Author Topic: Does the poison from fists ignore toughness armour?  (Read 4410 times)

Offline DFJunkie

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Re: Does the poison from fists ignore toughness armour?
« Reply #15 on: March 07, 2011, 06:21:31 PM »
Yeah, I fall in on the "armor applies" portion of the debate, because the armor rating does not simply denote a hard candy shell surrounding the gooey and vulnerable insides (unless it does, in which case the Catch should reflect that) but rather damage resistance at all levels of function, including the ability to resist poison damage. 
90% of what I say is hyperbole intended for humorous effect.  Don't take me seriously. I don't.

Offline Becq

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Re: Does the poison from fists ignore toughness armour?
« Reply #16 on: March 08, 2011, 12:40:16 AM »
First off, I don't see where the 'armored skin' definition of Toughness is coming from.  The wording of the Toughness power uses terms like 'fortitude' and 'difficult to kill' and 'able to take more punishment'.  None of this implies to me that the resistance granted stops upon passing through the skin.  The wording on the power seems even more clear: "Hard to Hurt. You naturally have Armor:1 against all physical stress."  Note that I did not add the emphasis to 'all' in that quote.  Perhaps the the use of the word 'armor' is confusing?  In the game mechanics, it simply refers to the ability to reduce incoming damage from sources appropriate to the power that grants it.  So if the stress inflicted is physical, and there is no other mechanic (such as an appropriate Catch or the use of a Sword of the Cross), then the stress is reduced by the Armor granted by the Toughness.

Would a catch to supernatural venom +1 be satisfied by just attacking with venomous claws or would only the poison damage bypass the catch?

Judging from the rules as written, it looks as though having Venomous Claws gives you two attack modes.  You can make a normal 'claw' attack in which case you count as having Weapon:2 for your Fists attack, but inflict no special damage due to the Venom.  You can alternatively perform what for a lack of a better term I will call a 'Venom' maneuver which, if successful, applies the Poisoned aspect with the effects as described in the Venomous power -- but don't do normal attack damage and therefore don't take advantage of the Weapon:2, since you were maneuvering, not attacking.  So you'll never have a 'claw' portion and a 'poison' portion of the attack.

That said, I think that I would rule that even the basic attack, when made with Venomous Claws, would count as 'poisoned' for purposes of the Catch you mentioned.  After all, you don't have to do a special 'iron' attack with a sword in order to satisfy the Catch of Fae, the fact that the sword is iron is enough; in the same way, the fact that "your claws are venemous" says to me that they would satisfy a Catch for venom.