Radiation DT is a creature’s protection against 💥 RADS damage — direct hits from radiation weapons, gamma guns, and irradiated sources. It is the RADS-damage counterpart of 🛡️ Physical DT and ♨️ Energy DT. See 💥 Damage Types for the full damage-type system.
Radiation DT applies only to RADS damage that actually reaches the creature. Cover Objects block direct-fire RADS entirely (a gamma beam striking cover simply dissipates), so Radiation DT is only consulted when an exposed limb is hit or when an AoE RADS attack distributes damage across exposed limbs.
When a creature is hit by a RADS ⚔ Attack, Radiation DT is subtracted from the damage of each hit. If Radiation DT is equal to or greater than the incoming damage, the attack is fully mitigated and no RADS are added.
Post-DT RADS = max(0, RADS Damage − Radiation DT)
After DT is subtracted, the creature’s DR (a percentage reduction) is applied to the remaining damage, and the surviving value is added to the target’s ☢ RADS counter — not subtracted from Hit Points.
Sources of Radiation DT
- Armor — radiation-shielded armor pieces (lead-lined, environmental, hazmat) grant Radiation DT on the limbs they cover.
- Chems and consumables — 🛡️ Rad-X and similar grant temporary Radiation DT.
- Traits and perks — some traits and perks grant flat Radiation DT.
- Creature stat blocks — non-player creatures may have natural Radiation DT (ghouls, deathclaws, irradiated mutants).
Radiation DT vs. Cover
Cover Objects are immune to RADS damage — they never take durability damage from radiation, and there is no Radiation Resistance stat to track. Cover interacts with RADS attacks differently depending on delivery:
- Direct-fire RADS: If a Cover Object interrupts line of fire to the targeted limb, the beam dissipates on the cover surface. The creature takes no RADS damage and the cover takes no damage. To hit a creature in cover, use a Called Shot to an exposed limb. Radiation DT only matters once a hit lands on an exposed limb.
- AoE RADS: Follow 💣 Explosives Attack cover rules. The cover’s R-value defaults to 0 for RADS, so Half Cover and Full Cover provide no attenuation by default — the full RADS damage reaches the target. Half Cover does still protect the covered limbs from the Average DT calculation (compute Average DT from exposed limbs only). The cover takes no damage from the RADS portion.
- ☢ Rad Shielded X: A Cover Object Quality (lead-lined, deep concrete, vault plating) that supplies an R-value for AoE RADS: Half Cover attenuates by X, Full Cover attenuates by 2X.
Radiation DT and Hit Points
RADS damage does not subtract from Hit Points or apply to a limb’s 💔 Cripple Threshold. Surviving damage adds to the target’s ☢ RADS counter. Each point of RADS reduces effective maximum HP by 1, and the target begins 💀 Dying if RADS meets or exceeds max HP.
Radiation DT and Explosives
For explosive attacks (rare among RADS weapons but possible — e.g. mini nukes), the system uses the creature’s Average DT across all 6 limbs rather than the per-limb value. See 💣 Explosives Attack for the full calculation.
Radiation DT vs. the Radiation Status Effect
Radiation DT mitigates RADS damage at the moment of impact. It does not reduce stacks of the ☢ Radiation status effect — that’s a separate debuff applied by ☢ Radioactive X and similar tags, resisted with an END + 🏕 Survival Test.
See Also
- 🛡️ Physical DT
- ♨️ Energy DT
- ☢ Rad Shielded X — the only Cover Object quality that interacts with RADS
- ☢ RADS
- 💥 Damage Types
- Cover