LOD - Mandrake Root and Flesh of Clay

Hey,

The Sorcerous Society warband from LOD #4 has an Elemental Lore of Earth spell called 'Flesh of Clay'.

Quote :

1 - Flesh of Clay Difficulty 8
Attuning himself to the earth, the wizards flesh becomes as dense as clay.
The wizard doubles his Toughness, but halves his Movement and Initiative. The spell remains in effect
until the caster is Knocked Down, Stunned or taken Out of Action.

How would this work with the Mandrake Root drug from the core rulebook?

Quote :

Mandrake Root
The man-shaped Mandrake Root grows in the rotting swamps of Sylvania. It is a noxious, deadly plant which is highly addictive and slowly kills its users, but also allows them to shrug off almost any pain.
Effect: Mandrake Root makes a man almost oblivious to pain. His Toughness is increased by +1 for the duration of a battle and he treats all stunned results as knocked down instead. Mandrake Root has no effect on Undead, such as Vampires and Zombies, or on the Possessed.
Side effects: Mandrake Root is highly poisonous. At the end of the battle, roll 2D6. On a roll of 2-3 the model loses 1 point of Toughness permanently.

I believe that the +1 Toughness from the Mandrake Root would be added *after* the base Toughness is doubled by Flesh of Clay. Do you think that this is the best interpretation? The alternative is that the Mandrake Root +1 Toughness is doubled together with the base Toughness of the warrior.

My theory is that Flesh of Clay makes the spellcaster's skin tougher but then the Mandrake Root makes the warrior more immune to pain even with that tough skin.

Thanks!

I think a good general approach is adding/subtracting after doubling/halving, as with bonus attacks and frenzy. Btw, have you encountered this situation in-game?

I agree that it would be best approach to add it after the doubling but according to the rules as written for "Mandrake roots"...

Quote :

His Toughness is increased by +1 for the duration of a battle and he treats all stunned results as knocked down instead. Mandrake Root has no effect on Undead, such as Vampires and Zombies, or on the Possessed.

....it means that they (The Roots) are taken before the battle starts. So the +1 toughness are allready in place when the spell is cast, meaning to double it afterwards and also to double the effect of the "Mandrake Roots"

In my opinion the best approach would be to modify rules of the spell to following wording.

"The wizzard doubles his base Toughness (before other effects/things like poison, roots ...have modified it)

Similar like the Frenzy rule:
You are doubling your base attacks when being Frenzy and not the attacks for 2nd hand weapon or rd arm.

Just my 2 cents

Regards
Claus

Thanks guys. Yes the fact that Mandrake Root is taken before the battle (and before the spell is cast) complicates the issue. I agree though that the +1 should come after the doubling as a general rule of thumb unless stated otherwise.

@folketsfiende - The Sorcerous Society warband in my current gaming group asked about about this as a defense against S4 Beastmen Raiders also in my gaming group. If the +1 was applied first and doubled by the spell then that would give his wizard T8 which cannot be injured by S4 attacks. Add Sword of Rezhebel and his wizard becomes a powerful melee force on the battlefield and one that could pose quite a threat to the melee-only Beastmen Raiders.

(As a side, these two warbands are the strongest warbands out of the six in my gaming group and they are going to clash very soon (next round or two most likely) and they are looking for every possible way of trumping the other. It will be an explosive battle. )