradeoff.

"except skull" is now basically -5% occasional bane (from Horror, limited: occasional is -60% for comparison) since Zombies (used to be worth 0 in magic for skels) which only gives a 1-point discount for losing 2 DR.

This seems to make more sense than taking DR 2 [10] with No Skull [-2] from Powers The Weird (net 8 treats this like -20%).

Lacking DR on the skull probably becomes less relevant if you have No Brain. I'm guessing that's why it's worth 0 to skeletons, but Bane: Skull is worth points for zombies who can still suffer brain injuries.

Skull DR for the brainless seems to have just the benefit of "I won't lose HP if foes pointlessly target this location because they don't know I'm brainless" and maybe also "they'll hurt their hand if my skull has DR3 and other parts of me don't".

That's kinda of like buying DR 3 for your hands if you have No Fine Manipulators, I guess? Doesn't actually protect anything important: penetrating the DR doesn't do anything special.

This makes me wonder how you'd go about taking "No Fine Manipulators" with "No Signature" (ie you have fingers, you look like you can wield guns/tools/weapons, but can't, like a statue/doll).

I can figure out the opposite. To get the My Little Pony effect "I can hold a teacup but it looks like I have hooves which can't hold anything" it'd be taking NFM-40 and buying "Fine Manipulators [40]" w/ +20% Low Sig 10 +25% (+5% per -2 to vision rolls, -10 being true No Sig) costing total [50] meaning a relative 10 point trait of "Invisible Manipulators".

But the reverse... what exactly is "I look like I have an advantage but I don't" ? Perhaps Illusion?

Or maybe this is a feature because the benefits (people will think I can fire the gun in my holster and won't attack me out of fear of reprisal) have drawbacks (people will think I can fire the gun in my holster and will attack me to prevent me using it) balance out?

Something like "he has a skull with no brain" OTOH might be

BENEFIT: people will waste a -7 DX penalty trying to target a non-vulnerability
DRAWBACK: people will think you can deliver painful headbutts without hurting yourself and treat your head like a weapon.

Aside from avoiding hurting yourself w/ headbutts, options like "duck slightly so punch aimed at my nose hits my skull" would make skull DR a bit more interesting too.

That would also be fun for something like Jaw DR (either "duck so punch aimed at neck hits my jaw" or "come out of crouch so punch aimed at my nose hits my jaw") too. It would make limited DR a lot more tactically interesting. Maybe make defenses harder (taking into account 4e's inherent +3) by requiring MoS 3 for complete dodges/parries and MoS 0/1/2 shifting to adjacent bodypart of defender's choosing.

09-14-2020, 01:50 PM	#1
Plane Join Date: Aug 2018	Sphenoid bone I was thinking since there is actually a thin layer of bone between the eye and the brain, what if instead of eye hits ignoring skull DR they only acted like chinks and cut skull DR in half? This still wouldn't protect the eyes (like Nictitating Membrane or DR w/ Forcefield) since the DR would apply AFTER the eye HP was depleted. Eye HP could probably also apply "cover DR" to "Sphenoid DR" which is lost if Eyeball Pluck is used. You could probably treat it like 2 wounds (for bleeding) and 2 rolls vs HT (1 for eye cripple, 1 for hit to brain) as a tradeoff. "except skull" is now basically -5% occasional bane (from Horror, limited: occasional is -60% for comparison) since Zombies (used to be worth 0 in magic for skels) which only gives a 1-point discount for losing 2 DR. This seems to make more sense than taking DR 2 [10] with No Skull [-2] from Powers The Weird (net 8 treats this like -20%). Lacking DR on the skull probably becomes less relevant if you have No Brain. I'm guessing that's why it's worth 0 to skeletons, but Bane: Skull is worth points for zombies who can still suffer brain injuries. Skull DR for the brainless seems to have just the benefit of "I won't lose HP if foes pointlessly target this location because they don't know I'm brainless" and maybe also "they'll hurt their hand if my skull has DR3 and other parts of me don't". That's kinda of like buying DR 3 for your hands if you have No Fine Manipulators, I guess? Doesn't actually protect anything important: penetrating the DR doesn't do anything special. This makes me wonder how you'd go about taking "No Fine Manipulators" with "No Signature" (ie you have fingers, you look like you can wield guns/tools/weapons, but can't, like a statue/doll). I can figure out the opposite. To get the My Little Pony effect "I can hold a teacup but it looks like I have hooves which can't hold anything" it'd be taking NFM-40 and buying "Fine Manipulators [40]" w/ +20% Low Sig 10 +25% (+5% per -2 to vision rolls, -10 being true No Sig) costing total [50] meaning a relative 10 point trait of "Invisible Manipulators". But the reverse... what exactly is "I look like I have an advantage but I don't" ? Perhaps Illusion? Or maybe this is a feature because the benefits (people will think I can fire the gun in my holster and won't attack me out of fear of reprisal) have drawbacks (people will think I can fire the gun in my holster and will attack me to prevent me using it) balance out? Something like "he has a skull with no brain" OTOH might be BENEFIT: people will waste a -7 DX penalty trying to target a non-vulnerability DRAWBACK: people will think you can deliver painful headbutts without hurting yourself and treat your head like a weapon. Aside from avoiding hurting yourself w/ headbutts, options like "duck slightly so punch aimed at my nose hits my skull" would make skull DR a bit more interesting too. That would also be fun for something like Jaw DR (either "duck so punch aimed at neck hits my jaw" or "come out of crouch so punch aimed at my nose hits my jaw") too. It would make limited DR a lot more tactically interesting. Maybe make defenses harder (taking into account 4e's inherent +3) by requiring MoS 3 for complete dodges/parries and MoS 0/1/2 shifting to adjacent bodypart of defender's choosing.