Vulnerability and Weakness -- when do they apply?

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi

I don't see why a weakness to holy water (or holy weapons, or weapons of foo-ness) should not be a disadvantage. If my character is a tiefling with Feature:weakness to holy water, and the other characters are humans with no such feature, and somebody dumps a shower of holy water on us and I take 5d corrosion while the humans shrug it off, how is that balanced? Why didn't I get points for that weakness?

If it were something (a vat of acid, or an unholy weapon, or a sphere of hepatitis) that does damage to most or all characters, then being weak to that isn't a Weakness, it's average-osity. If my tiefling is Resistant to Unholy Weapons while every other character suffers full effects from them, that's an advantage -- just as if I was Resistant to Hepatitis. But if my aasimar buddy is extra vulnerable to unholy, shouldn't he get a disadvantage for that?

Likewise, if somebody paid points to have an Innate Attack (5d corrosion, only against tieflings) then that isn't a disadvantage for me, that's an advantage for them.


Yes, averageosity is a word now.

I would be inclined to agree.

Its only a 0 point feature when it balances out.

If say, there is an equal distribution of unholy weapons and holy weapons and the standard is being vunerable to unholy, but immune to holy; then having the opposite be the case is a feature. Otherwise it should be worth, or cost, points.