Temporary Attribute Penalties

Temporary Attribute Penalties (or TAP) is a rule listed below Patient Status in the green box on the upper-right of B421.
==Quotes==
===Kromm===
11 December 2006 by Kromm at http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=331421&postcount=4
One reason why "Based on (Different Attribute)" is an enhancement and not a feature is that it enables you to make all of your diverse abilities resisted by a single score that you could batter down via Affliction, Leech, Side Effect, or Symptoms. Yes, it's a safety measure . . . not everybody will have a way to diminish attributes and not everybody will have enough abilities that target a particular score for it to matter much. The GM could waive the cost if he felt that was warranted. However . . .
There's a larger concern that's harder to bring into such sharp focus, and that's the issue of the player who takes "Based on IQ" because he intends to build his PC around taking on dummies, affecting low-IQ animals, etc., or who takes "Based on ST" because he intends to take advantage of skinny wimps. Needless to say, it sure helps Beast Guy who has Animal Empathy, Animal Friend, and so forth if his Beast Telepathy powers are all IQ-based, even the normally HT-based ones, because beasts might have HT 12-14, but their IQ is rarely above 6. Likewise, it really helps an evil, widow-charming villain who goes around taking advantage of little old ladies if his normally Will-based mind powers are all resisted by ST.
The second matter is why I'd be hesitant to waive the enhancement cost. It's very hard to "prove" that a character is optimized for a task to such an extent that his choice is more than a special effect. But it happens, and the authors have seen it happen often enough to go with the +20%.
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Yeah, as advertised, that rule forbids it. However, the intent of the rule was to keep, say, shock penalties and penalties to IQ for missed sleep from affecting defenses, resistance rolls, etc. I suppose that we should have included a rider that victims of Foolishness spells, DX-depleting Leech attacks, etc., do suffer the full effects of attribute reductions, since that's the main point of such attacks.
Our goal was to keep mundane injury and affliction from meaning on-the-fly recalculations all the time, not to gimp attack abilities that can already be dodged or resisted.
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a slavish reading of that rule does indeed support the idea that you can't reduce IQ with an Affliction and then capitalize on the reduced IQ with an IQ-resisted attack. In fact, this is supposed to be possible. We just didn't want -4 DX from wounds meaning a transient -2 to Parry, -1 to Dodge, -4 to resist DX-resisted spells, etc. That's far too annoying a detail to track from turn to turn.
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it's irrelevant whether you suffer the "tipsy" affliction from drinking or from Dr. Booze's Cocktail Ray, because the effect is that you're drunk, not suffering a direct -1 DX and -1 IQ. However, an Affliction, Leech, Side Effect, etc., that directly reduces DX and IQ by 1 also affects your resistance and so forth.
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This rule applies to incidental attribute reduction by injury and hazards. Affliction with Attribute Penalty, Innate Attack with Side Effect or Symptoms that lower attributes, Leech with Steal (Other Score), and spells that reduce attributes (like Foolishness) are all direct, not incidental, and lower the target score even for defensive purposes.
===PK===
20 November 2010 by PK at http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=1080866&postcount=3
*Here's the thing you're missing -- and it's not your fault. It could definitely be clearer. The box on temporary attribute loss is referring to small-a afflictions, not being hit by the big-a Affliction advantage.
*In other words, if you become Tipsy, you suffer a penalty to IQ and Will, but that Will penalty doesn't affect your resistance rolls. However, if someone hits you with Affliction (Attribute Penalty, IQ-5), that Will penalty does affect your resistance rolls, because that's the whole point.
*So the box should be read in the context of afflictions, not Affliction.
*(Kromm's answered this one a few times around here. If I had time -- but I don't at the moment -- I'd track that down and cast Summon Molokh to see about getting it FAQed. Anyone else who's up for doing so, please feel free.)
==Exception==
*Defensive reactions
==See also==
*Temporary Disadvantage
*Temporary Enhancements
Category:Rules