WOIN Hex vulnerability and SOAK

[lichmaster]

I was rereading the rules and found an interesting passage in the equipment section regarding resistances and vulnerabilities:

Note that if a creature is vulnerable to something, its natural Soak doesn't work against that thing. However, any Soak other than its natural Soak (including armor) applies as normal.

Given that there is a vulnerability effect in the Hex magic skill, it seems that one single application of it would completely remove a monster's SOAK.
This combined effect seems very powerful, since with one single spell an unlimited number of (natural) SOAK could be negated.
Is this an intended consequence?

 

[Shaun Palmer]

I think the SOAK is only negated if it is a natural vulnerability rather than an enforced one. At least that's my interpretation.

 

[lichmaster]

Ok but then in this case how would the combination SOAK + vulnerability work?

 

[Shaun Palmer]

Both would be in effect, but that does means that some creatures can be killed quicker than others. E.g. Skeletons (a 4d6 creature) would have SOAK 9 and 24 Health which would be tough to take down without building up a lot of attack bonus dice and switching some of them to damage. But using Holy damage the attacker gets a +1d6 damage bonus and the SOAK is ignored. If a GM wants a creature to last a little longer, and when it make sense to the creature, they can add armour, such as giving Leather (SOAK 4) armour to a Skeleton so it can hold out longer against Holy PCs.

 

[lichmaster]

Both would be in effect, but that does means that some creatures can be killed quicker than others. E.g. Skeletons (a 4d6 creature) would have SOAK 9 and 24 Health which would be tough to take down without building up a lot of attack bonus dice and switching some of them to damage. But using Holy damage the attacker gets a +1d6 damage bonus and the SOAK is ignored. If a GM wants a creature to last a little longer, and when it make sense to the creature, they can add armour, such as giving Leather (SOAK 4) armour to a Skeleton so it can hold out longer against Holy PCs.

My point is: what if you have both SOAK and vulnerability to the same damage source?
The rulebook would specifically say that natural SOAK is negated by a vulnerability effect

 

[Shaun Palmer]

I think a Hex spell vulnerability wouldn't negate SOAK as it is not a "natural" vulnerability. Only the bonus damage dice are used.

 

[Shaun Palmer]

Is this about if vulnerabilities can stack?
E.g. If you have a natural vulnerability 2d6 and a Hex is used targeting the same damage for 2d6, would you get a 4d6 damage bonus?
That's a puzzler

 

[lichmaster]

No, it's about this:
A creature has natural SOAK Y against damage type Z.
Someone casts Hex Vulnerabilty to damage type Z against the creatyre.
By the rules about combining vulnerability and SOAK, this would mean that the creature would lose all soak and be vulnerable (which seems very strong). Is this intended?

 

[Shaun Palmer]

Ahh. I think I get it. I would say that the natural SOAK would still work as it's only lost if the vulnerability is natural in origin. So if a creature has SOAK 5 vs Acid and a Hex spell added 1d6 vulnerability vs Acid, I would say that the SOAK 5 would still apply. I'm not sure if anyone else is playing it differently.