Discussions/ArmorlikeSoak

The question I have is, where do spells and charms that give soak, but don't seem to fit into armor or natural soak. A good new example of this is Pyre-Flame Guardian. It coats the user in a perfectly mobile layer of soulsteel over every single piece of their body, including eyes and hair. Now, it seems like this should probably soak agg and shouldn't interfere with MartialArts. But is it ignored by Charms that ignore armor? Can it be used with armor (I'd say yes)? There are others that could be mentioned, including one I made for Ashen Calander, Splendor Amongst Despair. - haren

Would you put Invulnerable Skin of Bronze in this category? -szilard

"Armour soaks agg." I think, that if something is compatible with other armours and MA, if it's not ignored by armour-ignoring effects, then it shouldn't soak agg. It's either armour or not, and the in-between thing just...sucks. It's unbalanced. (My first reaction to this post was actually, "I see that Bri wants justification for making some lame necro unbalanced.") - willows hates necro

I think we all know you hate necro, Abyssals, anything with any sort of minor link to Neph, willows. But, there's "armor" that's compatible with MA in Sids, and I haven't seen you bitching about it being unbalanced. And you're not really adding anything to the discussion, since these things exist already. What about charms that make natural soak into agg soak, or how about Earth Dragon Form? And that's another spell that's definately fuzzy on where it fits, szilard. But, this is just my thoughts. - haren

If it stacks with armor(i.e. you can wear armor over it), I'd count it as natural and agg bypasses it. If you can't wear armor with it, it presumably stacks with soak increasing charms, so I'd count it as armor, and it's ignored by armor ignoring charms. Looks like Invulnerable Skin of Bronze allows one to wear armor with it, so I'd call natural. IIRC this is in errata somewhere. Incomparable Body Arsenal is incompatable with armor, so it counts as armor for bypassing purposess, although I'd allow one to use martial arts with it. Personally, I view the soak agg thing and the 'can't use MA' thing to be different. -FlowsLikeBits,wonders what's so bad about necro