I am not sure if I am missing something. The base plasma torpedo on the D’Deridex Warbird in the core book is: Torpedo, Long, Damage 7, Persistent, Calibration, Cumbersome. Being a torpedo attack the base difficulty to hit is 3 but the weapon is Cumbersome so now the difficulty to hit is 4. The weapon has calibration, so you have to take a minor action to ready the weapon.
So at this point you have a weapon that you have to use something like attack pattern, spend a momentum / threat for an extra die, or use reserve power to have a decent chance to hit. If you do hit you get the 7 damage and you can spend 1-3 to activate the persistent effect, which is: at the end of each round, the target suffers half the weapon’s damage rating (round up) again. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the Momentum spent. So for the Plasma Torpedo on the D’Deridex the persistent damage is 4. This damage is reduced by resistance from my understanding which means, for example, a Galaxy class space frame with a resistance of five would reduce the persistent damage down to 1, assuming the minimum damage rule applies. If you spend the three momentum that would be three extra damage over the next three rounds. Assuming the target still has any shields left then that just ticks off the shields. I do see if the target doesn’t have any shields left and can’t restore them that this damage becomes three extra breaches
In contrast you have the photon torpedo on the galaxy class, which is Torpedo, Long, Damage 5, High Yield. The base difficultly to hit is 3, while not an easy hit, with a skilled tactical officer and good weapon + security can be expected to to hit more often then not, spend a momentum / threat for an extra die and now your in the really good chance you’ll hit. You can salvo photon torpedoes for +1 damage on the attack which also gives you the option for spread or Area. If the Photon gets a breach, it generates two breaches. You have a greater chance of generating extra momentum from a Photon torpedo because of the lower difficulty to hit which gives you more options for effects or extra damage. Anything you can do to improve the plasma torpedo’s attack is more effective for the Photon Torpedo not to mention that the Photon Torpedo can take advantage of the Rapid Fire Launcher Talent for extra damage and a d20 reroll and the Plasma torpedo cannot.
I keep thinking I am missing something about the plasma torpedo, but every time I look at it, I think the Photon torpedo is just a better bang for the buck.
Can some one provide me some inside as to what I am missing?
Clarification from Nathan:
In 2e, Persistent basically applies the attack’s damage again, so Resistance applies as it did against the initial attack (which means if the initial attack was Piercing, then it ignores Resistance).
So, Resistance would apply against the Persistent damage. Whether the plasma torpedoes are worth it, it’s what the Romulans use. Are they comparable to photon torpedoes? YMMV. They can be fired as a spread just like photon torpedoes, which could create some fun crises.
If you’re referring to firing torpedos as a salvo (2e p. 229), this doesn’t change the damage rating for the persistent quality. Damage rating is increased from 7 to 8, but since the rating is rounded up after halving, the persistent damage would still be 4 before resistance.
Yet, you’re probably hinting at adding the area quality, which is indeed a fun idea.
For a narrative approach at the problem: Plasma Torpedoes seem to be a one-shot weapon. If you burn a truckload of Threat (first to hit and second to do devastating initial damage) they seem frightening. They’re scary if they’re used, but it will take some time to do so effectively.
Pretty much what we see in the series (esp. TOS).
(Still not sure if this specific build is my favourite 2e rule. Probably not and I should probably think of house-ruling persistent if I should ever come to use this rule. Taking three-quarters of the damage rating instead of one half could do the trick, as could ignoring either halving damage or applying resistance, at all. )
The Plasma Torpedoes have the Cumbersome Quality so they can’t be fired in a salvo, which means you can’t add the spread quality to a plasma torpedo attack as it is currently written in the core 2e book.
The quoted effect of persistent from the 2e rule book is:
PERSISTENT: When this weapon hits, you may spend 1–3 Momentum. At the end of each round, the target suffers half the weapon’s damage rating (round up) again. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the Momentum spent.
If Persistent is supposed to do the full weapon damage then that is something worth a threat spend as only ships with exceptionally high resistance could just ignore the extra effect. If that is an errata then I am on board with that.
If it is supposed to be half of the weapon damage but you can add the same effects of the initial attack hit to each of the following Persistent Damage ticks that helps some what. It probably makes scan for Weakness a prerequisite for an effective plasma torpedo attack assuming the Piercing quality carries over for each of the damage ticks for the persistent effects. I guess you could up the protentional by having the warbird’s weapon’s officer have the Piecing Salvo talent, but you are using 2 threat to skip scan for weakness.
It’s jumping through a lot of hoops to make a plasma torpedo more than just a +3 stress damage over time weapon for 3 extra threat. The 5 base damage is matched by photon torpedoes by firing in a salvo and having the rapid Torpedo launcher talent which gives you a d20 reroll. You then get the bonus of either Area or Spread . Even if you don’t have the rapid launcher, you still can snap off a photon torpedo with a better chance to hit, and a higher chance to generate momentum which could turn into additional damage any way. I do understand if a ship that has no shields and has no way to get the shields up. is going to get wrecked by a plasma torpedo hit, but at that point that would happen with a photon torpedo spread as well.
Modifying (or taking away) the cumbersome quality by houserule at least in more recent models than TOS-era Romulan ships would also be an option. Maybe these new torpedoes got a refit.
I am thinking either the cumbersome should be dropped, or the persistent should do full damage. Each has different effects on game play. Generally I want to fully understand a system and if possible the reason behind a choice in a system before making a change to that system.
If Cumbersome is dropped then, then the Plasma torpedoes can collect on the front loaded damage increase on a torpedo Salvo as well as either using spread or area, can could be used in combination with the rapid fire torpedo launchers. If the persistent damage carries all the modifiers to damage as the initial attack that would up the over time damage making it a bit more dangerous an not as easy to ignore. But the plus side is if a Scan for Weakness is used then it doesn’t make the piercing effect as catastrophic if a hit is scored on the players.
If the persistent does full damage then the Cumbersome helps make the build up to the attack more tense. In that case of a warbird would want to do an attack pattern, scan for weakness, obtain a targeting solution, and probably close range. Then spend a threat for an extra d20. This build up to attack would leave players a lot of time to do something before the attack is launched. It would also be a good siege weapon against space stations and fixed targets that can’t evade or run away from such an attack.
I am also trying to think of other ramifications the changes might cause to game play.
In the new rules, torpedoes are only really effective if the shields are down. And in that case, it actually doesn’t matter how much damage the Persistent quality does. No matter if it deals 1 or 100 damage, if the shields are down either will cause a breach. (Remember that Resistance won’t reduce damage to 0 in the new rules.)
So the upside of plasma torpedoes is (assuming you hit and spend 3 Momentum) that you essentially cause four breaches after three rounds. I mean that’s very Romulan. Fire plasma torpedoes, then cloak and wait. Repeat after three rounds.
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