Natural Immunity (Radiation)?, what would the point cost be/is it legal Options

[Otaku On Acid]

I'm working on an adversary shaman who might or might not be a PC and might or might not go toxic. What I'm wondering is that if he does go toxic would have the natural immunity radiation cost 1 or 3 points? According to the companion the one point edge only protects against natural toxins which radiation is, but would he need the 3-point version to counteract the higher level of radiation in his domain? or would it require an ever higher level of immunity? Keep an eye around because i plan on posting his back-story soon when I get it written out.

[Ol' Scratch]

Radiation is not a toxin. A toxin is produced by living beings, be it plant, animal, or bacteria. It doesn't apply at all, and I can't even imagine how something could be naturally immune to radiation beyond the use of magic.

[Luke Hardison]

While I agree that Natural Immunity (Radiation) is kind of like Natural Immunity (Bullets) ...

Rename it and use the same mechanic. If you read the description of Natural Immunity, you can only safely handle one dose every (Body / 2) days. For a hearty toxic shaman, being able to soak one 'dose' of radiation every 2 - 3 days isn't all that game breaking.

(Wow, re-reading that really quick makes my head spin. Characters with LOWER body scores can absorb radiation MORE frequently ... a Body 2 character can get a dose every day, while a Body 6 character is limited to one dose every 3 days ... I think someone screwed up)

Anyway, despite it being against the spirit of the rule, if you play it with the exact mechanics listed, it's not too overpowering.

[Ol' Scratch]

It was errata'ed some time ago: Replace both instances in the third paragraph where "(Body ÷ 2) days" appears with "(30 - Body) ÷ 2 hours."

It would also be pointless since one "dose" of radiation is not only an unlisted amount, but if you have a life-threatening exposure to it chances are it was more than a few "doses" worth.

[RedmondLarry]

A fast moving particle generated by radiation, that strikes a living cell, causes damage to that cell. Such damage, depending upon where it strikes, can be minimal, can kill the cell, or can damage the DNA of the cell. Some DNA damage will prevent the cell from replicating itself, and damage to DNA in an egg or sperm might be passed on as a mutation if it is a small enough change that the offspring can live and grow and reproduce with the modified DNA. Low doses of radiation, spread far apart, allow the killed cells to be sufficiently replaced with new living cells before the next dose occurs that the overall organism is not destroyed.

To have a natural immunity to radiation, one would either (a) not take cell damage from a fast-moving particle, or (b) would quickly repair such cellular damage when it occurs, or ( c) would replace cells so quickly, as a natural body function, that doses can be more frequent without destroying the organism.

I can see magical affects that could produce any one of these three, and perhaps nanite affects for the last two.

How Radiation hurts a living cell

[Fygg Nuuton]

a radiation barrier or limited armor (radiation) would work better, if you allow it

arent roaches immune to radiation or something?

[JaronK]

Roaches aren't immune to radiation. They're just immune to being killed with shoes thrown at them, for some reason. Evolution in action.

JaronK

[Fygg Nuuton]

oh yea, they can survive nuclear winter.

i don't really know what that is, i got it mixed up with radiation itself. i havent been through a science course in awhile

[Ol' Scratch]

Being immune to radiation is like being immune to laser beams or microwaves. It doesn't matter how healthy you are... you're still going to get toasted.

[Fygg Nuuton]

i am immune to bullets, its just the very high speeds they hit me at that hurt

just get a radiation barrior and your immune yey for all time

[BGMFH]

[Nath]

Scorpions, on the other hand, can take as much as 90,000 rad, while 600 would kill a man.

[Cray74]

[Wireknight]

I actually was thinking of this for a toxic dragon that I developed statistics for, and I figured that it's really only easily doable via the paranormal power of Immunity. A character with Immunity(Radiation) would probably ignore automatic damage from radiation entirely(though I think they eliminated this in SR3), and be treated as having (Essence x 2) points of hardened armor versus the resistable damage effects of radiation.

This allows them to ignore very high levels of radioactive exposure, but they will eventually succumb to absurdly lethal amounts as the power of the "attacks" they suffer exceeds twice their Essence rating. I'd say that radioactive toxic shamans, in addition to their tendency to be able to summon "radiation spirits"(read: toxic fire spirits who can inflict radiation rather than flame aura/flamethrower), ought to be granted this power.

[RedmondLarry]

Many years ago, a genetic defect in a female goose resulted in one that had a natural immunity to radiation. It had excess calcium (symbol Ca) in its bloodstream (Atomic Number 20), and when a high-speed radiation particle struck 4 calcium atoms they would absorb the radiation and become a single atom of Mercury (Symbol Hg, Atomic Number 80) for just a moment, but with an excess of Neutrons. The excess of Neutrons would cause the atom to split into an atom of H and an atom of Au. The H would combine with O and H atoms released by the breakdown of sugars and starch, and get expelled as water vapor (HOH, or more commonly H2O) from the lungs during respiration. The Au would clump together and get released by the reproductive processes. This damaged the reproductive processes enough that the goose did not produce any fertile eggs, and therefore this genetic defect resulted in a sterile female and the immunity to radiation did not get passed on to another generation.

[Ol' Scratch]

You need to get out more, OurTeam. :)

[Kagetenshi]

Agreed. But I may have to steal that :)

~J

[Luke Hardison]

When he got into the Au in the bloodstream, I was waiting on it to lay a Golden Egg.

[Jason Farlander]