BAE Elemental Damage
Return to Savage Borderlands: BAE
Elemental attacks are either extra effective against certain enemies or add a certain bonus effect. Choosing which elemental weapons to carry, and which to use against which opponents, is an important part of the setting.
As always any effects which require the target to be Shaken or Wounded don't apply if that target negates the Shaken or Wounded by Soaking the attack.
Resistance and Immunity
Someone noted as being "Resistant" to an element . . .
- Takes -4 damage from those attacks. For example, someone Resistant to Shock is hit by a Shock attack. If they had a shield up, they take normal damage (their -4 resistance counters the +4 damage from Shock). If not, they take -4 damage.
- Ignores secondary effects, like Slowed, Frozen, Slagged, and Radiation's Soak penalty and meltdown.
Anyone "Immune" to an element ignores its effects and takes no damage from those attacks.
Corrosive
Corrosive attacks do +4 damage to any unshielded enemy who's either (a) primarily mineral (robots, vehicles, stone golems, etc.) or (b) wearing body armor. They also tend to destroy worn body armor (see that page for details).
Cryo
Cryo attacks do no additional damage. However, if an target is Shaken or Wounded by a cryo attack, they are also Slowed — unless they were already Slowed, in which case they're now Frozen instead.
- Slowed: Pace is quartered (round up) and cannot run. Distracted and Vulnerable. Takes +2 damage from melee attacks. Goes away automatically at the end of victim's next turn.
- Frozen: Cannot move or evade. Distracted and Vulnerable. Takes +4 damage from melee attacks. On the victim's next turn, the first thing they do must be breaking free as an Action (no roll required); they remain Slowed until the end of their turn.
Explosive
Some attacks are inherently Explosive, like grenades and rockets; use their stats as written. However, if "Explosive" is added as an element to a weapon, the following applies:
- If it didn't have an area effect before, now it inflicts damage in an SBT. For Explosive melee weapons, center this SBT right behind the target, so that the wielder is just barely safe (though any friends in the blast radius are not).
- If it already did area-effect damage, bump the template size, from SBT to MBT or from MBT to LBT. An LBT attack gets +2 Damage instead.
If someone is in an area of overlapping "splash zones" from a single attack, don't apply the damage multiple times. Instead they take the highest damage of that rolled, +2 for each additional zone.
Incendiary
Incendiary attacks do +4 damage to any unshielded enemy who's primarily animal or vegetable (e.g., anything living).
Radiation
Radiation attacks have the following effects on all targets:
- Radiation attacks are Soaked at -2.
- Anyone killed by a Radiation attack or while still Shaken from a previous Radiation attack immediately explodes for (Strength + Vigor) damage in an SBT. Large foes instead explode in an MBT, and Huge or bigger ones fill an LBT. The blast is always angled to not affect the person who dealt the killing blow.
Shock
Shock attacks do +4 damage to any shielded enemy. Once their Shield drops, Shock stops doing extra damage.
Slag
Slag has become far less common, now that all of the Hyperion scientists producing it have moved on to their eternal rewards. This is reflected in random gun and melee weapon generation, where Slag will never show up as a "normal" element.
Any enemy Shaken or Wounded by a Slag attack is Slagged until they take an Action to wipe it all off. A Slagged enemy takes +2 damage from all non-Slag attacks. The Slagged status doesn't come in levels; it's just a flat +2 no matter how many Slag attacks someone gets hit with.
Return to Savage Borderlands: BAE