Abilities and Stacking.

Of The Game People · Post by **Of The Game People** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 2:51 am

After running a new game Ive been looking over alot of the abilities for various NPCs. While doing so I thought about the interaction concerning them in game and realised something interesting with two of them.

One of the NPCs has both Armor and Unnatural Resistance. Now as far as I understand it if both if it makes sense to use both then you add them together. So Id like to bring up an example:

Armor +5
Unnatural Resistance +2 (Physical Attacks)

So while fighting the NPC gets hit for 40 dmg from a punch. Using Armor first then Unnatural Resistance results in:
40-20(Armor)= 20-5(UR)= 15. A total of 15 dmg.

Using the same 40 dmg but switching the order in which dmg was resisted results in:
40-10(UR)=30-20(Armor)= 10. A total of 10 dmg.

So obviously its better to add the Unnatural Resistance first then armor to take less damage. So I wanted to ask all of you, and Clay. Which would you choose and why? Would the defender get the choice of choosing how he applies his abilities or would you as DM choose? I know ultimatley its up to the DM what is finally decided upon I thought Id just share my thoughts and see what each of you had to say. Thanks for the input!

calibur1 · Post by **calibur1** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:50 am

This came up early in my game too. The house rule is the Armor subtracts first, because the armor is hit first, then Unnatural Resistance kicks in. It's what I ruled as "layered protection." If there was a Barrier involved, then the barrier gets hit first, then armor, then UR.

Of The Game People · Post by **Of The Game People** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 2:00 pm

Hey Calibur1, thanks for the reply. And I thought of doing it the same way since it tends to make the most sense in most cases. Being hit, your armor would recieve the brunt of the damage then any left would be carried over to you.

Another thing I had to consider was what if both abilities came from the same source, you. Rather then wearing some equipment that gave you armor, it was you who had armor through thick skin/hide etc?

calibur1 · Post by **calibur1** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 3:15 pm

Again, my reasoning is that if a hero has both a scaly (or rocky, metallic, spiny, shell-like, etc.) hide and an unnatural resistance, the armor gets hit first.

My rule:

Barrier, then Armor, then Unnatural Resistance

But what if I'm hit by an attack that my hero has an Unnatural Weakness to? Calculate the total damage as per Unnatural Weakness then apply the layered protections.

Now there are exceptions to this. The foremost is if those layers are somehow stacked differently. For example: My hero has a scaly hide (Armor), but he is also wearing a flame retardent suit (Unnatural Resistance). He is hit by a flamethrower. Logically, the UR should reduce damage first before it hits the armor.

Another incident is in the case of multiple types of the same protection. Example: My scaly hero in the flame retardent suit is piloting a mecha (another source of armor). He is hit by a thermo blast. Typically you would stack all levels of the same type of protection, but in this case my rule would be mecha armor first, then UR, then personal armor.

This is the way I do it, but it's a judgement call by the GM.

Post by **Clay** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 8:48 pm

This scenario actually eluded me, and I'm glad you brought it up. I'll certainly make a note of it in future editions of the game.

Calibur's answer is what I'd consider most correct. You always roll your defense roll first, be it Barrier, Defense, or any other sort of equivalent. 90% of the time, Armor should be calculated after that, then finally Unnatural Resistance. If there's ever a logical reason to change this order (like the hide vs. the fire suit) then please, do so.