Does cortosis allow you to soak the armor's soak only or also soak the your natural brawn soak levels

I assume you are referring to the Cortosis armor attachment. The attachment allows you to "Ignore the effects of Breach and Pierce". Those qualities are in effect ignored. Soak applies as normal.

In other words, you use armor and brawn as soak.

Thanks just making sure it wasn't just the armor's

It's everything. Be warned, Cortosis can potentially be very unbalancing. Allowing the marauder in our game to get a hold of Cortosis armor was something I regret.

It's everything. Be warned, Cortosis can potentially be very unbalancing. Allowing the marauder in our game to get a hold of Cortosis armor was something I regret.

But as we now know, Cortosis Armor can be sundered! So it evens out.

ust got a dev reply: you can Sunder armour, even if it has the Cortosis quality.

My question:

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Rules Question:

Hi, I have a question concerning the Cortosis quality in the Star Wars RPG line. It states that weapons become immune to Sunder whereas armour becomes immune to Pierce and Breach. So, can you still Sunder an armour with the Cortosis quality? Cheers!

Dev (Sam) response:

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Rules as written, that is correct. You can Sunder the armor with Cortosis.

Hope that helps!

This is according to legends canon, where cortosis would come in two forms. As an alloy in weapons, very hard to produce and expensive, and as a sort of spray-on covering for armor or full blown armor made from it. But the thing with pure cortosis is, that it doesn't hold out against energy indefinitely. It sort of crumbles when exposed to enough energy. As if it is "baked" for a lack of a better word. So next time your marauder feels awesome, just sunder his armor. Once it is destroyed (there are three grades of damage it can sustain before it is) there's no bonus from cortosis anymore.

The GM giveth and he taketh away.

That seems really odd to me. While looking through the AoR CRB, I couldn't find any guidelines for applying damage to armor, only to weapons in the "Weapons Maintenance" section on page 172. If armor were a valid target for Sunder, you'd think there would be some specific guidelines, as surely armor with soak 3 is capable of withstanding greater punishment than armor with soak 1. And if armor is damaged one step, does that mean it loses 1 point of soak? What actually happens when armor is sundered? Unlike a weapon that can be shattered or cut in half, if one area of armor is penetrated or severely damaged, it's not like all of it just falls off the wearer removing all protection.

That seems really odd to me. While looking through the AoR CRB, I couldn't find any guidelines for applying damage to armor, only to weapons in the "Weapons Maintenance" section on page 172. If armor were a valid target for Sunder, you'd think there would be some specific guidelines, as surely armor with soak 3 is capable of withstanding greater punishment than armor with soak 1. And if armor is damaged one step, does that mean it loses 1 point of soak? What actually happens when armor is sundered? Unlike a weapon that can be shattered or cut in half, if one area of armor is penetrated or severely damaged, it's not like all of it just falls off the wearer removing all protection.

You make a valid point, that's odd.

Maybe it does not lose soak until it is completely destroyed. Plates from armor who are only attached to the suit underneath could fall off when damaged enough. Does that make sense to you?

Well, sure, but how does that actually translate mechanically with each step of damage? That seems like a big omission if armor is a valid target for Sunder. Also, if we go with the standard steps of damage used for weapons, undamaged Noble Regalia and Powered Armor are at the same risk of total destruction from Sunder with 4 advantages . And if weapon damage steps are equivalent to armor damage steps, then armor should be afforded the same protection from Cortosis. While I understand and appreciate the example you gave earlier, Powered Armor with Cortosis added should absolutely be harder to Sunder (if at all) compared to Noble Regalia made from cloth.

*Edit*

A homebrew rule a player of mine just suggested is that each point of soak over 1 adds to the number of advantages needed for Sunder to trigger. That way, Noble Regalia only costs 1 advantage per step, but Powered Armor costs 4. What would take a single hit for the cloth, would almost certainly take multiple hits for the Powered armor.

A homebrew rule a player of mine just suggested is that each point of soak over 1 adds to the number of advantages needed for Sunder to trigger. That way, Noble Regalia only costs 1 advantage per step, but Powered Armor costs 4. What would take a single hit for the cloth, would almost certainly take multiple hits for the Powered armor.

I like this! I will adapt it. Maybe tweak it somehow if it does not work the way I want, but I guess we'll see.

Another player brought up another good point. What about Breach and Pierce? So we're considering adding "effective soak." So a Breach weapon could still keep the advantage cost at 1.

What if Sundered armour applies setback to other checks, the damage makes moving in it harder.

Or, even better, it adds 1 to the Encumbrance for each stage of damage.

What if Sundered armour applies setback to other checks, the damage makes moving in it harder.

Or, even better, it adds 1 to the Encumbrance for each stage of damage.

Yes! I like that! It still protects, but starts to come apart at the seams, so it hinders yourself moving your arm or something like that. Very good indeed!

That seems really odd to me. While looking through the AoR CRB, I couldn't find any guidelines for applying damage to armor, only to weapons in the "Weapons Maintenance" section on page 172. If armor were a valid target for Sunder, you'd think there would be some specific guidelines, as surely armor with soak 3 is capable of withstanding greater punishment than armor with soak 1. And if armor is damaged one step, does that mean it loses 1 point of soak? What actually happens when armor is sundered? Unlike a weapon that can be shattered or cut in half, if one area of armor is penetrated or severely damaged, it's not like all of it just falls off the wearer removing all protection.

I think it comes down to overall design intent. In the grand scheme of things the designers likely didn't want armor to be one of those things that PC's had to regularly replace due to it taking damage. Sooooo they left out rules on specifically damaging armor. On the flipside they likely didn't intend for Cortosis to be this one stop super material that prevented stuff from being damaged like ever. So in the grand scheme of things .... even cortosis armor could be damage if that is what people set out to do. But the details of how armor takes damage is something they likely want to leave to GM's as opposed to a hard wire rule that becomes a go to tactic against NPC's and PC's alike.

I personally don't allow someone to "Sunder the opponents armor". It doesn't make much sense, and could cause severe balance issues. Instead, you target specific things on the armor to Sunder. Like built in weapons, jetpacks, etc. If it's an add-on, it can be Sundered.

Don't have issues with the cortosis quality that just allows soak and not the one that shuts lightsabers off which is one I have given players and npcs. Full or pure cortosis is almost extinct in my campaigns

Shutting off lightsabers is a bit over the top.

However, after 1000s of years, it starts to strain credibility that the only materials that show real promise at blunting the impact of lightsabers and blasters are these rare and special things. Story over "science", I guess.