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Undead and Vulnerabilities
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<blockquote data-quote="ravenheart" data-source="post: 5008292" data-attributes="member: 72088"><p>I have a confession: I'm not too keen on resistances and vulnerabilities. Especially not vulnerabilities and the way it unbalances damage types - in particular radiant and necrotic. </p><p></p><p>I did a quick check on the compendium to see how many creatures I could find containing the words "vulnerable" and "vulnerable radiant", with and without specifying the "undead" keyword. Here's what I found:</p><p></p><p></p><p>All creatures = 2995 entries</p><p></p><p>"Vulnerable" = 545 entries (18.2% of all)</p><p></p><p>"Vulnerable radiant" = 394 entries (13.2% of all, 72.2% of vulnerable)</p><p></p><p>"Vulnerable" with "undead" keyword = 360 (12% of all, 66.1% of vulnerable)</p><p></p><p>"Vulnerable radiant" with "undead" keyword = <strong>346 (11.6% of all, 96.1% of vulnerable with undead keyword, 87.8% of vulnerable radiant)</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>Ok, this is hardly news to anyone. Neither is the fact that most undead that are vulnerable to radiant are equally resistant to radiant. What I wonder is what the designers intent was when creating the radiant and necrotic damage types. Because as it is it's just plain boring. </p><p></p><p>Radiant was probably conceived to correlate with divine energy, which makes sense as long as it's radiant damage coming from divine PC's. But what about the classic Color Spray or Prismatic Orb, for instance? Nothing about that screams divine, yet radiant sound proper - and for some reason they are more deadly against most undead? </p><p></p><p>Dire Radiance is also a good example; a non-divine at-will power that does radiant damage, flavored with a hint of starry madness, and apparently it's exceptionally deadly against undead, most of which could be described as insane or no-brain anyway? WTF?</p><p></p><p>I do concede the point that undead are generally, vampires in particular, shy to light. But why should they, except for perhaps said vampires, take more damage (although it's an abstraction) from radiant attacks? Why would bright, piercing light suddenly make zombies decompose faster or pulverize skeletons? If anything, I'd say it should leave them temporarily vulnerable (in another way) to attacks in general.</p><p></p><p>Therefore, to get to the purpose of this post and the reason it's placed in the house rules forums, I propose a minor adjustment to the way that radiant vulnerability works on (most) undead creatures:</p><p></p><p>Likewise, to improve the potency of necrotic attacks against undead, follow this recipe (which generates more damage, but simultaneously empowers the undead):</p><p></p><p>Well, I hope I haven't beaten too much on this dead-ish horse. But I'd like some commentary. Too fiddly? Not a good enough reason to go through all this trouble? Unbalanced in some way?</p><p></p><p>EDIT: Don't trust the numbers too much, I think the compendium might be lying. Just so you know...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ravenheart, post: 5008292, member: 72088"] I have a confession: I'm not too keen on resistances and vulnerabilities. Especially not vulnerabilities and the way it unbalances damage types - in particular radiant and necrotic. I did a quick check on the compendium to see how many creatures I could find containing the words "vulnerable" and "vulnerable radiant", with and without specifying the "undead" keyword. Here's what I found: All creatures = 2995 entries "Vulnerable" = 545 entries (18.2% of all) "Vulnerable radiant" = 394 entries (13.2% of all, 72.2% of vulnerable) "Vulnerable" with "undead" keyword = 360 (12% of all, 66.1% of vulnerable) "Vulnerable radiant" with "undead" keyword = [B]346 (11.6% of all, 96.1% of vulnerable with undead keyword, 87.8% of vulnerable radiant)[/B] Ok, this is hardly news to anyone. Neither is the fact that most undead that are vulnerable to radiant are equally resistant to radiant. What I wonder is what the designers intent was when creating the radiant and necrotic damage types. Because as it is it's just plain boring. Radiant was probably conceived to correlate with divine energy, which makes sense as long as it's radiant damage coming from divine PC's. But what about the classic Color Spray or Prismatic Orb, for instance? Nothing about that screams divine, yet radiant sound proper - and for some reason they are more deadly against most undead? Dire Radiance is also a good example; a non-divine at-will power that does radiant damage, flavored with a hint of starry madness, and apparently it's exceptionally deadly against undead, most of which could be described as insane or no-brain anyway? WTF? I do concede the point that undead are generally, vampires in particular, shy to light. But why should they, except for perhaps said vampires, take more damage (although it's an abstraction) from radiant attacks? Why would bright, piercing light suddenly make zombies decompose faster or pulverize skeletons? If anything, I'd say it should leave them temporarily vulnerable (in another way) to attacks in general. Therefore, to get to the purpose of this post and the reason it's placed in the house rules forums, I propose a minor adjustment to the way that radiant vulnerability works on (most) undead creatures: Likewise, to improve the potency of necrotic attacks against undead, follow this recipe (which generates more damage, but simultaneously empowers the undead): Well, I hope I haven't beaten too much on this dead-ish horse. But I'd like some commentary. Too fiddly? Not a good enough reason to go through all this trouble? Unbalanced in some way? EDIT: Don't trust the numbers too much, I think the compendium might be lying. Just so you know... [/QUOTE]
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