Slashing

• Source: Core
• Effect: All armor-based Damage Reduction applies double to slashing weapons. However, Shield Rating does not apply to slashing weapons.

This is a damage type characterized by lacerating damage, such as from vibroweapons and fragmentation grenades, for purposes of determining damage reduction.

Slashing weapons work on the principle of the Wedge, a simple machine designed to concentrate force. The leading edge of a blade or piece of shrapnel penetrates skin or armor, then the wedge separates the target as it penetrates further. The penetration of the wedge is inversely proportional to the hardness of the target, and directly proportional to effective force (force applied, magnified by mechanical advantage). Damage varies, depending on the target; against organic lifeforms, the typical intention is to damage internal organs, let blood, or to sever muscles, tendons, or bone.

Slashing weapons have been used since ancient times, and are still occasionally used outside of primitive civilizations. They have been largely made obsolete, not only by the difficulty in making them ranged, but by their relative ineffectiveness against metallic and metal-armored targets. Some advancements have been made with hypersonic vibration and monoatomic edges, but the essential principles of the Wedge limit the benefits of improving the leading edge only; stabbing and cutting weapons are still limited by force applied, and the arms of humanoids are insufficient to produce the force needed to press a wedge, of any sharpness, through a metal plate. This is to say nothing of the fact that slashing weapons rely on the relative vulnerability of the target's interior; droids and vehicles not only lack blood to let, but their inner workings are often metallic as well, making them no more vulnerable than the outer armor.