[odd]

So I recently stumbled across the Transfer Wounds adept power and it fits great with one of my favorite archetypes, unarmed trogg adept.  However, the wounds to be healed have to be physical, and their physical track is much bigger. 

So what's the best way to roll a fair amount of soak, but still have it be physical?  Also, anyway to get around stick-n-shock and magic?  My best idea is go nekkid and do something to stay up through stun...

[Dwagonzhan]

Adept Spell springs to mind, since the drain is always physical.

[dposluns]

Adept Spell springs to mind, since the drain is always physical.

That's... iffy. A fundamental rule of magic is that Drain can only ever be healed naturally by resting, not by any other magical or mundane means. A GM might rule that you're not really healing so much as transferring the box of damage to the target, but if so this would be a majorly broken ability (any Mystic Adept could heal up all of their physical drain damage after a battle just by punching walls and furniture until it was gone).

[odd]

Yeah, I'd say it doesn't work on drain, but I'm more worried about trying to minimize damage from bullets/spells while maximizing the chances of it being physical.

[dposluns]

Yeah, I'd say it doesn't work on drain, but I'm more worried about trying to minimize damage from bullets/spells while maximizing the chances of it being physical.

I don't think you generally get to choose what kind of damage you suffer; it's usually dictated by the source of the damage.

One way to approach it is if you don't get to choose what kind of damage it is you take, how can you increase your tolerance of stun damage in general? Increasing your Willpower gets you more boxes on the condition monitor and helps defend against a number of sources of stun damage.

[Reaver]

Its a catch 22 situation....

Armor helps your soak pool and can reduce damage from physical to stun (armor exceeds attack damage value)...

So without armor all physical attacks will do physical damage, BUT you lose the armor value to your soak pool... so that physical damage is going to be much greater! (To the point of killing you in a single hit!).

Stun damage resistance depends on the type of damage.... a meaty fist is stun damage... so is a tazer.... but again without armor, you lose the armor pool to help resist.... thus you take more stun damage.... And since stun track is tied to WILL, you need a large WILL to have a good stun track....

But trying to rely on this ability to remove physical damage as the sole soyrce of protection..... is foolhardy at best

[dposluns]

Armor helps your soak pool and can reduce damage from physical to stun (armor exceeds attack damage value)...

Hah, I've been playing this game for over six months now and am only just now finding out about this rule. Thanks!

[odd]

Its a catch 22 situation....

Armor helps your soak pool and can reduce damage from physical to stun (armor exceeds attack damage value)...

So without armor all physical attacks will do physical damage, BUT you lose the armor value to your soak pool... so that physical damage is going to be much greater! (To the point of killing you in a single hit!).

Stun damage resistance depends on the type of damage.... a meaty fist is stun damage... so is a tazer.... but again without armor, you lose the armor pool to help resist.... thus you take more stun damage.... And since stun track is tied to WILL, you need a large WILL to have a good stun track....

But trying to rely on this ability to remove physical damage as the sole soyrce of protection..... is foolhardy at best

Yeah, I was hoping I was missing an ability

[Reaver]

Its a catch 22 situation....

Armor helps your soak pool and can reduce damage from physical to stun (armor exceeds attack damage value)...

So without armor all physical attacks will do physical damage, BUT you lose the armor value to your soak pool... so that physical damage is going to be much greater! (To the point of killing you in a single hit!).

Stun damage resistance depends on the type of damage.... a meaty fist is stun damage... so is a tazer.... but again without armor, you lose the armor pool to help resist.... thus you take more stun damage.... And since stun track is tied to WILL, you need a large WILL to have a good stun track....

But trying to rely on this ability to remove physical damage as the sole soyrce of protection..... is foolhardy at best

Yeah, I was hoping I was missing an ability

well, there are some abilities that indirectly help...

Combat sense powers will give you a bonus to the defense test... But not the soak test.
Mystic armor grants you 1 point of armor per level which WILL help.... but is VERY expensive (0.5pp per level)... So to get it to the level that actually helps and no just outright defeated by armor penetration is difficult...

Transfer Wounds is a nice back-up ability for when your defenses have been compromised and you've been hurt, yet have to keep going.... It's not something you can really build around and expect to be survivable in the long run....
Especially when you try to resist an assault rifle that can easily do 14p with only a couple of successes with ONLY your body rating...

[Dwagonzhan]

That's... iffy. A fundamental rule of magic is that Drain can only ever be healed naturally by resting, not by any other magical or mundane means. A GM might rule that you're not really healing so much as transferring the box of damage to the target, but if so this would be a majorly broken ability (any Mystic Adept could heal up all of their physical drain damage after a battle just by punching walls and furniture until it was gone).

"Iffy" is not the same as "explicitly forbidden" under RAW. Transfer Damage specifies "physical damage". Last I checked, physical drain does in fact cause physical damage.
It's interpretative. Apply where you find appropriate.

That said, I agree as a general rule that Drain damage normally shouldn't be transferable or easily healed...NORMALLY.
So at my table, I'd probably frown on this interpretation or reserve such an interaction for practitioners of blood magic or any other tradition that is explicitly about taking life to fuel one's magical power.
Mainly because such traditions carry consequences for their methods. (or ought to)

The biggest concern I'd have is out-of-combat scenarios.
Rituals, Channeling, Quickening, or any other big-drain magical investment. The practitioner would need willing subjects or more likely, unwilling victims to transfer their drain onto.
Which again...isn't out of place for magical traditions like Blood Magic.
I mean, it'd make for a seriously dark scene where someone literally bludgeons some poor schmuck to heal back and continue with the process...but yeah. Probably not something I'd want in my PCs' hands.

Looking at the practicality of the power outside of blood magic shenanigans.

It'd certainly be risky since it requires the Mystic Adept to be:
1) In melee striking range
2) Already injured (and thus taking penalties)

If they screw up their little combo attempt, they are probably going to die.

[Reaver]

Don't forget there is a cap to the damage that gets transferred.

You can only transfer up to your Rank in the Transmit damage  power....
That makes this a VERY expensive power to use and purchase at a level that could be worth while for your purposes...

TRANSMIT DAMAGE
Cost: 1 per level
This power allows an adept with Killing Hands to channel
any physical damage he has taken into an unarmed attack
and transmit it into his target. The attack is resolved
using the standard rules for unarmed combat. For each box
of unresisted physical damage the adept deals to his opponent,
remove one box from his Physical Condition Monitor.
The maximum number of boxes that can be transferred
in this way is equal to the adept’s level in the power.
Stun damage cannot be transmitted.

So if you take this power at rank 1, you only ever transfer 1 point of damage per hit...
2 ranks... 2 points...
and so on...

Considering it costs a full power point PER rank.... this is a VERY expensive ability, especially considering you need killing hands to take it in the first place...

This is definitely a "back against the wall" type power, but I can't help but wonder if that full power point would be better spent on something that helps you avoid that trouble in the first place....

[odd]

Yeah, it definately ain't optimized, but a fun power

[Adamo1618]

Augmentations spring to mind. Bone density, Pain editor, Platelet factories etc.

Throw in Prototype Transhuman, Muscle Augmentation/Toner and Striking Callus.

[Achsin]

Being able to soak the a decent amount of damage while keeping it physical and also hopefully protecting against electric damage.

First, you are going to want the highest Body rating you can get (for soak dice and physical damage track), throw in Bone Density Augmentation since it adds Body dice and not Armor. Platelet Factories as Adamo mentioned will help mitigate damage as well. Nephritic Screen if desired to help cut down on damage from toxins (as well as any other toxin resistance 'ware or adept powers). Some method for either eliminating or mitigating wound penalties (pain editor, high pain tolerance, etc).

Next, you don't want to completely eliminate armor, but you have to be smart about how much you have and probably tailor it to what kind of opposition you are expecting to face. Heavier equipped opposition means that you can likely carry heavier armor and still have it reduced to stun. You probably want to pick up rating 1 Orthoskin, this uses up 1 point of your available armor but it allows you to stack in the Insulation (+2 vs electric) upgrade as well as Chemical Repulsion, Dragon Hide, and/or Penguin Blubber as desired to help against various elemental damage types.

So far a Body 6 Human is throwing ~11 dice to resist damage, which means you are likely (better than 50/50) to be able to ignore most damage sources (Physical or Stun) dealing 3 or less damage.

That out of the way, you need your selection of armor. The smallest guns in the game are at least 7P (6P + 1 net hit) which means with your current 1 point of armor you can field anything with 6 points of armor and still have the majority of the incoming damage stay Physical. For smaller things like knives you've got 17 dice to soak with, enough to not usually sweat things up to 5S/P. Most importantly, this also allows you to stack a rating 6 non-conductivity modification onto your armor giving you a healthy amount of extra dice to ignore those tasers (20 dice or so after the -5AP). It's not perfect but it's pretty good for what you've got.

For the bigger guns (Assault Rifles), you'll have to do a bit of research, if they're carrying Colt M23s, HVARs, or XM30s with regular ball ammo, you're probably limited to just an Armor Vest or Lined Coat if you want to make sure that every hit stays Physical while getting a few extra soak dice, for the rest of them you're free to go up to the Armor Jacket since their 10P -2AP base let you stack up to 13 armor before it starts to have a chance at being stun.

The biggest thing that screws up this strategy (aside from something getting lucky and hitting you a bit too hard or any of the regular things you'd think of) would be Flechette ammo. That +5AP is probably going to be enough to push it into Stun damage unless you are playing it lighter on the armor.

-----

It might be funny to give him that negative quality where he hurts himself every day, accidentally transfers it to someone else and keeps cutting himself to make up for it.

[Kiirnodel]

Another option for increasing soak without increasing armor is to use the Attribute Boost (Body) Adept power. This option wouldn't stack (over the aug max of 4) with Bone density, since they both augment the Body attribute. But it would be an option to get bonus Body without taking the implants.