Durability

## Introduction

**Durability** is the property which guarantees the ability to withstand a certain amount of force. Withstanding force consists of the measurement of the severity of damage from attacks. This is not to be confused with endurance; while durability is the ability to withstand damage, endurance is a measure of **stamina.**

## Scaling Durability

Durability scaling is finding out how a person's durability should scale to a certain **Attack Potency** value.

### Calculating Durability

Calculating durability is a way of finding out a durability rating from a calculation. This is something done frequently and there are a few ways to find a character's durability depending on the feat involved.

If a character is struck by an object at high speed, then the energy of the projectile can be calculated by finding its kinetic energy so long as its mass and velocity are both known quantities.

### Newton's Third Law

Newton's Third Law of Motion dictates that any contact force done by one entity on another will be met with a force on the latter entity on the former that is equal in magnitude, but opposite in direction. This can be summarized with the phrase: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

When durability is being discussed, this is especially relevant. If a character can physically attack with a certain level of Attack Potency, showing no sign of pain from said physical attack should be cause for their Durability scaling to their Attack Potency. This is because the character would be forced to withstand a force equal in magnitude to it, and withstanding such a force means the two would be comparable to one another.

This is not applicable to characters who use weapons. A sword attacking with a certain amount of force does not always mean that the user of the weapon will have durability equal to the sword, but the sword's durability would scale from its Striking Strength. Sword users frequently harm opponents who they clash with, rendering this method of scaling flawed.

### Direct Statements

Usually when characters have direct statements of scaling to a certain value or scaling above another character, they would have a concrete method of scaling to another person's attacks. If a character is stated to be more durable than someone else, they would scale superior to the person they're stated to be superior to. Likewise, if a character is stated to be less durable than someone else, then the character would scale below them.

### Withstanding Attacks

Some characters are capable of withstanding damage to the point where an attack only leaves little to no damage on their bodies. In other instances, some characters are less wounded from attacks that seriously harmed others. Sometimes characters are only capable of wounding others because of using sharp attacks which are able to leave more noticeable wounds than blunt attacks.

### No-Selling Attacks

No-Selling is a term originated from wrestling. It means that a victim shows no reaction to their opponent's offensive moves. It's the concept that the character seems to be invulnerable to pain, when in reality, the ability just didn't inflict enough pain to leave a reaction. The attack can be capable of moving, budging, and occasionally even harming the victim, but they wouldn't show a reaction to this. This is occasionally tied to endurance and pain tolerance instead of durability, but in most situations, the attack was so weak that a character didn't even attempt to react to the attack. Characters are capable of No-Selling and tanking attacks at the same time.

### Tanking Attacks

Tanking is akin to how a tank interacts with bullets. It means that an attack doesn't even phase you, and occasionally even bouncing off of you, destroying the weapon, or harming the limb of the person who tried to harm you. This differs from No-Selling, as while No-Selling is a lack of reaction, tanking is a lack of damage.

## Possible Issues with Scaling to Durability

### Durability Negation

There are many types of attacks and indirect effects that can cause harm without requiring to scale to a character's durability.

Acid and Nanotechnology work by deconstructing the matter that a character is made up of without requiring huge amounts of energy.

Electricity can be conducted through flesh, electrocuting someone and causing damage internally without inflicting significant external damage. Even a character tough enough to withstand the energy of an electrical shock may still react visibly to having their nerves electrified.

Vibrations can pass through a person's body, targeting their internal organs without breaking the skin.

There are many possible reasons why a character's attacks may work against another character, even if that character has a higher level of durability. Context needs to be examined to determine *how* a character inflicts harm without solely looking at *who* they can harm.

### Haemoptysis

Haemoptysis is the act of coughing up blood. This is caused from the force of blunt attacks damaging blood vessels, causing blood and fluids to build up in your lungs. This created the popular notion that characters are getting their durability bypassed. This a flawed way of scaling, as organs and blood vessels are weaker than the actual body.

Causing Haemoptysis to a person by blunt force isn't the safest method of scaling. A way of scaling is from a boxer causing Haemoptysis to a victim who didn't gain it from another boxer's attack, the first boxer would scale above the second.

### Areas of Vulnerability

Most characters have specific spots on their body that are much weaker than others, like eyeballs, genitals, kidneys, livers, and more. Other characters have specific places on their body that are noticeably weaker than their other parts. Harming those body parts aren't usually the best for scaling to durability, but a way around this is scaling the fighter above another person who failed to harm that specific area of vulnerability.

### Surface Area

The issue of "cutting" and "piercing" attacks comes up as a result of the difference in surface area between the character being attacked and object being used in attacking them. Even in real-life, a person can do a lot more damage to somebody else with a sword than they can with their bare hands.

For example, if a character withstands an explosion as their primary durability justification than the energy of the explosion that they tanked has hit them over a large surface area of their body. However if all of that energy were focused in an extremely narrow area of effect such as the width of a blade or the point of a needle - then the energy would more than likely pass through the character's body much easier. Even a weaker attack than the aforementioned explosion could do more visible damage by being concentrated.

Extremely fine attacks such as with monomolecular wire or extremely sharp blades may effortlessly slice or pierce a character without much energy being applied so additional context should be investigated when rating the AP of somebody who primarily attacks via this method.

This can also be an issue with giant-sized characters being harmed by somebody much smaller than them. A bee can inflict pain on a human without possessing attack potency anywhere comparable to a human's durability.

### Pressure Points

Characters who attack via pressure points are more than likely targeting areas of vulnerability so that devastating effects such as pain, incapacitation or death can occur without much in the way of visible damage. A person having higher durability wouldn't necessarily protect against such an attack. This does not prohibit the user of pressure points from also scaling through their own strength to the person that they defeat via their pressure points but if the only feat of them defeating somebody is by targeting their weak spots then it is not strong evidence for comparability.

### Surviving Attacks

Many characters have been shown to survive attacks far above their durability, usually surviving with large injuries that others on their scale usually wouldn't survive. This is because of endurance, as they can endure a certain amount of pain regardless if the attack has burned them or sliced off limbs. This is not a durability factor, as this is a quality that is commonly attributed to willpower.

## Durability Levels

Durability measurements, values, and tiers are the same as the **Attack Potency** levels.

## Notes

* A useful long reference list for the tiers of many types of common feats.
* For how in-game mechanics can affect durability scaling, please visit the Game Mechanics page.

## Other statistics

* Attack Potency
* Speed
* Lifting Strength
* Striking Strength
* Range
* Intelligence
* Stamina

## See Also

* Universal Energy Systems
* Powerscaling

Template:Discussions