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Aberrant RPG - Aberrant: Simultaneous Linked Damage


Warren Verona

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When two powers are linked and their effects happen simultaneously how do you feel damage should be calculated?

There is no rule that dictates how to handle this situation.

In my opinion (in the case two Q-Bolts for example) the damage should be pooled and not soaked separately. My reasoning is that it is not two separate attacks, it is still one single action that results in damage from a single source (not multiple sources since the effect happens simultaneously).

Yes, this could produce incredibly powerful damaging effects in a game that focuses on defense. Yes people could create some 'broken' characters.

I say more power to them. Par for the course considering the min/max preferred style of play I see a lot of these days from RPers.

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It's two attacks. Doesn't matter if they both happen at the same time, it's still two attacks.

All of our other examples of two attacks have them not stack, and this even includes the example of that extra which lets you "combine q-bolts".

Further, all examples we have of "adds more damage" are extremely trivial. Bodymorph gives a +2 to HTH. Claws gives +1 per dot. Stacking damage is a VERY strong effect and the book justly limits it. Unless the book specifically says it stacks the default should be that it doesn't.

Counter Examples:

2 baselines shooting someone at the same time, even if we use extreme situations to make the bullets hit at the same time.

2 novas with q-bolts doing the same thing.

2 novas with q-bolts with that "combining" extra (Merged?).

1 nova with Immolate and a different attack. Since the damage can be of different types it has to be soaked differently.

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You could link something like a ranged Q-Vampire (health) with a quantum bolt. Since both are different types of damage and soak differently, you would have a very effective attack.

Poison (ranged) linked with a Q-bolt would be simmilar.

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Doesn't the Q-bolt/Q-Vamp(ranged) work?

Also, if I remember Poison correctly, it has two forms. One can represent disease, and the other a toxin. A toxin, of course, can be fast acting. The bite of a poisonous snake comes to mind. Another toxin that would also be fast acting would be Cyanide.

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Cyanide is probably better represented as Q-Bolt or even Q-Vamp. Poison the power mechanically makes it very hard to kill people at all, and also very hard to kill them immediately.

Also, part of the basic nova package is resistance to poisons and presumably part of that is resistance to how long they take effect.

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Originally Posted By: Revenant
Common misconception. Poison's effects are not immediate. It states in the book that the 'Poison' power has an onset time of hours, days or weeks. It makes no mention of any immediate effect.

An immediate effect is what I'm going for.


Disagreement.

Duration is "Instant"

The passage you refer to states:

"Remember that most poisons and diseases do not work instantly- they have an "onset" time measured in hours, days or weeks. Characters who expect to use this power to cause fatalities in combat are likely to be disappointed"

Most and are likely. Not all and will.

Considering the number of successes one needs for a poison or disease to be effective I don't have a real problem with the effects being speeded up. But if someone chooses "Agg" for the power then I can see the bullshit cheese potential.

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Poison Specialist would be Q5, Stam 5, M-Stam 5, & Poison+Ranged 5.

Ave # succ would be [5] + 2 + 4.5 + 2 (total = 13.5)

Poison takes 3 succ to do a single level of lethal damage.

So against a baseline who rolls no succ... you do 4.5 levels of lethal damage.

It's a Q min = 1 power, so it's designed to not be all that impressive. If you want to *really* make poisons buy Matter Creation. That will let you create nerve gas and radioactive substances.

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