FixThePowerCombatRules/MinimumDamage

Official Rule

Following a successful hit, damage in Exalted is resolved as follows:

1. Determine the base damage of the attack (in dice).
2. Apply any effects that trigger before extra successes are added.
3. Add any extra successes from the attack roll.
4. Apply any effects that trigger after extra successes are added, but before Soak.
5. If the damage does not exceed the target's Hardness, no damage is done.
6. Note the "raw damage" of the attack.
7. Subtract the target's applicable Soak.
8. Apply any effects that trigger after Soak, but before damage rolling.
9. If the damage of the attack is now less than the attacker's Essence, increase it to the lesser of the attacker's Essence (*) or the "raw damage" of the attack.
10. Roll the remaining damage dice, without doubling tens. The successes rolled is the damage in health levels.
11. Apply any effects that trigger after damage is rolled.
12. Record damage to the target.

(*) Prior to Power Combat, this value was fixed at one.

Darloth's version

The minimum damage is reset to 1, but a new type of damage (like piercing damage) is added - namely penetrating damage. (Needs better name) Penetrating damage only applies to certain weapons, at the moment only axes. When using a penetrating weapon, min damage is equal to half the wielder's strength, rounded down, up to a maximum of the weapon's strength minimum (or twice the strength-min for artifact weapons, as they have a low strength minimum due to attunement). This, when combined with the penetrating damage on maces and things, gives a few ways around armour/natural soak with differing results. It also makes axes a lot less wimpy, without actually changing their stats at all.

szilard's version

The minimum damage is set to the greater of 1 or the difference betweent the Essence of the attacker and the defender (i.e., Essence of attacker - Essence of defender).

Toram's version

The minimum damage is set to 1 + (Attacker's Essence) - (Defender's Essence).

This differs from szilard's version in that an attacker will start doing extra damage when his Essence is one higher than the defender's, rather than two higher.

Fifth's version

Exactly the same as the official version, except that ping damage cannot move you into Incapacitated. Instead, any time you are hit with only ping damage and you would be moved to Incapacitated, you temporarily lose one point of stamina. Once your Stamina hits 0, you are then Incapacitated. Any hit that goes beyond ping damage can still move you to Incapacitated normally.

Official version

1. Grandmasta
2. Fifth

Darloth's version

1. Darloth

szilard's version

1. szilard

Toram's version

1. Toram

Fifth's version

Comments

In general, I like the Power Combat rule here, however, I think that it often resolves combats between two high-Essence opponents a bit too quickly. - szilard

Your version gives yet another advantage to people with a higher Essence, putting more and more emphasis on upping Essence fast. Still, it's the best fix I've seen that still keeps it essence-based, and it's better than the default, which makes people die far, far too quickly.
-- Darloth]

It gives less of an advantage to people with a higher Essence than the official version. Essentially, what it does is allow high-Essence types to wade through mortals even more easily than before, while limiting the minimum damage such individuals will be able to deal out when fighting their peers. - szilard

I like the idea, but I think the above tweak makes it a bit cleaner. --Toram

Not too bad... though I was also toying with moving in the opposite direction: making minimum damage equal to the difference in Essence with a miimum of 0 rather than one - so a normal mortal doesn't benefit from minimum damage against an Exalt. Ultimately, though, I decided to go with what I have to benefit PCs when fighting more powerful opponents. - szilard

Getting rid of minimum damage entirely would be a problem, I think; it'd let even starting Exalts laugh at elite troops, no matter how many troops there were. I have considered making 'ping' damage always bashing, though. --Toram

The only problem with that is, IMHO, that it doesn't change anything. For most Exalts, in the heat of combat, there's no difference between bashing, lethal, and aggravated once it's been applied. Any way you slice it, every HL of each is one step closer to Incapacitated, and once you're Incapacitated, the fight's over for you, perhaps in the most ominous sense if your foes still want to hit you with pointy things. - David.

If you win the fight, or your circle wins the fight after you're KOed, or you run away, or you're captured, healing a bunch of bashing is going to go a lot faster than lethal...especially if you haven't got Body Mending Meditation. Not all fights are one-on-one duels to the death. And Lunars, I believe, can heal bashing damage in combat relatively easily. --Toram

Right. After the fight, there's a difference, but I'm talking about during the fight. Also, you'll note that I said "most". I know that Lunars could basically ignore it. In fact, that's another problem that hadn't occurred to me. Lunars would become all-but-invincible. Their high soaks could reduce most attacks to mere ping, and if ping is bashing, regeneration kills it off as soon as the next turn rolls around. Back on my original point, though. It seems like your purpose is to make ping not knock characters out of the running so fast, and changing it to bashing doesn't really do that. It makes a certain sort of character almost completely immune to it, and doesn't change combat much at all for everyone else. It -does- make a difference once the fight is over, yes, but it doesn't alter the flow of combat for most characters. Unless I'm completely missing the point of the discussion, the reason to change the ping rules is to adjust the flow of combat. - David.

This ain't broke enough to need fixin', in my opinion. ~ G

I have no problem with the official version, but the above option struck me as being somewhat viable and applicable to your problems with it, so I decided to post it. It also makes Stamina more of a useful trait, which is nice. -Fifth