The Ghost/PiercingArmor

The Variant in a Nutshell: The 2.5 rules do not properly reflect the effects of charms and/or modern weaponry on armored targets, this rule's change takes care of that matter.

The Base Rules

After the 2.5 rules set the Piercing tag subtracts a flat 4 from the target's soak.

The Problem

ISSUE ONE: Agincourt.

Articulated Plate, which is what the French knights were wearing, has 9L/9B soak, if a target arrow punches through 4 of that then how were the English Long-bowmen able to massacre them when they were well out of range to make called shots to eye slits or the like?

ISSUE TWO: SAW rifles with depleted uranium rounds.

If one looks into the history of tank warfare and modern ordinance as well as the Shards of the Exalted Dream book you will realize that this rule becomes even more inaccurate: there is a specific combination of sniper rifle and high grade ammunition which during Operation: Dessert Storm was routinely used to punch through tank armor like it was nothing.

ISSUE THREE: L.A.W.

The same is true of many specialized tank slaying weapons, which under the current rules are just plain, stupid, for the purpose for which they are designed.

The Goals

So, as armor has always been countered by specialized weapons, there must be a better way to punch through soak than a flat -4, yes? It cannot obliterate armor completely unless being directed against weak armor that is not effective enough to be worth going to the trouble, but on the other hand must be able to challenge things like tanks and high grade power armor. Tall order.

The New Rules

Now a simple and basic solution is to roll back the change on the Piercing tag, it cuts armor's soak in half, but they rolled that forward for a reason: namely, it does not make sense! Think about it, an arrow cannot punch through a steel door without charms, nor can a 'cop killer' bullet take out a tank. So a more complex, but realistic solution is called for.

P, AP, and HAP

Now, the solution that came to me is this: Why stick with a simple Piercing tag? Could you not, fairly easily, layer up to 3 effects which each would grant 'Piercing' to an attack? What if instead of as normal the effects not stacking the 3 levels added together for progressively more powerful armor piercing capabilities?

Enter two new tags: 'Armor Piercing' and 'Hyper Armor Piercing': these tags are given when a person layers 2 or 3 effects that each individually grant the Piercing tag to an attack.

Armor Piercing: or 'AP' instead of a flat -4 to armor subtracts the weapon's raw damage from the target's armored soak.

As an example if you have a bowman with target arrows with a Jade Long Power Bow and STR 5 who adds on a charm that grants Piercing that gets bumped up to 'AP' and the attack now subtracts 8 from the armored soak of the target.

Hyper Armor Piercing: Now say you have an exalted sniper with a gun, and bullets, and a charm that all grant piercing. Instead of subtracting the weapons raw damage it now cuts the armored soak by (the weapon's raw damage +4) or HALF whichever is GREATER.

Final Notes

This variant is not for everyone, and is mostly intended for games set in the modern age or distant future where guns rule the battlefield and armor is glaringly a joke against some weapons. You and your players should probably play test the effects of this rule on combat before you decide it is right for your group.