Hi there!
I was checking for existing erratas or posts in this forum but i couldnt find anything concerning my problem.
In the rulebook it says about binding familiars: "The bronze cord score adds to
soak rolls"
When the heck to you make a soak roll in 5th edition?
Is this just a leftover from older versions or can someone enlighten me to what we may be doing wrong?
I was thinking the score should add to the soak total...
When you do a damage roll, you do a soak roll
When you do an attack roll (and so, no damage roll), you do a defense roll (and so, no soak roll).
In every hurting situation, you have a roll for both side.
Actually, what ExarKun says is true of Fourth Edition and earlier. Soak is not rolled in Fifth Edition: see hermesweb.ekkaia.org/page/Soak
So the reference to Soak "rolls" for the Bronze Cord is an error and should be reported according to the instructions in the "Errata" sticky post at the top of this forum.
Hu i have never played to 4th and other.
What i said is what i read in the 5ed corerulebook...
Reread page 181 plz.
Curiously, you're both right. The soak total you mention is for non-combat damage. Which is really bloody weird, frankly. The given example is a fire. Does that mean that a BoAF cast in combat isn't opposed by a soak roll, but one miss-aimed during target practise does?
What purpose do the two systems serve?
Having played a little over a year now the 5th ed. book leaves a lot to be desired in the verbage department.
Love the game...hate the verbage is my new motto!
Well ExarKun is quite correct. Soak is rolled in some circumstances -- whenever damage is rolled. Damage (and Soak) work a bit differently between weapons and spells.
When I have a chance I will update the HermesWeb article on Soak to clarify this.
I think the intent of the Bronze Cord is that it adds to Soak in all circumstances, whether you have to roll or not, though we should clarify that with Atlas.
All spell damage is rolled, which is why a spell will have +10 damage. It's a die roll +10 damage.
Whether it's rolled in a combat round or not (though arguably, if you're trying to toast someone it is at least nominally a combat round) you roll for spell damage.
Soak from the Bronze Cord is added to your Soak Total. Wording is poor, I agree, but the intent is certainly clear.
But do you roll for soak? After all, weapon damage is also given as +X.
At a guess, I'd say that combat damage is calcualted by comparing combat advantage to soak, rather than d10+CA vs d10+soak, to minimise the number of dice and rolls used in combat. Even so, having two very similar but crucially different systems for effectively the same thing is an unusual design choice. I wonder what would happen if the two extra rolls were used - both more terrible attacks and more totally ineffective ones, or no significant difference?
Yes. You roll for soak against any non-combat damage. Non-combat damage is anything not generated through an attack vs. defence. It's on ArM5, page 181.
casting spell is not strictly speaking combat. It could be used as, but combat is weapons battle.
So : weapons => the dice is used in attack. and the defender, in defense.
To be precise, combat damage is Attack Advantage + (Strength + Weapon Damage) - Defender's Soak Total (ArM5, page 171).