Achilles Heel

[Mister Andersen]

What do the following suggest to you about the nature of a creature possessing them:

Achilles Heel (Strength damage), Achilles Heel (Dexterity damage), Achilles Heel (Constitution damage), Achilles Heel (Intelligence damage), Achilles Heel (Wisdom damage), Achilles Heel (Charisma damage)

[Krensky]

Well, it's kind of hard without seeing it's either it's Damage Save or Vitality/Wounds, but something unformed, I guess. By that I mean something that's either not a cohesive organism or mechanism or that's very delicate or fragile once you get past the skin.

[Mister Andersen]

I was thinking more that the organism in quewstion would possess one achilles heel, not all six of them.

[Krensky]

Oh.

[Emily Latella impression]
Nevermind.
[/Emily Latella impression]

[spinningdice]

I don't know to be honest. I keep thinking of ideas, and then realising that most of them are better represented by Achilles Heel (Stress Damage) - I'm thinking the mental ones here...

Dexterity could be some easily damaged form of locomotion, as Dex is primarily movement based (whether that movement be dodging or whatever).

[MDL]

Well, if you pair the Achilles Heel with an extremely high Superior Attribute in the same attribute, I get the feeling of someone/something with a degree of 'upgrades' in place that are more easily hampered than raw 'natural' ability.  Might work for some concepts of cybernetics.  Sure, the guys Strength is 26, but if you target the chrome you can bring him down to 'mere human' levels pretty easily.

[Rhishisikk]

Sorry if this is the newbie comment, I'm coming from D&D and haven't made the full transition.

How common is ability damage?  Cause if it's as rare as in D&D, then none of these should be considered a 'full' Achilles Heel.  Also, if the Achilles Heel isn't obvious or common sense, the players may never discover it.  In a game under first ed Spycraft, Stryk-9 had minions vulnerable to biochemical weapons (INCLUDING TEAR GAS); we discovered this when we dropped a tear gas grenade to cover our retreat.

Honestly, the whole suggestion makes me leery of such things as Champions' vulnerability to alien magic.  The player took it as a Common vulnerability, and then quit the campaign because alien magic became Common.  (As did some other damage types, the other players either coped or bought the disadvantages back to where they REALLY wanted them.)  The point I'm trying to make here is our job as GC is to make certain that we aren't giving hand outs - limitations actually limit, disadvantages are disadvantageous, etc. 

[spinningdice]

Well, it will only usually be an NPC quality anyway... and is based on a dubious extrapolation from the rules.
That said, I think looking at something like Achilles Heal (Ability Damage) can only really be looked at as a vulnerability by looking at the causes of said damage & not much springs to mind at the moment - there is a combat option to do ability damage, but I can't reference my book at the moment to clarify.

[Antilles]

I think you're looking for Cheap Shot. Achilles Heel (Cheap Shot) could work, as it would simply double the penalties from it, though most would probably go for speed then...

[Rhishisikk]

Nah.  Advocates like me will Cheap Shot the wisdom and Tire someone until they fall.  (Okay, Advocates like ME will hit them in the face with pepper spray, hold them with a staff trick, THEN Cheap Shot the Wisdom, Tire someone for the +2 bonus from Determined, do a Called Shot to bypass the armor for the hypo filled with (whatever chemical's handy), then Tire them until they drop.

By this time, the rest of the group has downed the other 31 enemies, bound their wounds, and is taking bets on whether they get their first nonlethal damage recovery before I down my first opponent.  But that's okay; Advocates shine in other areas.

Now I need to check the rules on Cheap Shot... [badly mangled evil laugh]

[Daedalus4096]

Cheap shot doesn't actually do ability damage, IIRC.  It simply imposes a penalty on checks which are keyed to that ability.  A minor distinction, but important to, say, a fourteenth-level martial artist.