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Phase Tech
Phase Weapons are powerful and impressive. The following will be used in this Phase World setting.

• Base Traits as per Lasers (or vibro Sword if a melee weapon).
• Armor Piercing becomes 0.
• Ignores all non living armor and materials, still affected by Force Fields and Arcane sources.
• Reduces innate Regeneration for wounds inflicted with Phase Weapons.
  - Per turn or minute becomes per hour.
  - Per hour becomes per day.
  - Per day becomes normal healing rate with a +2.
  - Note: Can still use active healing magic and psionics.
• Treats Heavy Armor/Toughness as normal Armor/Toughness.
• Can only be repaired or worked on by Promethean Phase Technicians.

The following weapons have Phase Equivalents.

• Melee Phase Weapons
• Phase-Knife Str+d6, AP special, Str min d4, Weight 2, Cost 21,000
• Phase-Shortsword Str+d8, AP special, Str min d6, Weight 3, Cost 27,000
• Phase-Longsword Str+d10, AP special, Str Min d8, Weight 4, Cost 33,000
• Phase-Greatsword Str+d12, AP special, Str min d10, Weight 8, Parry −1, Cost 54,000
  Notes: Reach 1, two hands (Size 1 and above may use 1 handed)
• Giant Phase Sword Str+2d8, AP special, Str min d12+2, Weight 16, Parry −2, Cost 150,000
  Notes: Reach 2; sized for Size 2 or larger, requires two hands if not Size 3 or larger.
  
  Personal Phase Weapons
• Phase Pistols 12/24/48, 3d6, AP special, RoF 1, Shots 20, Str Min d4, Weight 4, Cost 19,500
• Phase Rifles 24/48/96, 4d6, AP special, RoF 1, Shots 20, Str Min d6, Weight 10, Cost 48,000
  Notes: Two hands
• Heavy Phase Rifles 24/48/96, 4d6, AP special, RoF 2, Shots 30, Str Min d10, Weight 20, Cost 48,000
  Notes: Two hands
  
  Vehicle Phase Wepaons
• Anti-Personnel Phase Beam 75/150/300 4d6, AP Special, RoF 1, Mods 1, Cost 375,000
  Notes: Anti-Personnel, Reaction Fire.
• Light Phase Beam 150/300/600 2d10, AP Special, RoF 1, Mods 2, Cost 750,000
• Medium Phase Beam 150/300/600 3d10, AP Special, RoF 1, Mods 3, Cost 1500,000
• Heavy Phase Beam 150/300/600 4d10, AP Special, RoF 1, Mods 4 Cost 3M

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To be clear…

Say I have:

Toughness in armor: 24 (9)

vs Phase Weapons = 15 now

Rolling damage of the Phase Weapon if it’s 15 or greater I’m taking damage.

Also the armor itself is not damaged.

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Can only be repaired or worked on by Promethean Phase Technicians.

What might that cost?

Yes your statements above are all correct.

Edit: See below

Lemerian Bio-Armor FTW!

Ndreare wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 5:23 pm Yes your statements above are all correct

Can I play a Promethean Phase Technician for reduced costs?

Lars wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 5:25 pm

Ndreare wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 5:23 pm Yes your statements above are all correct

Can I play a Promethean Phase Technician for reduced costs?

Unfortunately even in the original game that was not an option so...

Okay, so a normal human with 1d6 Vigor and a medium forcefield that gives +3 toughness has an effective toughness of 8 against phase weaponry no matter what armor they're wearing.

That is not a lot, but it is better than nothing. Though I do find myself wondering if the damage goes a tich high at the upper end, considering it can't hurt nonliving matter... Even against spaceships it'll still be hitting crew rather than systems, right?

I tried to edit in the following above before anyone read. But here goes.

I feel like it should be binary if you have a forcefield all of your Armor counts. Otherwise you end up in these complex math situations in the middle of the game.. So the weapons have some use sometimes, and a little use other times but I think it balances out with having a high armor piercing score because there are times where we completely ignore a character's armor and leave it undamaged.. But there are also times where It will be relatively low effectiveness because characters are equipped with forcefields and magic defenses.

I’m buying a Force Field then.

Icosa wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 5:29 pm
That is not a lot, but it is better than nothing. Though I do find myself wondering if the damage goes a tich high at the upper end, considering it can't hurt nonliving matter... Even against spaceships it'll still be hitting crew rather than systems, right?

In space phase tech tend to be very binary. Speed cold by force fields or killing crew with stuff left in great condition.

I think it is basically like a psighost type weapon. That said if you have an idea for better stats I am open to feedback.

@Icosa Do you think dropping the dice 1 die type would be enough to balance them?

@Ndreare
Yeah, that's kind of where my brain was going. Here's my thought for the 'role' of phase weapons, and feel free to disagree or rebut because this is very much something I'm kind of just thinking of right now:

Edit - Also, I wrote this before seeing your post about force fields making armor count; that changes the situation a little bit in personal scale combat, but not a LOT. Personal scale force field tech is not commonplace it seems, being far too expensive to field en masse. I don't think it significantly changes the basic analysis, though in game terms it means some force field tech is much more attractive. Maybe there should be a mechanic for 'overloading' them temporarily?

1) In personal scale combat, phase weapons are a tech equalizer. Phase weapons mean ordinary infantry, with relatively inexpensive weapons (for Prometheans and their chosen allies at least) can bring down power armor and armored war machines with relative ease. The Protection power from magic gives fairly decent defense, but even a Naruni personal force field doesn't help a lot. In game terms what this means is that you're never really 'safe' no matter how good your gear is. That isn't a bad thing though, because it means groups who have access to great gear can still kick butt, while the GM can always toss someone with a phase rifle in to scare them now and then.

2) In large scale aerospace conflicts, the equation shifts. Most starships and some spaceships have relatively powerful forcefields that have to be painstakingly whittled down before phase weapons will work. They can damage shields, but they aren't GOOD at it; their inferior 'damage' per cost/mod slot means there's better alternatives. Normally an aggressor in space would use some kind of high power weapon like large lasers or railguns...or, even better, missiles...to blast the shields down, then follow up with phase weapons to incapacitate the crew while leaving the ship itself unharmed. Thus, phase weapons in space probably have the reputation of being tools of piracy; with the exception being Promethean starships. As military weapons in space, phase weapons aren't really the greatest. Even once force fields are down, killing the crew via phase blasts takes time and blind luck. It's much faster to just pummel a ship to death via missile salvos, or with targeted shots to power sources. A non-Promethean ship bearing phase weapons is almost certainly going to draw a lot of attention at customs inspections.

3) Finally, as a matter of doctrine and diplomacy, phase weapons have created an uneasy and perhaps unstable peace. The 'tech equalization' aspect of the weaponry means Prometheans have a huge edge over other technological rivals that makes them much easier to deal with at the bargaining table than on the battlefield. Which is good, because it fits the narrative. It explains neatly why it hasn't just been conquered outright by the vast economies and industries of TGE or CCW. The UWW could in theory make more of a play for it, but they are not quite the juggernauts that the others are, and of course...both of the other stellar empires have a vested interest in other civilizations NOT gaining access to phase weaponry. So a detente is born.

I think you and I are on the same page conceptually.

One of the things I am considering is this is three times the cost of a vibro-weapon or a laser, but as you really getting 3 times the benefit?

• Vibro-blades already ignore virtually all armor with even a Knife having AP 6 (the Armor provided by Heavy armor) and going up.
• Hand held Lasers ignore about 50% of Armor per scale. (light versus light, heavy versus heavy)
• Vehicle Lasers ignore almost all armor per scale.

I do not want someone grabbing a Phase Weapon with all its coolness and then feeling cheated. But I do not want it to break the game either.

Maybe dropping the ranged weapons a die type would work. Something like this...

Ndreare wrote: ↑Mon Feb 14, 2022 5:08 pm

Personal Phase Weapons

• Phase Pistols 12/24/48, 3d4, AP special, RoF 1, Shots 20, Str Min d4, Weight 4, Cost 19,500
• Phase Rifles 24/48/96, 4d4, AP special, RoF 1, Shots 20, Str Min d6, Weight 10, Cost 48,000
  Notes: Two hands
• Heavy Phase Rifles 24/48/96, 4d4, AP special, RoF 2, Shots 30, Str Min d10, Weight 20, Cost 48,000
  Notes: Two hands
  
  Vehicle Phase Wepaons
• Anti-Personnel Phase Beam 75/150/300 4d4, AP Special, RoF 1, Mods 1, Cost 375,000
  Notes: Anti-Personnel, Reaction Fire.
• Light Phase Beam 150/300/600 2d8, AP Special, RoF 1, Mods 2, Cost 750,000
• Medium Phase Beam 150/300/600 3d8, AP Special, RoF 1, Mods 3, Cost 1500,000
• Heavy Phase Beam 150/300/600 4d8, AP Special, RoF 1, Mods 4 Cost 3M