A friend of mine playing a physical adept with nerve strike (MitS pg 150) used this ability on a Troll that was mutated and had hardened armor. It seemed to me that hardened armor would counter the nerve strike as their is really no sensitive spot for him to strike.

He's not really happy with the ruling and so I wanted to ask people here and see what the general populous thought.

Any help would be appreciated.

As you describe it it is the natural armor of the Troll. In this case I would allow the nerve strike as there are surely spots where the Troll is not fully protected by its armor (like behind ears, the eyes, private parts ). I don't have the rule book at hand but I think the speciality of the nerve strike is exactly to find this weak spot on an individual.

Just so long as the armour fully covers the person being attacked, then I would rule that the nerve stike is ineffective. However, if the troll still has areas unprotected, then I would alow it.

To me, there is no totally armoured character. Even if the guy is using an Armour spell, there will be a weak spot. The problem is spotting that weak spot.

Totally Armoured/Armour spell: Preception Test TN 8 (+visibility mods)

Yes, but according to Canon, there is NO totally armoured character, hence the ability to make Called Shots even against people with Mystic Armour or Armour spells.

Good call. I'm still a little green around the edges, but I'll learn the material that well soon enough, lol.

orion, it's just about impossible for natural armor to cover every spot in the body--it's difficult to protect joints, while retaining any mobility. joints are often where you find the best pressure points, as well. nerve strike should work just fine against hardened natural armor. of course, the power of the adept's attack still has to be higher than the troll's armor.

It is entirely possible for the armor to cover some or many of the spots necessary to hit with the nerve strike making it a lot less useful. I may be prompted to up the TN of the Nerve Strike in those cases.

well, it already goes up by 1/2 impact armor, and it's already impossible to do if your Str isn't higher than the enemy's armor rating.

If that's true, that natural armor does not cover 100% of a being, then dragons are also susceptiple to this attack. Quickness being one of their lowest traits, it would be comepletely possible for a dragon to be taken out on a single hit from this 1 magic point ability. Something I am really not going to allow.

What I may do as a compromise is this...

The target number for the attack is 4 plus the target's impact armor. I may make the target number for creatures with natural hardened armor 4 + double the hardened armor.

So a Nerve Strike against the Troll would have needed 10s, and against a Western Dragon it would be 20. Not impossible, but certainly less likely.

Appropriate zoology test against a TN based on GM whim to have any chance against a non-human target.

as it stands, the adept would have to get 12-16 successes on a melee roll in which his TN is at least (this assumes the dragon doesn't have an armor spell up) 10, while the dragon counters with an effective skill of 7 and 11 combat pool, in order to knock a dragon down with one hit. i don't call that "completely possible".

let's not forget the dragon's reach, either, or the fact that i edited the above post to reflect the fact that the base TN for a nerve strike against a dragon (not counting armor) is 6, due to the non-human physiology.

Hardened Armor in 3rd Edition gives armor the ability to ignore attacks that do not do equal or greater than it's armor rating. It doesn't double against attacks. That's something that only vehicles do, unlike the old edition of the game rules.

I wouldn't be surprised that your player wasn't happy with the decision. Nerve Strike is nerve strike is nerve strike.