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Edge Protection questions: Flexible, Tough Skin, corrosion dam
A friendly reader asks questions about the Edge Protection rule via email. I'll respond here:
1) Does the EP only limitation for natural DR replace traits such as Flexible and Tough Skin? If not, how does EP interact with these traits now that blunt trama has been replaced?
EP would indeed replace the Flexible limitation, as it replaces the 4e flexible armor rules that the Flexible limitation calls upon. So instead of that limitation, just buy some or all armor with the -60% EP limitation. That's a much bigger discount than Flexible's -20%, but as pointed out in the article, 4e's flexible armor has little game effect – almost no effect if DR is low. The EP limitation makes for a much bigger reduction in the armor's effectiveness.
(A side thought: if you buy 2/3 of your armor as DR, and 1/3 as EP, you'll get the same net cost reduction as if you had applied Flexible's -20% to all armor. So that purchasing scheme is the equivalent of Flexible, costwise.)
Tough Skin in 4e works like (and includes) the Flexible limitation, with the extra limitation that the armor doesn't protect against effects requiring a scratch (like poison) or skin contact (like electrical shock). It's a -40% limitation, i.e., an extra -20% on top of Flexible's -20%. So using EP rules, I would remove the Flexible limitation component from Tough Skin, and call the Tough Skin limitation a -20% limitation on the cost of armor; its only effects are the above non-protection vs scratches and skin contact effects.
For any points of DR with the -60% EP limitation, adding the above modified Tough Skin means a net -80%.
And despite what 4e says, why not allow regular, non-flexible DR to take Tough Skin, without the Flexibility component, as a -20% limitation? It may not be realistic, but if it's conceivable, it could be bought as an oddball armor.
Similarly, good realistic examples of "natural" EP are hard to think of. Natural EP suggests a hide that's too negligibly thin to "absorb" a blow, but stubbornly resists cutting or penetration. Tough Skin doesn't fit the EP concept well either: if the hide can't be cut, how can it be scratched?
But if you're not concerned about the realism behind the armor, there's nothing wrong with giving natural armor the EP limitation, the above -20% Tough Skin limitation, or both. Mix 'n' match, I say!
2) How do energy attacks effect EP? Do you use adjusted DR and ignore EP, or have EP add to DR? In addition, how would corrosion attacks effect EP? In the normal rules, they reduce DR by 1 per 5 basic damage. Does it reduce both DR and EP, or is EP not affected and doesn't help against the reduction?
By the rules: If the energy attack has a damage multiplier, EP blocks the multiplier. No different from the workings for non-energy attacks. So a 10-point energy attack with a x2 damage mod, vs DR 2 and EP 4, will be reduced to 6 dam after DR. The next 2 points will inflict 2 points of crushing wallop. The remaining 4 points of damage penetrate and are doubled to 8 damage. Net: 10 damage (2 crushing, 8 energy).
You could adjust EP vs energy attacks up or down for any specific armor; it may make sense for some concepts. Buy DR with the EP limitation and an "only vs energy" or "only vs non-energy" limitation.
As for corrosion: I hadn't thought about that. Good question. Off the top of my head, I would say "Treat EP like DR here: a point of corrosion loss will remove a point of DR or a point of EP – the GM decides which, or make up some rule for which goes first."
But that's not too good a solution, maybe. Take a low-DR, high-EP "unbreakable" flexible armor: using the above rule, DR might disappear quickly, while lots of EP remains even after many, many attacks. What exactly is the state of that armor? The acid wore it down to a super-flexible paper-thinness, yet it's still whole and resists penetration?
Should high EP - "unbreakability" - necessarily mean high resistance to corrosion? If not, then corrosion should affect DR only, and EP could be removed in the same proportion (i.e., when you lose half DR to corrosion, you lose half EP; when you lose all DR to corrosion, you lose all EP, even if it was magically infinite).
I don't know what sounds "right" for DR, EP and corrosion. What do you think?