Sorry for the slow response, anyway here are my thoughts.

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This is because it's possible to create single-effect items with enormous penetration that can bypass the MR of dragons etc. at extremely low levels.

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I agree with you that dealing with powerful threats/entities by producing equally powerful one shot items seems rather simplistic and possibly out of paradigm. I'm guessing as a troupe we’re all unlikely to use such tactics to resolve conflicts in such situations/challenges, so we might not need a formal house rule to limit charged items penetration.

However the initial concept of limiting the penetration scores of charged items to the items effect level/spell level seems to resolve such exploits.

My only concern is by adopting such a rule we might inadvertently neuter low level, non-offensive potions/items. For instance potions of Bind Wound(CrCo 10) could only penetrate with +10, this could easily lead to a situation where even if you developed the potions specifically for yourself, you may be unable to penetrate your own Parma when taking them.

Perhaps there could be some flexibility for utility/non-offensive charged potions/items?

By the way nice idea of the charged arrows, I'm guessing touch range with an environmental trigger of hitting the target, sounds good to me.

Edited by: SimpleSimon101 at: 12/3/07 18:02