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You can also use the traits of an adversary and make things harder for the hero, giving him -1d on Skill rolls when trying to get away or to hide. That’s kind of the roll of for the warg. You don’t roll for him, but depending on the situation, it might get more difficult for the hero.

Hi!
This is just a general rules question regarding "Piercing Blow". It says "An attack roll produces a Piercing Blow on a 10 or *Gandalf rune* result on the Feat Die.". Note that it does not say a 10 or higher! So lets say we are using a spear with their +3 pierce bonus; we roll a 9 on the feat dice plus a 6 on a success dice. In this case, according to the rules, you cannot make a piercing blow as you do not hit 10, but a 12 on the feat dice. In the rules under Pierce it says "Spend 1 Success icon to modify the Feat die numerical result of your attack...". So you could argue that the feat dice only goes to 10, so the Pierce modifier would stop it there, but in that case the previous roll would not be a hit if your TN is >16.
I do belive the "correct" ruling, and how I have been running it, is to have the "10 or higher" be a piercing blow. Thoghts? Errata? Or am I illiterate?

PS. "Piercing Blow" or "Pierce" should be renamed to avoid confusion with eachother. Countless times have I had to explain to players that they are not at all the same thing.

This is a mechanism to increase the number of Protection Rolls needed by adversaries, giving Players the choice between a potential Wounding Attack or simply using the 6 on the Success die to dish out more Endurance loss with a Heavy Blow (or any of the other choices of course)
Looking at your example:
"So lets say we are using a spear with their +3 pierce bonus; we roll a 9 on the feat dice plus a 6 on a success dice."
Your attack roll is therefore 15. As long as this is sufficient to hit the adversary, it is a Success. If the TN is 16 or higher its a miss and the combat round moves on.

Assuming you have hit the adversary you are correct to apply the choice of Pierce if you wish. ( " In the rules under Pierce it says "Spend 1 Success icon to modify the Feat die numerical result of your attack...)

Your Feat die was only one short of a Piercing Blow, so you 'spend' the Success icon to improve your Feat die result. And although Spears get +3 to the Feat die, this is more improvement than you need to reach 10. Its a Piercing Blow. You can narrate that the spear really really really goes in deep deep deep into the enemy if you like, but frankly, if your spearhead gets right through, then it doesn't matter how far out the other side the spear is sticking!

The intention of the rule, and the logic of improving the effectiveness of the spear strike, leads to the Piercing Blow. The increase in the Feat die score is simply to change a hit into a Piercing Blow if you can.

". So you could argue that the feat dice only goes to 10, so the Pierce modifier would stop it there", - yes and at 10, its a Piercing Blow. End of story really.

Note that it does not say a 10 or higher!

One of the game writers confirmed on the Discord that adding a Pierce bonus to a 9 that brings it past 10 does count as a Piercing Blow, as you would expect.

Linklite's and Sebastian's comments seem to sound right.

In changing from TOR1e to TOR2e I find that I continually need to alter my frame of reference. This is MY difficulty and not a criticism of the newer system.

In TOR1e adversaries were given their own rolls and actions more than in 2e (and therefore the LM had greater direct involvement and demand to do more things). As I read the commentary on TOR2e the onus is to be given to the Player-Heroes to be the direct means to resolve as much action as possible.

e.g. in TOR1e the Adversary could roll Perception to notice the PC. (Dice rolled by the LM) Or the Adversary's Attribute level set the difficulty of the Stealth roll for the PC trying to get past.
In TOR2e its all down to the dice thrown by the Player. The Adversary has a passive role in increasing or decreasing the dice pool, and the LM does not roll.

Following this style of reasoning (i.e. assuming my interpretation for TOR2e is essentially OK!)

a Pursuit is down to the Player-Hero rolling Athletics to get clear; or maybe even Stealth to get away without being noticed/tracked. Another way to do it might be to roll Awe to cow the opposition for a while and create a delay to get clear; or Craft to use that USEFUL ITEM (rope) and improvise a swing to get over a fast river, cutting it away to stop the adversary following.

Nice discussion. Thanks to all.

This is well explained and I think hits the core of the 2E system. I have kept some 1E sub-systems in my 2E campaign when relevant but overall the simplified rolling mechanism that is driven by the fellowship companions makes for faster and simpler play I find.