Diminutive Size

[austinmonster]

I'm a little confused with the wording around diminutive size?

The way I'm reading it, does it mean that you can never inflict more than 1 stress with an attack unless you have a weapon or the like?  If you had a character with diminutive size and say - claws (A wereraven is a good example)  Would that mean they'd never deal more than their claws allow (two stress?).   Does this simply mean that any extra shifts you have left over after your opponent's defense roll don't matter?  what about foes protected bar armor? 

Any help you'd have is appreciated.

[Ophidimancer]

I'm a little confused with the wording around diminutive size?

The way I'm reading it, does it mean that you can never inflict more than 1 stress with an attack unless you have a weapon or the like?  If you had a character with diminutive size and say - claws (A wereraven is a good example)  Would that mean they'd never deal more than their claws allow (two stress?).   Does this simply mean that any extra shifts you have left over after your opponent's defense roll don't matter?  what about foes protected bar armor? 

Any help you'd have is appreciated.

I think I'd allow a Weapon rating to stack on top of the regular 1 stress you can cause.  Extra shifts above 1 won't register, which unfortunately means that an armored foe can totally ignore an unarmed pixie, unless the pixie can find a way around the armor.

[DFJunkie]

Damn... there go the Nac Mac Feegle.

[Doc Nova]

Would a "Chink in the Armor" type of stunt, or maybe even upgrade, to Diminutive Size possibly be in order?  Either a roll to bypass some/all of the armor's value, or a straight up reduction of armor against the talented character?

[CMEast]

Damn... there go the Nac Mac Feegle.

Always nice to see a Terry Pratchett reference

[austinmonster]

Damn... there go the Nac Mac Feegle.

Crivens!

Remember, the nac mac feegle always carry massive (to them) claymores that glow blue in the presence of lawyers though.  That'll inflict more than one stress!

I'm sure toot-toot's box-knife/letter opener sword allows him to inflict more than one stress per hit.

[wyvern]

Damn... there go the Nac Mac Feegle.

Obviously they don't have the diminutive size power - substituting, instead, the necessary stunts to replicate the power's advantages (stealth and dodginess bonuses) without the power's drawbacks.  They've probably got inhuman strength, too.

[Ophidimancer]

Would a "Chink in the Armor" type of stunt, or maybe even upgrade, to Diminutive Size possibly be in order?  Either a roll to bypass some/all of the armor's value, or a straight up reduction of armor against the talented character?

You know, I was thinking about this.  How balanced is a "Penetrating Attack" Stunt, that allows the character to have one attack that ignores 1 point of armor?

[Doc Nova]

Personally, since the character is paying -1 refresh for the ability to bypass some/all armor (and I would likely limit that to non-natural armor...although as I type that I could see someone coming up with justification for it's use against chitin as much as plate-type armor...so maybe I wouldn't limit it).  I kind of like the idea of linking it to an Alertness or Lore (depending on whether its natural or magical) roll.  Maybe the armor's value could be used as a "difficulty" to the roll and the shifts beating it could lower the armor by a like amount?  The higher the value of the armor, the harder it is to find a weak spot, but on an exceptional result (from roll, base skill, or invoking/tagging) you could levy a greater penetration...

[luminos]

a stunt can give an attack a weapon: 2 effect, and a stunt that lets a character ignore an equal amount of armor is a little bit weaker than that, since it relies on the target having armor, so there are no balance issues with it.