With a successful skill roll (5% per rank plus stat modifier), the character is able to find weaknesses in their opponent’s armour. The result is that the opponent only gains one half of their armour value (round up) vs. the character’s weapons.
To use this ability, the character must take half a round to study the opponent and then make a Find Weakness roll (((INT + PER) - 30) x 1.5) + (Rank x 5). The character loses half of their attacks (round down) and suffers a -5 to initiative for all remaining actions.
The Find Weakness roll is modified by Lack of Weakness. Each point of Lack of Weakness lowers the chance of success by 7.5 (i.e., 2 points of LOW is -15, 4 points is -30, 5 points is -38, etc.).
The roll, after the modifiers are applied, is compared to the following table. Note that the modified PROT applies only to the person who found the weakness.
| Roll | Result |
| Absolute Success | Target's PROT is halved, round down (e.g., PROT 11 becomes PROT 5). |
| Success | Target's PROT is halved, round up (e.g., PROT 11 becomes PROT 6). |
| Near Success | Target's PROT is reduced by a quarter, round up (e.g., PROT 11 becomes PROT 8). |
| Partial Success | Target's PROT is reduced by one. |
| Failure | No weakness found. |
| Absolute Failure | No weakness found. No more attempts can be made against this opponent in this battle. |
| Blunder | No weakness found. The character subconsciously believes the target's armor is tougher than it is, increasing their effect PROT by 1. No more attempts can be made against this opponent in this battle. |
Unless the character obtained a result of Absolute Success, Absolute Failure or Blunder, they may try again to Find Weakness, each attempt taking half a round and imposing a -5 initiative to all other attacks for the round. Each attempt beyond the first incurs a cumulative -5 to the skill roll (-5 on the second attempt, -10 on the third, -15 on the fourth, etc.). If the subsequent result is no improvement over the previous attempt, there is no effect.
Example: Tory has a bonus of 50 with FW. His opponent has a PROT of 12 and 2 points of LOW so Tory's effective bonus is 35. On his first attempt at FW, he gets a result of Partial Success so his target's effective PROT becomes 11 instead of 12. He tries again the next round suffering a -5 to his roll, which reduces his bonus to 30. Nevertheless, he gets Near Success. The target's original PROT of 12 now becomes 9. He tries again on the next round with only a 25 bonus and gets lucky and scores Success. The target's original PROT of 12 is reduced to 6. This is the best he can do so he ceases trying. For the rest of this battle, the target's effect PROT is only 6 vs. Tory's attacks.
Note that this skill does not carry over to other battles. If the character makes a Find Weakness roll against an opponent, and then later fights the same opponent, wearing the same armor, again in a different battle, he must make a new roll. |