M&M 3e Rules Question

Inx

Hey guys,

A buddy is running a 3rd edition Mutants & Masterminds, and I'm trying to build a character for it, but I cant figure out exactly how the Penetrating extra works. I also can't find any rules support for the third edition rules anywhere on the net. Can someone explain it to me?

Like lets say I have a damage power at rank 8, and an opponent has 8 ranks in Impervious. How much penetrating do I need, and why?

Super Namicchi

Your effect overcomes Impervious Resistance to a degree; the target must make a resistance check against an effect rank equal to your Penetrating rank. So, if a rank 4 (Penetrating 2) effect hits a target with Impervious 9, the target must resist a rank 2 effect (equal to the Penetrating rank). If the effect were rank 6, the target would have to resist the full effect anyway, since its rank is greater than half the Impervious rank. You cannot have a Penetrating rank greater than your effect rank.

basically you need to remember this: Impervious stops all effects keyed to that defense equal to half its rank. Impervious 10 stops all Damage 5 effects.

Penetrating essentially makes it so that even with Impervious the target still needs to make a save against the Penetrating rank.

in your example, the opponent would still make a save against damage 8. you exceeded the protection by 4 that Impervious 8 grants. If your damage was, say, 4, the Impervious would stop it entirely, no save required. If you had Damage 4 (Penetrating 2), the opponent would make a save against damage 2.

Inx

Okay, I think I get it. If my damage rank is half or less than half of the impervious rating, I need penetrating to do damage in general, and in such a case they save against damage equal to my penetrating rating. If my damage rank is more than half the impervious rating, they save against full?

If that's the case, then I think my buddy house ruled how impervious works and I need to discuss it with him anyway.

Super Namicchi

yes, that's how it works RAW; he probably house ruled Impervious back to the way it was in 2nd (ie broken)

Inx

How did it work in 2nd?

Super Namicchi

basically stopped effects equal to the rank of impervious and below

Inx

I dont think that's how he's doing it...like i think the way he's running it is that after all rolling is done, it negates levels of damage up to your impervious rank, which i think is even MORE broken.