Is Superficial Willpower damage halved in V5?

Question

It seems clear that Superficial Health Damage is halved before applying it, and that fact is referenced several times throughout the book. But by contrast, I don't see anyplace where it references halving Superficial Willpower Damage. The "Unless otherwise stated, divide Superficial damage in half (rounded up) before applying it to the tracker." passage on page 126 seems to apply to both health and willpower, but I don't see that explicitly spelled out.

Is Superficial Willpower damage halved before it's applied?

Answer 1

Yes.

Superficial damage is always halved unless otherwise specified. As you point out, the passage describing this on page 126 doesn't specify health damage, just superficial damage in general. And the passages before and after that one use both health and willpower damage in their examples. If it meant only health damage, it would say so; the next page, for example, divides up the types of damage explicitly.

For another indication, look at the sidebar in the middle of page 126, which explains that "Superficial damage sustained through spends is not halved." Willpower gets spent (to reroll dice, for example); health does not.

(As for why this never shows up in an example: social combat is much less thoroughly developed than physical combat, and gets less wordcount in the book. There are plenty of examples of physical combat to explain health damage, but social combat tends to only be mentioned in passing.)