I've been thinking about Whisp and Mother for some time. Whisp fears Mother, as she is always trying to kill him. However, the only technology that Mother understands is swords and stabbing weapons. Yes, she's strong, yes, she knows martial arts, yes, she's heavily armored, however, she still has to get right up to Whisp to kill him. All Whisp needs to do is make sure that he always has a long range weapon capable of penetrating her armor and she would never get close enough to him to do anything.
I'm not saying I'd want to fight her, but if I had my MAK 90 and a 100 round drum, she would never get close enough to hurt me.
Simple as you think it is. She has at least a 3@1 TV, 3@1 DV, which means for every 4 points of damage you get through when you actually hit, only 1 goes through. She is also heavily armored, so if your able to hit, it will be only a handful of damage with the rifle above. She has some major body skills, and since she is used to chasing Whisp, she likely has a way to significantly increase her speed. With the above example, you would get off a shot or two before she ripped you asunder. There is a reason why Whisp runs, and he's more powerful than us (I don't even put myself on that level).
John,
You need to start thinking about some heavier firepower. Say mount a helicopter minigun to a flying robot ball (like the balls in Star Wars, but larger), and make it voice controlled.
It may not stop Mother, but it might slow her up enough that you have time to pull out Ye Olde Grenade of Doome.
OK, so maybe a MAK 90 with a 100 round drum wouldn't stop her, but I'm sure Whisp could find some long range weapon that would take her out. The point is though that if you had a long range weapon capable of doing the job, there would be no need to run.
And you're right Eric. If I was going to engage that thing, I wouldn't want anything less than a Spy Tech long range nuclear bazooka.
One for every three points, actually, but you round down. If you're firing a lethal firearm with a 2@ SAL and 2@ RSV, that's 1/3 of annihilative - anywhere from 0 to 33 intensities if you have a 100% chance to hit (which you don't), assuming she doesn't have any damage resistance skills which might lower the damage category (which she does). It's more likely that when all is said and done, you're looking at something like a 17% chance to do dangerous damage, which gives you a maximum of 0 intensities of damage (2/3 = 0.67 rounded down). One hundred rounds times zero damage per hit = a whole lot of pain once she closes the distance.
Edit: somehow, I missed two hours of posts before submitting this one. Leaving it as it was, because maybe the math or the estimates are useful to someone.
One hundred rounds times zero damage per hit = a whole lot of pain once she closes the distance.
Scott, you have a way of putting everything into terms that are easy to understand. That was Crystal Clear.
How exactly do you declare that you're developing a "damage resistance skill"? Do I wait until I'm stabbed by a pirate and then be all,
Me: "I'd like to see if I can develop some Fortitude to reduce how much that hurt?"
MJ: *rolls dice* No, you explode anyway.
As I understand it, and I could be dead wrong, you can't just say "I am developing a damage resistance on the spot." Body skills need a catalyst to work. You can't just will yourself to grow wings and then teach yourself to fly. You would need a reason, be it psionic, magical or technological that would enable your body to grow wings. Now, if you prayed for God to give you the strength of Samson, that would increase your body strength, but you couldn't just say "I am willing my body to become as strong as Samson." Does that make sense?
With a method. Like so -
You: "I'd like to see if I can develop some Fortitude to reduce how much that hurt?"
Me: "How?"
You: [satisfactory explanation]
Me: "Huh, that does sound like a plausible way you could do that in six seconds or less. Roll for skill learning while I cook up a skill bias and crunch the numbers."
OR
You: [unsatisfactory explanation]
Me: "Sorry, not this time. The pirate's roll of 8 bajillion intensities stands. The good news is you verse out before your head can finally land in Zimbabwe."
Just to be perfectly clear, it is possible to develop damage resistance skills that are magical, psionic, or technological. The last of these will almost always involve device use of some sort.
John is correct that when it comes to Bod skills, you must have the appropriate body parts. How you get those appropriate body parts is a separate issue. For example, you could develop a resistance to acid by getting secondary sweat glands capable of releasing strongly alkaline liquid (e.g., ammonium hydroxide in solution) in response to acidic stimuli. You could obtain those by having your genome altered by a mutative virus, having them grafted into your system surgically (obviously, in a world where they have both the glands and the surgical techniques), magically altering your body, psionically altering your body, or being infected by a microscopic symbiotic organism that settles in your sweat glands and does the job for you. Of course, this would not protect you from kinetic attacks of any sort; you would need to find a different body solution for those.
--M. J. Young
I dunno MJ, alkaloids can be just as dangerous as acids. Lye for example is a strong alkaline substance. Not to mention the chemical reaction when acids and base compounds come into contact. Anyone who has ever mixed vinegar and baking soda knows what I mean. That might not be the best way to go for acid protection.
On a side note, if you get that kind of reaction from vinegar and baking soda, I've often wondered what would happen if you mixed lye and sulphuric acid.
In Vampire the Masquerade, my brilliant friend J, had his vampire character teach his ghouls damage resistance....
....tie them to a chair....pull out a shotgun....blast them and tell them to toughen up....repeat process after they heal themselves.
That would fall under magically altering their body as they develop the magical ability Fortitude (damage resistance).
Y'know for a while, I had one player going evil and being mentored by a vampire verser...I should have pulled that trick on him.
Yeah Tad, I've heard of that. Ingesting small amounts of poison to build up your immune response to it so it doesn't affect you.
Yes, alkaloids are as corrosive as acids. The point is that in creating a protection against acids, a controlled alkaline bath is the most direct response, and a biological release of alkali would accomplish that. It would indeed cause your skin to foam, the reaction creates large quantities of gas. I believe yes, you would get the same reaction from considerably stronger alkaline/acid combinations, and probably at a stronger level.
However, I think you overreact to the potency of that reaction. I vaguely recall as a child having a toy rocket which used a vinegar/baking soda reaction to power it, causing it to rise rapidly to rooftop levels. It must be noted, however, that the thrust was derived from the containment as much as from the reaction. The gunpowder on a sparkler is not significantly different from that in a bullet, and probably not that significantly different a quantity; yet the sparkler does not explode because the pressure created by combustion is released as quickly as it forms. In the same way, the vinegar/baking soda rocket flies, or the beaker overflows, or the balloon bursts, because the pressure is contained. If the reaction occurred in the open--if you applied baking soda to your skin and poured vinegar over it--it would bubble, and there might be a significant temperature change (I am not certain of this), but there would be no increased pressure.
Concerning poisons, it should be noted that building tolerance only works on certain classes of poisons--mostly those (such as narcotics) which kill by inducing a chemical response in the body, as the body becomes accustomed to the higher doses and so delivers a lower response. There are other poisons for which an attempt to build tolerance would work in the poison's favor, as the body cannot easily eliminate the chemical (lead) and so stores it in the body until a critical level is reached. Still others (acetaminophen and other drugs in high doses) overtax the liver and other organs engaged in eliminating impurities, and thus low level dosing over the safe threshhold decreases the body's ability to protect against the poison. Still others (antifreeze) cannot be taken in a safe dose, but are likely to destroy vital organs at any level. So although you can by low dosing build tolerance to certain poisons (mostly drugs but not all drugs), this will not work for all poisons.
--M. J. Young
Iocaine powder, anyone? =^_^=
However, I think you overreact to the potency of that reaction. I vaguely recall as a child having a toy rocket which used a vinegar/baking soda reaction to power it, causing it to rise rapidly to rooftop levels.
Yeah, I know what you mean here. I used to make cannons which employed the same reaction. (Bottle filled with the mixture, quickly corked. Within seconds, my sister was dodging the projectile.) In the case of vinegar and baking soda, the gas produced is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is dangerous enough to humans in a confined space. I'd hate to imagine what gases would be produced from a different alkaloid/acid mixture. It could very well be that, by dodging the acid, you asphyxiated yourself.
Iocaine powder, anyone? =^_^=
Yeah Osevens, that was partially what brought it to mind. Cool smiley, BTW.