re: multiple layers of hardened and Multiple AP/Pen Attacks

[Hyper-Man]

Hi Steve,

I was just curious and confused by your recent response on this subject.

The following example was given:

Hardman has bought 2 layers of hardening for his armor, the rules state that he needs to mark which Advantage his hardened works against when against multiple advantages so he chose one as being Against AP and one against PEN. are all of the following circumstances are correct?

1: he is attacked by Blasterman who used his 2x AP attack, the Hardened blocks both.

You answered:

1. No. If only one level of Hardened blocks AP, and the attack is x2 AP, then the attack halves the value of the defense.

I think your ruling might be too restrictive. To illustrate this better from here on I will describe Armor Piercing, Penetrating and Indirect all as Flanking Advantages.
I am also going to slightly change or add possible clarification to the wording of the example reference to the rule in question on page 77 of FREd:

A single level of Hardened will not stop both a Flanking Advantage and an additional potentially different Flanking Advantage bought for a single Power - that requires two levels of Hardened. A character who buys Hardened defenses can define which particular Flanking advantage he will be affected by first in this situation when buys each level of Hardened.

By the logic of your answer to the first post on this subject It appears that a player needs to define exactly which specific Flanking Advantage that just 1 level of Hardened will stop. If the player defines his Hardened as stopping Armor Piercing and is then instead hit by a Penetrating Attack his Hardened has no effect. As far as I currently understand the rules this is NOT the case so why are you changing the logic when looking at 2 potentially different Flanking Advantages when a defender has 2 levels of Hardened?

I always thought that the process of defining which Flanking Advantage will affect a character is only relevant if the # of Flanking Advantages is greater than the # of levels of Hardened that the defender has. I doubt that I am the only Herophile that has made this assumption either. Is this assumption incorrect? Please clarify in either case.

Please don't take this as an attempt to change the existing rules. I just want to better understand the reasoning behind them.

As always, your quick responses are appreciated.

And thanks for temporarily sacrificing some of your personal stash of Hero Dice so that I could get my order (they just arrived yesterday!).

[Steve Long]

I'm sorry, but I don't have the time or interest to get involved in extended discussions of rules philosophy and design -- nor is that what this board is for. If you think a ruling is too restrictive, you're welcome to change it for your campaign. I might eventually come to agree with you and change my own mind; you can never tell.