how do ward saves work in 8th ed rules? are the just for magic or shooting? and what if you have a armour save AND a ward save? its kroq-gar thats confused me about this, he has a 2+ armour save with his L armour, 4+ scaly skin and 1 for being mounted right? but he also has a +5 ward save?! how does that work, can he use it if his AS fails? or does he have to chose what one he's using, or is ward saves for specific things and if ward saves are for magic, does that mean all the time we've been using AS for that was wrong? and should there be no AS for attacks with magical weapons? im just confused, please clarify
Ward and armor work just as they did in 7th. The type of attack- melee, shooting, magic spell, magic weapon- still doesn't matter. Unless the rules for the attack specifically say that it doesn't allow armor saves, or the strength is so high that there's no way to pass it, you get both armor and then ward. One related difference is that in 8th, armor is capped at 1+ maximum for everyone. We used to be able to get a 0 or -1 save for some of our Cold One mounted heroes, but now once you hit 1+ additional armor does you no good (though you can still equip it if you want). I think the issue that might be confusing you is Magic Resistance, which really did change. Now, each point of MR adds 1 to your ward save against spell damage. So, say we have an Oldblood with a 2+ armor save, 5+ ward save, and Magic resistance 2. He gets wounded by a Strength 5 spell. S5 is -2 to armor, so he gets a 4+ armor roll. If he fails that, he gets a 3+ ward instead of his usual 5+ because of the MR. Note that the MR wouldn't do any good against a magic weapon, nor would it help against a spell that doesn't cause actual wounds (Iceshard Blizzard) or doesn't allow saves (pit of Shades). Hope that helps.
this will help lots! my main enemy has always said theres just no way i can have my ward safe if i fail my armour also i like to equip my guys sometimes technically so they have like -1 AS if that makes sence, like a shield and light armour and scaly skin and a magic tally or something while on a cold one (just an example, dont go picking at how those specific items wouldnt work like that) means that even if they get a good modifier with strength 5 hit or something, your still on a brilliant 2+ save
Well, you can go to -1 armor on paper if you want... it won't do any good. It's capped now at 1+, period. (rulebook page 43, third paragraph) Take an Oldblood riding a Cold One and wearing light armor. He has a 1+ armor save. Now give him an Enchanted Shield. He still has a 1+ armor save, but costs 15 points more. The only reason to go technically below 1+ is if you are riding a monster or something and your mount dies. At that point, you lose the bonus for being mounted, and the rest of your armor can start counting for something. Until then, having better than 1+ is useless.