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Since the Zombies can be used in other SDC setting like Heroes Unlimited and Nightbane. My question is would supernatural strength lower a Dead Reign Zombies AR? It's stated in the Dead Reign main book the reason for the Zombie's natural AR is due to fact it can't feel pain thus would not take damage. However, supernatural PS does and incedible amount of damage. After all we are talking about creatures that can put dents into tank armor with just their bare fists. I'm seeking opinon of other players and GMS on this before incorperating the dead reign zombies in a adventure I'm thinking up for my Heros Unlimited group.

Well Tank armor analogy was an example and even those humans bestowed with SN strength can find ways around breaking their arms. As for GM call, technially that is the answer but I am looking for others opinion on this and their take on the issue as well

I would agree with you on that. I'm not looking to negate the AR, what I'm asking is if it would lower the points by 1-4 considering the amount of damage it can do.

Came from palladiums explination of why Zombies have a high AR. Stating since they don;t feel any pain thus, they take no damage. Was wondering if the high damage f Supernatural stength would compansate it some. Since it's not artifical or hard stone, just deed flesh.

Personally I don't use AR for Zombies as if you hit a body you will do some level of damage(I know of one guy who lost an inch of Colarbone due to a .22 pistol).

Frankly to a supernatural creature a lone zombie should be tissue paper. It's when you get to having huge numbers of Zombies that things should get scary.

Iron Manticore wrote:Supernatural Strength is not an MDC only system. It exists in both Heroes Unlimited as well as Palladium Fantasy, both of which also have an AR system. There is never any mention of Supernatural PS altering AR in any way, shape, or form.

The problem is that Dead Reign changed the mechanic for AR. Origionally AR when applied to supernatural beings ment that the creature was so tough that the attack just bounced off the creatures hide. Now in Dead Reign they tried giving zombie's AR to indicate that while you hit the zombie you didn't do any damage as you didn't hit anything vital. Frankly AR sucks as a mechanic for this as zombies are human corpses and from over a decade of martial arts I can tell you that human beings are very easy to break in ways that inhibit movement. Unless you are playing a game where you have to totally destroy the zombie to "kill" it, then frankly your average zombie should be very easy to hit and damage.

Supernatural Strenght frankly is the sort of damage dealing where ordinary humans are seriously injured if not killed outright in a single hit. With the body of a healthy living 20 year old athlete their bones are only about as tough as a hardwood sapling and will never get any stronger. Now a zombie's body is rotting ie falling apart. if your average supernatural creature will literally crush the life out of a human being in one or two hits, a zombie may not feel any pain but it will suffer structural damage with any hit. Basically any hit should damage a zobine and quickly destroy it barring any form of supernatural regeneration of a magically created zombie.

High AR for zombies is questionable for me as well. As Rock mentioned, the body should still be taking damage dead or not. I'm sure high AR was ment give players challenge with even one or two, but in movies unless armmed with a gun a long zombie is going to be a challenge even if armed with a melee weapon.

Has me thinking on a new approch. Assigning the AR to one the "vital" areas like head shots to the brain but have the rest of body take damage like a unarmored opponant unless zombie is wearing armor for some reason Zombified SWAT officer for example. Maybe for certain bullets and or guns reduce damage. After all someone with a 9MM not going effect a Zombie unless aiming for the head, compared to somone using a shot gun.

CoalitionMerc wrote:well i see it as the bullets going through the body and not even hurting them

Standard rounds I say yes toeven teflon coated bullets but certain ones, like Shotgun buckshot which would shred large amounts of flesh if close enough. Or Hollow points and Dum Dum rounds which are designed expand upon entering the body would do regular damage.

Depending on how supernatural zombies are supposed to be in this context, and they appear to be fairly 'natural', just undead, then I'd say even regular bullets would do some, if reduced damage unless a lucky hit cracks a spinal column, hits the head or similar. Even a few .22 bullets hitting say a bicep will damage it beyond the ability of the muscle to contract the arm and similar.

Something like buckshot, especially at close range, high expansion and high caliber rounds would do much closer to full damage. A .44 magnum hollow point isn't going to leave a whole lot of an arm muscle left if it strikes an arm, it'll do severe damage to a leg muscle, etc. Hitting an arm bone with anything much heavier then a .32 is going to shatter it similar with a leg bone (maybe more like a 9mm, .38 or even a .45 to do that to a leg bone). This is going to progressively incapacitate a zombie even if it doesn't destroy one. Empty a clip of 30 9mm rounds in to one from an SMG and your likely to destroy enough muscle and bone to render one at least a crawler if not completely incapacitate one. A couple of shots from 00 or 000 buckshot from a 12 gauge shotgun at close range would likely do the same.

For supernatural PS, I'd say a good punch is likely to crush any and all bones at the point of impact, so one or two punches would crush the rib cage, possibly snap the spine, destroy limbs, etc. Basically one or three punches would leave a regular zombie a crawler or completely destroy one (head trauma, etc).
-Matt