Damage Soak Rules
- Soak represents the ability to absorb damage from enemies. Generally, without armor, soak only represents the ability to absorb physical damage from non-weapon sources, which is represented as a Stamina roll against the damage. However, the presence of Armor, Barriers and other related methods of adding Soak allow Soak to apply to more types of damage. These methods and their rules are discussed Below
- Special Soak: For units that are made up of inorganic materials or mimicking the properties of inorganic materials, Soak has complexity which needs to be reached in order to do damage to the unit, along with a higher difficulty, before their inherent Soak comes into play. In instances such as this, if a unit is made up of metal and the opposition deals physical damage, as an example, every 3 successes at higher difficulty. This is indicated with a unit's background.
Armor Rules
- Armor applies 1-5 Dice of Soak to the player's soak pool, and additionally expands the damage that soak applies to. This expansion is indicated by letters alongside the armor (B for Bludgeoning, S for Slashing, P for Piercing, V for Visceral). Additionally, if the armor has been equipped with a Reinforcing Gem (a gemstone aligned with a particular element), that element expands the Armor's Soak to all the elements within the same elemental category as it, as well as all elements it is strong against in accordance with the Tabula Phraas when activated outside of the Guard Action. Reinforced Armor also increases the difficulty of these damage types by up to 1/2 of the Soak Dice (rounded down, to a maximum of +8 difficulty on Reinforced Heavy Armor). However, as a consequence, the element that the Reinforcing Gem is vulnerable to applies to the armor as well, reducing the difficulty by the same amount. Activating a Reinforcing Gem can be done as a Reaction, requiring Stamina + Celestient Sphere against the weight of the Armor, or can be done outside of battle. This can be activated/deactivated with no cooldown time and once activated is self maintaining unless specifically deactivated by either the player, by the GuardSurge defensive maneuver or by outside forces disrupting the energy.
- Armor of 1-2 is Light Armor, 3-4 is medium armor, and 5 is heavy armor. The armor penalty to the number of Dex dice used is equal to the bonus Soak - (1 + 1 if the quality of the Reinforcing Gem is 3 or higher).
Armor Chart
This table gives an overview of the soak/soak reduction that different kinds of armor provides the player when reinforced/not reinforced.
| Armor Weight | Soak Dice | Difficulty To Hit | Penalty |
|---|
| Light | 1-2 | 6 | No Dex or Weakness penalty |
| Reinforced Light | 1-2 | 7 | Weakness Penalty of Gem's elemental weakness -1 |
| Medium | 3-4 | 6 | Dex -1/-2, No Weakness Penalty |
| Reinforced Medium | 3-4 | 7-8 | Dex -1/-2, Weakness penalty of gem's elemental weakness -1/-2 |
| High | 5 | 6 (7 Phys) | Dex -2, No weakness penalty |
| Reinforced High | 5 | 8 | Dex -2, Weakness penalty of penalty of gem's elemental weakness -2 |
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- Barrier is a temporary addition to the soak pool added by activating the Protection Gem of any Trinket, or applied by the usage of Aspectral Power. This soak pool absorbs all non-supernatural, and non-primordial attacks that strike it, with the temporary soak points depleting with each success. The remaining undepleted points of Barrier remain for any successive attacks. The temporary soak dice given by a Trinket is equal to 1 + 1 per quality level of the Trinket's Protection Gem up to 6. Once depleted, the Trinket cannot be used for 3 rounds unless the player character uses 1 Ambiance point and roll a successful Retain roll at 7 difficulty against 1/2 the quality of the Gem (rounded up) to refresh the effects of the Trinket.
- Barrier increases the difficulty of success of an attack against it by 1 per two points in quality up to the cap of +8, remaining at regular difficulty against elements it is weak to per the Cycle of Elements in the Tabula Phraas. The difficulty added by barrier cannot go higher unless is it provided by an ability which succeeded to a monumental degree.
- Barrier only applies to damage applied from outside the body, and can be bypassed by Precision damage.
- Barrier has a temporary duration, based on its source, and can stack between differing sources, but the total amount of Barrier created cannot exceed 6 unless there are special qualities or backgrounds related by the player. (Example: Bulwark (OO)
- Barrier does not stack with Armor, as it is considered a seperate pool with different rules based on the source of the Barrier protecting the player
- Half of Piercing and Viscera damage bypasses Barrier (rounded up) but can be blocked by Armor's absoption depending on the armor's materials and whether or not it has been Reinforced.
Barrier Table Chart
This chart displays how barrier works in terms of adding to the Barrier Pool in terms of difficulty and complexity. Remember that the Barrier pool for most units is 6, up to a maximum of 9 at Bulwark (OOOOO)
| Protection Gem Quality | Barrier Pool Soak | +Difficulty |
|---|
| 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2 | 3 | +1 |
| 3 | 4 | +1 |
| 4 | 5 | +2 |
| 5 | 6 | +2 |
Action vs Defensive Action (to determine Bonus damage from hit). Damage Dice vs Barrier pool (subtract damage absorbed by Barrier), Damage Dice vs Soak (Armor +Stamina), Damage Dice vs Health.
Ichor HP rules (monsters only)
Ichoric HP represents the health of the innate soak barrier that monstrous units (Wild-Wraiths/Wraithborne) are able to absorb through their Silve-snail body. As this is the main protection from the Eyes
- Ichoric HP regenerates at a rate of 1 per turn until depleted, after which it takes 3 turns to regenerate to full.
- The HP of the unit who has Ichoric HP is divided among the "Eyes" that make it up (if it is a monstrous creature) if it is. Each Eye has a health threshold of 1-4 at most, dependant on maturity. The HP must be the sum of all of the eyes that make up the creature and this sum can exceed the regular 6 HP threshold.
- Ichoric HP maximum is always at 6 unless it is specified as a Colony as part of its Background, at which point the cap of 6 increases per eye involved. As colonies are made up of immature Wraiths/Wraithborne, the Eyes individual HP cannot exceed 2.
- Ichoric HP damage is taken after regular Soak is calculated as opposed to before and is also treated as a seperate pool similarly to Barrier as a result.
- Ichoric HP, as opposed to Barrier, inherits the damage difficulty from its regular Soak. This means it can use various means to increase the difficulty of units actually damaging their lower HP pool. Piercing and Viscera damage can bypass the damage reduction of Ichoric HP, but must be targeted to the location of the Eye to actually deal damage to them.
Order of Operations for damage reduction (Ichor):
Action vs Defensive Action (For Bonus damage from hit). 1/2 Damage Dice vs Soak (Armor+Stamina), 1/2 Damage Dice vs Ichoric Health, Remaining Damage Dice vs Health
Changes to Precision Damage
- Sneak Attacks and its equivalents have the bonus damage from stealth treated as Precision damage for the purposes of bypassing Soak/Armor. It is still absorbed by barrier but at a lower difficulty regardless of Barrier or Damage Type.
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