Barrier Defense

HERO System implies (but does not directly define) as special case of PD/ED defense, that which unless penetrated does not allow the passage of STUN damage no matter how much of it there may be. This type of defense is found primarily in the Force Wall power and on vehicles/objects. For ease of reference, we'll label this type of defense as Barrier Defense. The standard character based defenses can be referenced as personal defense.

The official HERO rules have three problems with this type of defense:

1. HERO poorly represents the 'all or nothing' like effects of anti-armor weapons where they either bounce completely, or penetrate causing massive damage.
2. While HERO includes rules for 'blowing through' what is in effect Barrier Defense on page 192 in their 5th edition Dark Champions, that rule hardly represents the reality of the event covering only overwhelming penetration of an intervening barrier.
3. The standard damage die rolling conventions of HERO result in fluctuations of damage (and thus penetration) far in excess of real world expectations. There should still be a random element, but it needs to be more controlled.

The following house rules are intended to correct this problems.

Barrier Penetration

• Damage is not rolled normally vs. Barrier Defense, but is instead determine by a comparison of the Defense and the Penetration Rating of the attack.
• An attack's base Penetration Rating equal to the DC rating of that attack (or its Standard Effect).
• Barrier Defense is modified normally by AP and/or Piercing attacks.
• Whenever an attack encounters Barrier Defense, modify the base Penetration Rating by rolling on the following table:

• If the Penetration value exceeds the Barrier Defense value, the attack continues on to its target without reduction in damage.

Example: A 5d6K damage anti-tank gun is fired at a vehicle with a defense of 15 points. The Base Penetration of a 5d6K attack is a 15. On a Penetration Roll of 9 or more the attack bounces without effect, if however the roll is a 8- the attack penetrations with a result of 5d6K damage being done to the vehicle ignoring the armor.

Barrier Defense Pricing

As this method will result in more BODY damage penetrating, Barrier Defense is a -1/4 Limit. It is typical for one level of the Hardened Defense (+1/4) advantage to be purchased to represent a resistance to small arm level Piercing. 

It's also typical for weapons designed specifically for penetrating heavy armor to buy 1 or even more points of Piercing with the Armor Piercing (+1/4) advantage. The rules on this site for heavy weapons assume this and such points are added directly to the Penetration Rating.