Adding a new type of damage - balance qwestions


Homebrew and House Rules


Hello, so i have a few qwestions about adding a new type of damage to the game - radiation damage. In fallout shelter, you can see radiation decrescing hp until cured, so as a proposal, maybe create a new radiation energy type, and i have some qwestions:

1) how whould it affect balance?

2) is it worth it?

3) how to substitute it, if its rejected?


there's already radiation effects in game


I added a radiation damage type to my fallout game before the official rules existed, as long as you have stuff that works around it like every other energy type it'll be fine. I also use a void type in my home games now and I've yet to have issues

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The Technology Guide already introduced radiation effects, which deal Con drain and Strength damage over time as you're exposed. I feel this better represents radiation.


Cyrad wrote:
The Technology Guide already introduced radiation effects, which deal Con drain and Strength damage over time as you're exposed. I feel this better represents radiation.

Also noteworthy is that it's a poison effect.


yes, i khnow all that, but the qwestin is about wheter is it aplicable as a damage type or what should be a good substitute,

i'm creating a new radiation domain that replaces all fire damage with radiation energy type damage, but after reading your comments i'm troubled with the idea that the energy type doesnt fit.
in addition to this, i really dont want to link the damage with the existing tables because if every time you'd had to cast an AoE the DM whould have to make saving throws for all the monsters in it

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Making a new energy type doesn't really add anything to the game and doesn't mesh well with existing content. If you want to make spells where mages can blast people with radiation, it might be better to have the spell deal fire (or acid) damage and inflict radiation poisoning.


If you're using certain forms of radiation, acid or fire may not cut it- but at that point, it should just be force type damage, and bypass everything.

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icehawk333 wrote:
If you're using certain forms of radiation, acid or fire may not cut it- but at that point, it should just be force type damage, and bypass everything.

If it bypasses everything, then it should be typeless, not force.


Cyrad wrote:
icehawk333 wrote:
If you're using certain forms of radiation, acid or fire may not cut it- but at that point, it should just be force type damage, and bypass everything.
If it bypasses everything, then it should be typeless, not force.

If there is anything immune or resistant to non-spell force effects in this game, I've yet to find it.


i like the fire/acid solution, as it doesn't seem OP so:

1)half acid, half fire
OR
2)fire and radiation poisoning depending on spell level+1

seems good?

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A blanket effect applying to all relevant spells is not the way to go. What happens should depend on the spell or effect itself.

For example, a spell that shoots a beam of radiation would do fire damage and force a damaged opponent to roll for radiation exposure (with the spell providing what level of radation it is). A spell that creates a pit of toxic waste would do acid damage to anyone who falls in and the pit would emit a radiation aura.

If you're looking for a "one-size fits all" solution then maybe refluff Sickening Spell or invent a new metamagic feat that makes a spell with the fire or acid descriptor radioactive and requires a Fortitude save to avoid suffering from weak radiation.

icehawk333 wrote:
Cyrad wrote:
icehawk333 wrote:
If you're using certain forms of radiation, acid or fire may not cut it- but at that point, it should just be force type damage, and bypass everything.
If it bypasses everything, then it should be typeless, not force.
If there is anything immune or resistant to non-spell force effects in this game, I've yet to find it.

The problem lies with NOT what is immune to force effects. The problem lies with what is VULNERABLE to force effects. Force effects affect incorporeal creatures. Force is like solidified energy that exists in both the Material and Ethereal Plane. It's not good to use because it has very specific properties in how it works in the game world.


icehawk333 wrote:
If there is anything immune or resistant to non-spell force effects in this game, I've yet to find it.

There's a template or two that grants immunity to Force effects, I think. ...From the Advanced Bestiary, not Paizo. XD Either way, yes, almost everything can be affected by it, and that's kind of the point. It's not strong, really, but it's consistent.

In Paizo's materials, Kobolds of Golarion introduced Radiation as a subdomain of Earth. Its main effect is - perhaps unsurprisingly - sickening people.

As an element, the key thing to remember is the scale between effectiveness and resistance. "Common" elements are stronger but resisted more often, while "Rare" elements are more consistent, but tend to be less powerful. As creatures aren't written with resistances to Radiation damage, it's almost rare by default if you want to do it as its own unique element.

Myself, though... if I were to do it in a game, I'd probably call it a hybrid Fire/Acid effect, doing half its damage in each type. That way, you wouldn't have to worry about adding new resistances, and it's even naturally set against Regeneration (which is typically stopped for a bit by Fire and Acid), representing the way radiation can screw with biological things.


So could anybody make a demonstration?

like to illustrate damage

BSF attacks the Goblin,
If he hits, he rolls for damage

i'm just lost in all the possibilities


@GM Rednal
Thanks!


Bohdan Maksymenko wrote:

So could anybody make a demonstration?

like to illustrate damage

BSF attacks the Goblin,
If he hits, he rolls for damage

i'm just lost in all the possibilities

An irradiated fireball detonates at caster level 6th, dealing 20 points of damage: 10 each acid and fire. Instead of a Reflex save, however, the high-intensity gamma radiation burst provokes a Fortitude save for half.


One of my best drafts

Radiation Domain

Granted Powers: the magical fires you create are not all heat, they carry the power of the Radiance as much as you do.

Blesing of Radiance: whenever you cast a spell with the 'fire' descriptor, the spell instead deals half the amount of damage as Acid damage, and half as Fire damage. In addition to this, each enemy that suffers damage from any of your spells with the 'fire' descriptor must make a Fortitude saving throw or be Sickened for a number of rounds eqwal to the level of the spell that affected them divided by 2 (minimum one). Any creatures immune to radiation automaticly pass their saving throws, bonuses to saving throws against radiation also apply to this saving throw.

Heart of Radiance: you gain resistance to radiation damage eqwal to your class level. At 8-th level, you treat all negative aspects of radiation damage as one step lower, this increaces to two steps at 14-th level and to three at 20-th level. In addition, yuo gain a resistance to fire and acid damage eqwal to half your class level, at 20-th level, your resistance changes to immunity.

Domain spells
1- Burning hands
2- Blindness/Deafness(only to be prepared as blindness)
3- Fireball
4- Detonate
5- Waves of Fatigue
6- Contangious flame
7- Firebrand
8- Incinderary cloud
9- Fiery body


Cyrad wrote:
The Technology Guide already introduced radiation effects, which deal Con drain and Strength damage over time as you're exposed. I feel this better represents radiation.

Agree 100%

Damage through exposure to radiation is normally called radiation sickness, radiation poisoning or radiation toxicity. Even very high exposure tends to take hours before there is any noticeable effect. The typical early symptoms are naseau and vomiting. Radiation does no appreciable damage to inanimate objects and plants (as evidenced by the revegetation of the Chernobyl site).

Sounds a lot like a type of poison to me.


Actualy it messes up plant genes as much as animal genes, but plants have multiple pairs of the same chromosomes, so they're a lot less likely to die of some important protein not working or cancer, it has very litle effect on plant cells because they have a hard membrane, which prevents metasasis, and the cells in plants dont multiply at the same rate as animal cells, so plants are really only afraid of very high intencity radiation, which is so powerfull, it breaks down organic molecules, thus insta-killing the cell.

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