As far as I can tell, RAW, the Hida Defender school ability (reducing incoming critical strikes once a round based on armor resistance and school rank) also applies to critical strikes suffered as a result of the burning or bleeding condition.

One has to admit though that it’s weird to have armor be a factor in mitigating crits from damage that otherwise ignores resistance.

Maybe it’s more houserule territory (unless there’s some part I missed), but how would you guys handle this case? Would it be unfair to a Hida player to deny the full benefit of their school ability in such a case? Or maybe apply it with only the school rank portion?

I mean, yes it is a bit weird (though perhaps it could be argued that the armour was a factor in determining the initial severity of the blow - so the bleeding wasn't as bad as it might have otherwise been),

It's just as weird as bleeding crits damaging armour (0-2 on the crit chart) should they be reduced that much, or fior that matter, causing an arm to fall off - it's just a flesh wound after all (yeah I know - the arm just dies and needs amputating or whatever, but still, you get my point)!

I would note that I've found all of the school abilities are very powerful in play (at least the ones I've seen used), so I'd be hesitant to correct it without seeing it in play (and so far I haven't), but if it's proving to be a problem then sure, I'd house-rule it.

I houseruled bleeding to "a severity 3 critical as if you failed to resist".

Works good.

8 minutes ago, Avatar111 said:

I houseruled bleeding to "a severity 3 critical as if you failed to resist".

Works good.

So light wound, and if it happens a second time on the same ring, upgrade to severe wound. Not bad, and penalises the high Endurance players less. I like it.

And how about burning? I find it works well and is suitably terrifying as is, but I’m curious how you would handle the Hida case.

7 minutes ago, Franwax said:

So light wound, and if it happens a second time on the same ring, upgrade to severe wound. Not bad, and penalises the high Endurance players less. I like it.

And how about burning? I find it works well and is suitably terrifying as is, but I’m curious how you would handle the Hida case.

yeah, and you were already severely wounded + take a bleeding crit, you take the unsoakable 8 as per the rules.

for burning I left it as is. I just make it "at the end of your turn" instead of "after you perform an action". And I find it is ok that Hida can soak 1 or maybe 2 turns of burning critical and also that armor/cloth helps vs burning.

Only being able to apply the ability once per turn limits its utility enough that hard choices need to be made when one poor Hida is bleeding, on fire, and facing one or more oni. If any samurai can manage it though, my koku are on the (high ranking) Hida.

Well, I was thinking once per round is pretty awesome... was once per scene in the beta

Only way to down a Hida is to gang up on them !!! Or be super lucky..

1 hour ago, Franwax said:

Well, I was thinking once per round is pretty awesome... was once per scene in the beta

Only way to down a Hida is to gang up on them !!! Or be super lucky..

Sorry, I wasn't terribly clear there. I'm not advocating to change anything for Hida, since a situation requiring that kind of deliberation is probably rare, but if anyone could handle the challenge, it would be them.

9 hours ago, T_Kageyasu said:

hard choices need to be made when one poor Hida is bleeding, on fire, and facing one or more oni.

Not so hard choice for anybody who is not a Hida:

Think about a new character.