Afflictions

An “affliction” is any attack that
causes a baneful effect – blindness,
choking, stunning, etc. – instead of
damage. Examples include tear gas,
stun guns, the Affliction advantage
(p. 35), and most other “nonlethal”
weapons and powers.
The target of an affliction always
gets a modified HT roll to resist; e.g.,
HT-3. His DR normally adds to this
roll; for instance, DR 1 gives +1 to HT.
However, afflictions often have armor
divisors or special “penetration modi-
fiers” (see below) that bypass some or
all of the target’s DR. For example, DR
gives no HT bonus against a follow-up
affliction if the “carrier” attack pene-
trates DR.
On a failed HT roll, the victim suf-
fers the effects of the affliction: stun-
ning for high-tech stun guns, choking
and partial blindness for tear gas,
etc. See Afflictions (p. 428) for descrip-
tions of the most common effects.
Since afflictions represent a huge
variety of different attacks – from
beam weapons to chemical agents to
psionic mind blasts – you should con-
sult the footnotes to the relevant
weapon table for full details.
Linked Afflictions: Some attacks
that inflict ordinary damage have an
affliction “linked” to them. For exam-
ple, a cattle prod does burning dam-
age and requires the victim to make a
HT-3 roll to avoid stunning. Anyone
hit by such an attack must attempt his
resistance roll or suffer the affliction,
regardless of whether any damage pen-
etrates his DR.
Side Effects: Certain damaging
attacks cause an affliction as a “side
effect” . . . if they inflict injury. The vic-
tim gets a HT roll to resist, but typi-
cally at -1 per 2 points of injury.