Hi there....

Long time shadowy lurker, first time poster/caster (well not counting my add to runners looking for Johnsons)

The Smashing Blow adept power does not have any prerequisite for Killing Hands.

However in the barrier part it says that barriers ignore stun damage...

So the question is if want to use this power do I need to have Killing Hands active as well...? Any other tricks to turn unarmed stun to physical to circumvent blowing a PP on Killing Hands just for that?

2 friggin powerpoints to become Kool Aid Man is unkoolly impenetrable ... And the Shark Mentor Sprit that gives killing hands for free comes with its own unique set of.... mmm.... hurdles...


Gratuitiously violent and shamelessly unrelated plug that if anybody has a SR PBP game with open spots, I am looking for a game...

Interesting question. I hadn't considered that, but all of my adepts with Smashing Blow have had something to make their unarmed damage Physical instead of Stun.

As a GM, I would allow the use of the Harder Knock called shot (SR5, p. 195) to convert Stun to Physical and thus allow the barrier to be affected.

Remember there are other ways to gain P damage: Cyberlimbs, called shots, hardliner gloves...

It's also best to use some common sense. Otherwise you could come to the conclusion that someone couldn't break a window with their elbow because the glass is technically a barrier and the elbow only does Stun damage. Don't get too caught up in the technicalities; given the price of the power it would be reasonable to say that Smashing Blow automatically assumes that all barriers can be affected.

That's a bad example, because breaking windows really is a lot harder than people imagine, even if you have something that would certainly deal physical damage per SR rules