Lethal Damage

[KidKourage]

For this year's anniversary, I feel the need to share the last of my thoughts and ideas about City of Heroes. 
Lethal Damage
A common assumption was that Lethal and Smashing were related, as mitigations that worked on one almost always worked on the other as well.  Of the eight general damage types, everyone is more or less on board with the idea that Heat and Cold are opposites as are Energy and Negative.  I tend to think of Smashing and Psychic as opposites as well – big numbers (damage versus mitigation) – on the one side versus little numbers on the other.  This left Lethal and Toxic as the final pair of opposites.
And honestly, this makes a kind of sense to me.  Toxic has no defense only resistance, and conceptually Lethal is much the reverse.  Once a ballistic, puncturing, or slicing attack gets through your armor, what does resistance even look like?  The only thing I can think of is sheer bulk, keeping that damage away from your vitals.
I know technically my Toxic statement is a bit of misdirection.  While it's true that defense does not exist against the Toxic tag, it does exists versus the delivery method (melee, ranged, or AoE).  Which means there can be defense versus a toxic based attack.  Not true for resistance. 
My answer to that then is simply that Lethal defense should start and cap substantially higher, while resistance caps quite a bit lower (say half or even a third of current).  This makes Lethal attacks much more of an all or nothing gamble.  The main dynamic is penetrating a target's armor; meaning that Defense Debuff (armor piercing) and Debuff Resistance (hardened armor) becomes the competitive edge in this arena. 
I also think overall damage numbers in a lethal set should be flattened.  Unlike Smashing based sets where the two final powers typically feature soaring numbers (with a huge recharge times), the top lethal powers should be only slightly more potent, focusing more on penetration and other secondary effects.
This means a Lethal damage wielding character should always see a decent chuck of health loss with every hit.  Character design is about a) hyper-enhancing Defense Debuff, b) having some alternative strike capability, or c) fistfuls of yellows.  For those who don't normally use Lethal attacks, finding a way to add at least one might be worth having.

I can also see defensive set recipes such as:
Ballistic Armor: converts a Lethal attack into a Smashing one.  The Lethal tag is replaced with a Smashing tag for resistance (not defense) purposes.
Endothermic Armor: armor that absorbs Lethal impact, releasing it as Heat.  The Lethal tag is replaced with a Heat tag for resistance (not defense) purposes.
Armor Plate:  hardened armor that converts a Smashing attack into a Lethal one. The Smashing tag is replaced with a Lethal tag for defense and resistance purposes.