Throwing needles

[Captain Hesperus]

Okay, n00b question is n00bish....


Throwing needles have a Damage of 1L.


Is that 1L regardless of anything (the thrower's attack successes, Essence, etc.) or is it +1L?


If it's 1L then they are pretty useless as an Exalted target only has to wear an artifact chainshirt and be completely immune to them (Hardness 2). Is this a typo or are throwing needles that pointless (pun intended).


Captain Hesperus

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

It's not a typo. Though there's ways to get past their low damage, they aren't really intended for battle but instead for assassination. People don't wear armor every second of the day...dip them in poison, catch an enemy while they're bathing or sleeping or at a diplomatic meeting or simply AREN'T running around in full battle dress...

 

[Brickwall]

Stuff like artifact chain shirts and silken armor can be quite reasonably worn while asleep, and the rules specifically say you can't use called shots to get around armor, even though that'd be the only way to do it in this case.


Ah, assassination. The worst thing to try to get into in Exalted, even moreso than Sorcery.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Silken Armor you'll note has no Hardness anyhow. The chain shirt, sure...though sleeping in something made of chains is going to leave some interesting and unpleasant aches most likely. Is it perfect? No. But a non-magical throwing needle is something generally made for non-magical characters trying to kill each other, not something meant to bypass magical armors.


On the other hand, the pinnacle charm of Night Breeze style, Wind Needle Training allows naturally Piercing thrown weapons, of which the Throwing Needle most certainly is, to ignore armor entirely, including its Hardness. I'm sure other charms could be invented that do the same for Thrown itself or other assassination type styles that allow the needles. Similarly, you could craft an Artifact Throwing Needle of some form which also allowed it to ignore Hardness. The Space Warping Needle (p. 178 Infernals) would be an example of an Artifact Throwing Needle which ignores soak, though it's limited to only non-Artifact soak, it also ignore Parry DV...I'm sure you could make something of similar level that was more universal and included Artifact armor, but lacked the advantage against Parrying.


Alchemicals for example have the Armor-Bypassing Algorithms submodule of the Dedicated Harmonic Targeting charm, which allows ignoring soak of an opponent's armors and charms. Abyssals have Wicked Darts of Suffering, where it literally doesn't matter how much or if the attack does damage. Sidereals have Shadow Piercing Needle, which not only ignores armor, but also supplies the needle and cannot be parried.

 

[Virjigorm]

It also takes a great deal of accuracy to throw the weapon into a vulnerable patch unprotected skin, which is represented by the fact that only a huge number of extra attack successes can get the damage through armor. When charms come into it, all bets are off.

 

[cyl]

Ah, assassination. The worst thing to try to get into in Exalted, even moreso than Sorcery.

Not if you use sickness and poison that requires inhalation / ingestion... or a bow... poisoned arrows are much more efficient !
If the arrow doesn't kill the target on spot, the poison certainly will, and nothing says "you've been targeted for assassination" like a poisoned arrow ! :twisted:


But yeah, needles are useless against artifacts armor, or anything with a hardness value of 1, poisoned or not...