Shield Block with mixed damage: which damage type does hardness reduce

[demlin]

Let's say you've got fire weakness 10 and would take 5 piercing and 5 fire damage. You use shield block to reduce the damage by its hardness (5) so 5 damage remain for you and the shield. Is it fire damage, piercing damage or both?

[Ubertron_X]

I think, according to the damage steps, you can only block after you already receive 5 piercing and 15 fire damage (applying weakness happens early), so it does not matter what part of the damage you block, you and your shield will receive 15 damage.

[tivadar27]

"You snap your shield in place to ward off a blow. Your shield prevents you from taking an amount of damage up to the shield’s Hardness. You and the shield each take any remaining damage, possibly breaking or destroying the shield."

Shield block doesn't work the way Hardness normally does (if an enemy had hardness, it would apply to both types of damage). The ability says it works any time you'd take damage from a physical attack, which is an attack causing B/P/S (physical) damage (this includes spells that deal this type of damage IMO). You block damage up to the shield's hardness and then you and the shield both take the remaining. While it's not stated specifically, I'd rule that the fire damage is completely ignored by the shield, you take it, it's not physical damage, so the shield has no effect on it.

That being said, there's a lot of ambiguity around shield block. Questions about when it occurs (devs have stated either interpretation of before or after damage is rolled is valid...), as well as the fact that there's nothing saying the hardness doesn't apply as normal *after* subtracting damage equal to the shield's hardness (though obviously it shouldn't)... I'd probably rule as above, but wouldn't trust that to be anything definitive.