Point Break

Question: What is the point of Invulnerable Nail?

Heh, it's funny, because "point" and "nail". And also using the power generally involves pointy things as well.

Invulnerable Nail is a specialty Stamina knack designed to allow a Scion to concentrate all her epic powers of fortitude into a very specific place when necessary, above and beyond their general all-over soak. While it's not intended to be used during combat, in which everything is happening super fast and crazy and ain't nobody got time for this kind of precision, it can be used in any other situation when the Scion is dealing with a precise injury coming her way.

It's most often helpful for when the Scion is restrained, immobile or otherwise unable to get away from non-combat kinds of damage. For example, a Scion who was on an operating table could use Invulnerable Nail to make scalpels break instead of cutting into him; a Scion who was tied up and incapable of fighting back could use Invulnerable Nail to make arrowheads shot at him simply break on impact; a Scion who was being held down on a sacrificial altar to be sacrificed could make the tiny square inch of his chest's flesh so rock-hard that the obsidian dagger would splinter against it when the moment of truth came. It's also helpful for damage that might be coming your way that isn't from an attacker, such as when a Scion braves a tornado and has missiles hurled at him at hundreds of miles per hour, or decides to show off his awesomeness by standing on the point of a sword. Basically, while most Stamina-heavy Scions can soak their share of damage in combat, the Scion with Invulnerable Nail is specially adapted to frustrate and withstand any mischief perpetrated on his body when he's being hurt outside of a combat and can't necessarily fight back. It's a specialty knack in that it doesn't come up very often, but is incredibly powerful those moments that it does.

Invulnerable Nail can't be used in combat, but it can stack with other powers that can be used in combat, so Invulnerable Nail's bonus could be applied on top of that from Body Armor or Earth Armor or whatever else the Scion is rocking at the time. Eztli (who uses Invulnerable Nail primarily to safeguard her precious belly whenever there happen to be any babies in it) has a lethal soak with Body Armor, Earth Armor and Earth Body up of 65; in the unlikely event she needs to bust off Invulnerable Nail, it jumps up to a whopping 102. Getting through that iron wall is going to be pretty challenging.

So for those looking for combat utility, Invulnerable Nail's not what you want; it's for those moments when you can't or won't get into a combat, and for when injury is being done to you in in some manner other than the wild flailings of mortal contests. It's incredibly useful for those latter situations, however, and while it doesn't come up very often, it's always a pretty rocking feeling for the player that gets to use it and completely shrug off the industrial drill that bounces off his skull. Some games may have more or fewer opportunities to use it, depending on when your Storyteller rules "combat" begins and what kinds of things are happening in your plot. If any kind of attempt to do physical damage in any way always causes your ST to trigger a Join Battle roll, then you may have trouble doing anything with Invulnerable Nail, but if there's more wiggle room, a good stunt with your feat of awesome impenetrability always makes us want to roll with it, at least!