Does Krillin's Destructo Disc works on somewhat on a similar principle as Tien's Tri-Beam in that he has to infuse some of his lifeforce into the technique in order for it to be deadly to opponents several times his power level?
It's more that it's a bit like a buzz saw lined with razor blades, honestly. It's a technique that does, at first, take a significant amount of his energy to make, but the thin edges combined with the serrated edge and spinning motion, is used to slice through most anything. There's a paper on how buzz saws work and manage to cut through different kinds of wood if you wanna get into the technicalities of how it could work, but the TL;DR version is basically geometry + sharpness + spin = energy efficiency. So basically, Krillin is secretly a nerd who decided to work smarter with his energy, not harder.
