A question came up the other day when we had Mr Fixer in a fight against Plague Rat. Does Hoist Chain reduce Plague Rat's ability to do irreducible damage or does that not work because making someone do less damage counts as reducing their damage?
Or to put it in other words, is irreducible damage only irreducible at the point of impact, acting like armor piercing, or is it also irreducible at the source?
Irreducible damage is irreducible for all intents and purposes, so no, Hoist Chain would not reduce his damage :D
Ok, thanks for the quick reply!
Damage prevention, on the other hand, would work - best example there would be Resilient Hide (belonging to the Naturalist), provided Rat isn't buffed at all :).
Interesting tidbit - the original printing of the game had Wraith's Stealth power "prevent" the next 2 damage she would take, so it stopped irreducible damage. This is no longer true in the Enhanced Edition.
One of Bunker's incap powers does still prevent damage, however. It, Undaunted, Resilient Hide, and Flak Jacket are the only prevention options for heroes I'm aware of.
Immunity also prevents. Flesh of the Sun God is the only immunity card I can think of at the moment, though.
Undaunted also prevents damage. Next Evolution and provides Immunity and Null Point Calibration Unit is effectively prevention.
See I was confused, because in my mind, applying a debuff to Plague Rat (the source of the irreducable damage) registers in my mind as "preventing" it from ever occurring, but I see your collective points.
Synaptic Interruption also "prevents" irreducible damage. :D
In that case, so does the amulet
If you mean the Amulet of the Elder Gods, redirection isn't the same as prevention - you're not stopping the damage from occurring, you're making it hit something else instead of yourself ;).
Yeah I did and I agree but Donner brought up synaptic interruption which is a redirect as well
I had a similar reaction to Mega Computer; I was blown away by the idea that Fixer can use Riveting Crane on the villain and then all the Environment targets will hit the villain for full, even though they could be as much as -3 against the heroes.
There are pros and cons to redirection vs. prevention. Redirection can be redirected right back (thanks, Iron Legacy. :( ) but it also provides a better outcome for the heroes (reduce damage to heroes, increase damage to villains, profit!). But I see how it is derailing this thread as it is about damage reduction vs. irreducible vs. prevention, and redirection does not help the discussion at all. Sorry for my seguay.