Rabidmuskrat
2013-07-02, 05:30 PM
Why must all attempts at piercing really heavy armour rely on hitting weakspots? Why can't we just hit the toughest point with enough force to go right through?
Ranged Ammunition Modification: Armour Piercing Tip
Any ranged ammunition that does piercing damage can benefit from this modification. It increases the base cost of the ammunition by 5 times and reduces the damage done by one size category. It stacks with all magical enchantments and all other modifications.
Ammunition with the AP Tip modification reduce the effective AC of their target on attack for the purposes of determining whether the attack hits by reducing the damage dealt.
Any attack that misses due to Armour or Natural Armour (not shield) bonuses to AC, instead hit, but suffer a -1 (untyped) penalty to physical damage for every point the attack roll misses by. This penalty can reduce the physical damage to 0 or less, in which case the attack misses.
If the attack would be a critical hit, it suffers no penalties in damage unless the roll that threatened the critical hit is insufficient to hit the target normally due to the previously mentioned sources of AC, in which case penalties apply due to that roll (not the confirming roll). It does not aid in confirming a critical in any way.
For example:
A medium longbow does 1d8 damage. A medium longbow firing AP Ammo would do 1d6 damage instead (as a small longbow). Now suppose you attack a guy in full platemail with the bow. He has AC 10 + 8 (Full plate) = 18. Your attack roll is only 16 and if you were firing a normal arrow you would miss. However, an AP arrow would hit for -2 damage, so on a roll of 4 (from a d6) the arrow would deal 2 damage.
If your attack roll was instead 10 and your damage roll 6, the arrow would 'hit' with a -8 penalty to damage. This would reduce damage to -2 and the attack would therefore miss.
The goal behind this is to make it possible for larger groups of low level characters to still deal damage to higher level/power characters and monsters. It is also to bring ballistae and such into the realm of the useful, since they gain such precious few bonuses to attack.
OP? Underpowered? Something similar already existing?
Ranged Ammunition Modification: Armour Piercing Tip
Any ranged ammunition that does piercing damage can benefit from this modification. It increases the base cost of the ammunition by 5 times and reduces the damage done by one size category. It stacks with all magical enchantments and all other modifications.
Ammunition with the AP Tip modification reduce the effective AC of their target on attack for the purposes of determining whether the attack hits by reducing the damage dealt.
Any attack that misses due to Armour or Natural Armour (not shield) bonuses to AC, instead hit, but suffer a -1 (untyped) penalty to physical damage for every point the attack roll misses by. This penalty can reduce the physical damage to 0 or less, in which case the attack misses.
If the attack would be a critical hit, it suffers no penalties in damage unless the roll that threatened the critical hit is insufficient to hit the target normally due to the previously mentioned sources of AC, in which case penalties apply due to that roll (not the confirming roll). It does not aid in confirming a critical in any way.
For example:
A medium longbow does 1d8 damage. A medium longbow firing AP Ammo would do 1d6 damage instead (as a small longbow). Now suppose you attack a guy in full platemail with the bow. He has AC 10 + 8 (Full plate) = 18. Your attack roll is only 16 and if you were firing a normal arrow you would miss. However, an AP arrow would hit for -2 damage, so on a roll of 4 (from a d6) the arrow would deal 2 damage.
If your attack roll was instead 10 and your damage roll 6, the arrow would 'hit' with a -8 penalty to damage. This would reduce damage to -2 and the attack would therefore miss.
The goal behind this is to make it possible for larger groups of low level characters to still deal damage to higher level/power characters and monsters. It is also to bring ballistae and such into the realm of the useful, since they gain such precious few bonuses to attack.
OP? Underpowered? Something similar already existing?