Cost: varies
A Piercing Attack is damage that can involve a fast, blunt projectile, such as a bullet, or is sharp but too small to qualify as impaling, like a dart or a stinger. It can be an Innate Attack.
The Four Sub Categories[]
- Small Piercing Attack (pi-) [3/level]: low-energy projectile or an attack that leave a small wound channel such as an armor piercing bullet.
- Normal Piercing Attack (pi) [5/level]: most normal rifle and pistol bullets.
- Large Piercing Attack (pi+) [6/level]: large-caliber solid bullets or an attack that leave a large would channel such as a hollow-point or ricochet bullet.
- Huge Piercing Attack (pi++) [8/level];
Wounding[]
Piercing attacks have modified Wounding depending on their size. This damage is multiplied after being reduced by any Damage Resistance. As piercing is most often used with bullets, approximate bullet caliber will be noted.
| Piercing Type | Approx Width | Wounding |
|---|---|---|
| Small Piercing (Pi-) | Small and slow bullets. 5mm (short) and .22 cal | 0.5 |
| Piercing (Pi) | Most bullets | 1 |
| Large Piercing (Pi+) | 10mm / 0.45 cal | 1.5 |
| Huge Piercing (Pi++) | 20mm / .700 cal | 2 |
Note that Huge Piercing operates identically to Impaling in most cases.
Flesh[]
Some of the types specifically reference flesh in the B62 summary:
- "Against flesh, halve damage that penetrates"
- "Multiply penetrating damage in flesh by 1.5"
- "Double penetrating damage in flesh!"
In regards to what is or is not flesh, this might refer to how Unliving things use different wound formulae, under the assumption anything lacking this is 'flesh'.
B269 describes it more generically without using the term:
- A victim loses HP equal to the damage that penetrates his DR.
- Halve this for small piercing attacks; increase it by 50% for cutting and large piercing attacks; and double it for impaling and huge piercing attacks."
Rounding[]
B379's Wounding Modifiers and Injury explains the rounding policy in two ways:
- Round fractions down, but the minimum injury is 1 HP for any attack that penetrates DR at all
This means that for Small Piercing (half injury) 1 and 2 and 3 penetrating damage all result in 1 injury.
Shotgun note[]
B279's shotgun weapons are normal piercing weapons. Page 9 of Tactical Shooting introduces an optional rule tweaking Shotguns and Multiple Projectiles for more realism called Shot Shredder where they're upgraded two levels (past large piercing) to HUGE piercing when used at point-blank rank (10% of 1/2D) but only if recoil is changed to that used for slugs (HT103/167) found on HT104's table.
Powers Built From Piercing Attack[]
Built-In Firearms[]
GURPS Powers groups these Piercing Attacks along with Burning Attacks
- Assault Rifle (+150%): Piercing Attack 5d (Accurate +2; Extra Recoil +1; Increased Range, x50; Limited Use, 3 uses/30 shots, Fast Reload; Rapid Fire, RoF 10, Selective Fire) [63]
- Heavy Machine Gun (+165%): Large Piercing Attack 13d+1 (Accurate +3; Extra Recoil +1; Increased 1/2D, x200; Increased Max, x100; Limited Use, 10 uses/100 shots, Fast Reload; Rapid Fire, RoF 10, +100) [212]
- Light Machine Gun (+150%): Piercing Attack 5d+1 (Accurate +2; Extra Recoil +1; Increased 1/2D, x100; Increased Max, x50; Limited Use, 10 uses/120 shots, Fast Reload; Rapid Fire, RoF 12) [68]
- Pistol (+70%): Piercing Attack 2d+2 (Extra Recoil +1; Inaccurate -1, -5%; Increased Range, Å~20, +40%; Limited Use, 5 uses/15 shots, Fast Reload, -5%; Rapid Fire, RoF 3, +50%) [23]
- Shotgun (+135%): Small Piercing Attack 1d+1 (Increased 1/2D, x5; Limited Use, 2 uses/6 shots, Slow Reload, -25%; Rapid Fire, RoF 3x9, +150%) [10]
- Sniper Rifle (+80%): Piercing Attack 9d+1 (Accurate +6, +30%; Increased 1/2D, x100; Increased Max, x50; Limited Use, 5 uses, Fast Reload) [85]
- Submachine Gun (+135%): Piercing Attack 3d-1 (Accurate +1; Extra Recoil +1; Increased Range, x20; Limited Use, 3 uses/33 shots, Fast Reload; Rapid Fire, RoF 11, Selective Fire) [33]
- Tranquilizer Dart (-35%/+210%): Small Piercing Attack 1d (Accurate +1; Armor Divisor (0.2); Increased 1/2D, x5) [2] + Affliction 1 (HT; Follow-Up, Small Piercing Attack; Unconsciousness) [31].
Elemental Attacks[]
- Ice Storm (+255%): Large Piercing Attack 2d+1 (Area Effect, 16 yards; Bombardment, skill 10; Overhead; Persistent) [50]
Poisons[]
- Tranquilizer Dart (-35%/+210%): Small Piercing Attack 1d (Accurate +1; Armor Divisor (0.2); Increased 1/2D, x5) [2] + Affliction 1 (HT; Follow-Up, Small Piercing Attack; Unconsciousness) [31] - Total [33]
References[]
- Basic Set pg 61-62
- GURPS Powers 136-137