I'm a warrior with Str5 Trained in WS

I Attack a Beast man with the action 'Melee Strike' He has a defence of 2

My base pool is five skill (blue)and 1 expert die (yellow) - I assume no stance dice to keep it simple.

I add one challenge (purple) die for the base difficulty. I add 2 challenge dice (purple) for his defence.

The pool is, 5 Blue, 1 Yellow, 3 Purple

I roll it !

The thing that confused me, was in the 'example combat' in the book, the beastman adds 1 misfortune die (black) for his defence. I assumed that was a mistake?

Part two - He counters.

My Warrior is Defence 3 and has the action 'Improved parry' The beastman is Str 4

His base pool is 4. He adds 1 purple for base difficulty, then 3 purple for my defence, and then I top it up with improved parry for an additional purple. His pool becomes;

4 Blue, 5 Purple - His chances of hitting me are very slim.

Did I work that through correctly?

Nope, defence adds misfortune dice not challenge dice to the roll.

As in the description of 'Sample combat' in the core book. Cool.

Bu the 'base' difficulty is 1 challenge die? So theres always a chance of something screwing you? (well 7 in 8)

Ta

A good breakdown is that challenge dice are added to simulate things like say being on a rope bridge swinging from side to side fighting a beast man in a storm, that would be worht a few of those purple bastards.

Then the beastman has a defence rating thats the misfortune dice, since it would be rather unfortunate not to hit the big goat who is intent on killing you and eating your friends.

Hang on.....

In the Example in the Errata (which granted isn't for melee strike) it says that the total difficulty amounts to 2 puple challenge and 1 black misfortune because all three areas of the card effect the outcome.

Difficulty - 1 Purple

Special - 1 Black (something about outnumbering)

Defence(1) - The remainder SO 1 purple challenge die? So Defence adds challenge (purple) dice ?

Does the errata need errata? Stick with me, when the penny drops it will be a real Eureka moment for me I'm sure

In the example in the errata the card Great Fires of U'Zhul - The GM is adding <PP> to the pool.

They are derived from:

<P> Base Difficulty of the card. The <P> symbol just to the left of the traits 'Rank 2, Bright Order'.

<P> Easy difficulty. Based on the default challengel level from the part of the card showing Spellcraft (Int) V Target Defence. All cards that have a 'V Target defence' are by default easy challenges (unless GM decides otherwise).

Coming from the targets defence rating of 1 (as noted in the italics above the card in the errata).

Does that make it any clearer? I'm hoping for a Eureka!!

Possible confusion coming from the eratta stating that the <PP> pool is being made up from the THREE sections of the card, but on the card is added for each eneny engagued with the target beyone the first - In the example it is not noted that the target is engaged with anyone (friend or foe) but notes that the target has a defence of 1. So the 'outnumbering' issue you have may be a red herring.

EUREKA

Re-reading it (and your post) it makes sense.

Because its Vs Defence thats 1 <p>

Because the action itself adds 1 <p> Difficulty of waving about your hands casting the spell.

Defence adds 1

Total <pp>

Awesome Cheers. All three highlighted areas CAN effect the test, not DO effect the test. Thats better. My brains stopped hurting

Yeah, I was totally confused by that example. I thought I had it, then I thought I didn't and now I do.

The problem is that they circled the mid part of the card and I thought they were doing that to reference where the black dice was coming from. But in truth, they were just showing you: "look here for any other modifiers".

The funny thing is, there are cards which have modifiers later down in the Effect area, so you need to look there as well.

But now that clarifies things. Spells, which target the Defense DO in fact add a challenge dice.

That's great and keeps things consistant.