Questions about Find Weakness and Force Wall

[Gaelinic]

Hello,

 

1) I understand that Find Weakness halves the defenses of Normal Defense or Resistant Defense. And, you can choose between which defense you want to halve each action. However, I am unclear how Find Weakness works for a total normal defense that combines resistant with PD/ED.

 

For example, let's say Superninja has Find Weakness and he encounters Stoneman who has 10 pd/ed and 10 PD/ED armor. According to the rules, Stoneman has a total of 20 pd/ed against normal damage. If Superninja decides to Find Weakness on Stoneman's normal defenses and succeeds, are Stoneman's total defenses against normal damage 15 pd/ed or are they 10 pd/ed? If they are 15 pd/ed, does Superninja have to specify that he is halving Stoneman's armor with another Find Weakness roll?

 

Also, the rules on page 174 indicate that a character with find weakness has to target normal defenses (PD or ED, including damage resistance). Does this mean that Superninja has to declare before using Find Weakness whether he is attempting to halve the PD or the ED of his opponent each time he rolls?

 

 

2)Does Find Weakness work against inanimate objects like walls, items, or vehicles as it does against characters?

 

 

3) How long does it take to activate Force Wall? Is it a zero phase action, attack action, half action, etc.?

 

Thank you.

[Steve Long]

Re: Questions about Find Weakness and Force Wall

 

1. As noted on 5ER 173, a character using Find Weakness has to choose to affect either Normal Defenses or Resistant Defenses. If a character specifies that he’s using Find Weakness to halve a character’s Normal Defenses, then per 5ER 174 the target’s total Normal Defenses are halved if the roll succeeds. In your example, a target with 10 PD and Armor (10 PD) whose Normal Defenses were halved would have a total of 15 PD against attacks — half of his Normal Defenses plus all of his Resistant Defenses.

 

A character using Find Weakness does not have to specify “Physical” or “Energy” defenses — he chooses between Normal and Resistant. If, for example, he specifies Normal, then all of the target’s Normal Defenses — PD, ED, and so on — are halved. The GM can, of course, require greater specificity if he prefers.

 

2. Yes.

 

3. See 5ER 103.