question: "automatic success" of piercing blows and rolls..

[AULENDIL]

hello every body.
i have a question:
some rewards allow to achieve an automatic piercing blow, at the expense of 1 hope.
for example, king's blade of Hobbits:
you have to hit with superior success, then you spend 1 hope to achieve automatic piercing blow.
dD you have to roll for protection in that case? or does "automatic" means that it prevents defender from using armor protection roll?
thanks for your point of view.

olivier Bon

[Corvo]

The opponent can still roll for armour.

That "automatic" is just for "even if you rolled a measly 3 on the feat dice"

[Majestic]

Yep, they still get the armour roll. The rules say that one who is hit by a Piercing blow still gets a Protection test to avoid being Wounded (Adventurer's Book, p. 161).

[AULENDIL]

thanks for your answers....
merry tolkienesque christmas!!