My buddy went a to a tournament this weekend. He played a Sentry team and the Judge there played the Illuminati Skrull figure. During the match my friend tried using the Meteorite on the Skrull, who at the time had the Iron Man defense special ability.

IRON DEFENSE
Damage dealt to Super-Skrull: Illuminati is reduced to 1

METEORITE
Continual. When this object is used in a successful close combat attack, roll one six-sided die and subtract 2 from the result, minimum result 1. Add the result to the attacker’s unmodified damage value for the attack. The damage dealt can’t otherwise be modified.

The Judge ruled that the Iron Defense over rules the Meteorite AND Exploit Weakness. That the damage would be reduced to 1. Of course this is the same Judge who said Justice League Flash could Hypersonic Speed and Phasing at the same time. Of course he was using the Flash at that time as well. I understand Judges make mistakes and thankfully for my friend he ended up winning inspite of that. But am I wrong in how these two abilities are used? I thought when using the Meteorite you couldnt reduce or add to the damge at all?

Hmm...I just got back from a tournament where my SS:I got lit up by a Meteorite, too, LOL. Myself and the other player agreed the damage would cut through the defense power.

because the last line says it cannot be otherwise modified, that means the damage cannot be reduced (or at least thats how i read it)

Iron defense does NOT stop Psy blast, EW and Metorite,

as well as Darkseid's Omega beams and other such penetrating powers

See that's how I read it too. I understand that Judges decision is final and everyone makes mistakes, but considering both of his rulings were regarding teams he was playing, that's just not cool. Thankfully he was just filling in for the real judge who was on vacation. Next Sunday, I'm going to bring this up with him and see what his opinion is on it.

Yeah, All forms of Penetrating damage > Iron Defense.

This is being discussed in this thread as well:
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=241344

From the PAC
EXPLOIT WEAKNESS Give this character a close combat action. Damage from the attack is penetrating damage.

From the FF rulebook page 8, second column, 3rd paragraph
Penetrating damage. Penetrating damage can’t be reduced by any power or ability that reduces damage dealt (such as the Toughness power), but it can be reduced by other game effects, such as feats or battlefield conditions.

IRON DEFENSE
Damage dealt to Super-Skrull: Illuminati is reduced to 1

Seeing as Iron Defence is a power and not a feat or battlefield conditions, please point that out to your judge (FWIW, an ability (star 'power') would work)

He is wrong

And this is not a matter of interpretation, as some rules are, this one is really easy

Only two possibilities

1. he is an idiot
2. he is screwing you because he knows he is going to lose

The Phasing/HSS is also really easy

Page 16, FF rulebook

Special Powers
Special powers that allow a character to use multiple powers or effects might require a character to use a separate action to activate each power, unless the power specifically states otherwise. When the rules text of a special power doesn’t state which actions are required to use the effects it allows, see the Powers and Abilities Card and “Actions and Attacks” on page 8 for more on how to determine which actions are needed.
EXAMPLE: A special power that says, “This character can use Charge and Phasing/Teleport” would require the character to use a power action to activate Charge and a second power action to use Phasing/Teleport; they can’t be used during the same action. A special power that says, “This character can use Charge and Phasing/Teleport; when the character uses Charge, it can use Phasing/Teleport as a free action” would allow the character to run through a wall and attack an opposing character with the same action!

Seeing as the example uses Charge, which requires a Power Action exactly like HSS, he should be able to understand

Crisis Flash can definitely use pseudo-Phasing/Teleport (like Kid Flash, same set) but JLA requires two separate actions. But you cannot do two non-free actions on the same turn

Have to… Keep… Running…: The Flash can use Hypersonic Speed. When the Flash moves, he ignores the effects of characters, hindering terrain, elevated terrain, and blocking terrain on movement (that is what I call 'pseudo-Phasing/Teleport'. It pretty much has all the features but it is not even 'may use P/T'). He can't end his movement on blocking terrain.

Penetrating damage has no relevance with Meteorite. Meteorite does not deal penetrating damage.

yeah but the meteorite say damage can't be modified, plus when the FCBD Iron man came out with a silmilar power, it was ruled that penetrating would go thru as well as the meterorite. Reducing damage is modifying it.

From the other thread, dedicated to the same issue, but with Iron Man this time (from the official Player Guide, aka errata and clarification, aka FAQ):
That pretty much close the debate, since the Super-Skrull is a damage reducing power.

Cap'