Derived Attributes

These attribute are less static than the main ones such as brawn. They have both a current value, and a maximum value.

Wound Threshold
A character's wound threshold represents how much physical damage he can withstand before he is knocked out. Wounds can be serious and lead to critical injury. Wounds can be treated with Medicine but may take time to recover (Geth use Mechanics to repair wounds instead). A character's starting wound threshold is determined based on their species and their Brawn rating. After determining this initial value, increases to a character's Brawn rating do not increase their wound threshold; wound threshold improvements are acquired by purchasing the appropriate talent, such as Toughened.

Strain Threshold
A character's strain threshold represents how much duress a character can withstand before he is stunned, dazed, or otherwise incapacitated. Strain represents psychological or mental "damage" to the character. Strain is more easily suffered than wounds, and can even be used as a resource by players to trigger certain character abilities. Thankfully, characters recover from strain more quickly than from wounds. A character's starting strain threshold is determined based on his race and his Willpower rating. After determining this initial value, increases to a character's Willpower rating do not increase his strain threshold - strain threshold improvements are acquired by purchasing appropriate talents, such as Grit.

Defense
Defense determines how difficult a character is to hit in combat situations. Characters have both a ranged defense and a melee defense. A character's default value in both ranged defense and melee defense is zero. If a character's defense value is listed simply as "Defense" and not specifically defined by separate ranged and melee values, then the same value is applied to both his ranged and melee defense. Defense is most commonly gained by wearing armor, or by adopting a defensive position in combat, such as gaining cover. Some special talents may also increase one of the character's defense ratings.

Soak
A character's soak value determines how much incoming damage he can shrug off before taking real damage. The soak value is subtracted from any incoming damage to the character. Any remaining damage after subtracting the soak value becomes wounds applied against the character's wound threshold. A character's default soak value is equal to his Brawn rating. After determining this initial value, increases to a character's Brawn rating do increase his soak value. Additional soak value bonuses are most often gained by wearing armor. Some talents may also increase a character's innate soak value.

Shields
The character's shields have a innate value from armor, and may be increased from powers, talents or mods. A character's shield must be fully depleted in order for you character to start taking damage. With the exception of tech armor, shields do not have soak. An attack that fully depletes shields, can carry over to the characters soak, however that attack does not gain the effect of pierce.

A partially damaged shields are restored to maximum at the start of your turn. If they are fully depleted, it takes a maneuver to restore.