The rulebook says that you gain the Reach advantage if you score a "damaging" hit on your opponent.
Does this mean you have to penetrate armour, or just score a solid hit regardless of whether any damage gets through?
The latter.
A level 0 hit counts as damaging for the purposes of reach.
Quote from: WolfenA level 0 hit counts as damaging for the purposes of reach.
I wasn't sure about this, since in at least one game I've played a distinction is made between "exactly zero" and "less than zero". In other words, is a 6 damage hit against 9 toughness a level 0 hit, or a level -3 hit?
6 damange against a 9 toughness, for the purposes of this discussion, is 0.
Example: You have a guy wearing plate carrying a claymore. He attacks a guy with a shortsword. The guy with a shortsword successfully hits the knight, in spite of the reach penalties he faces. Unfortunately, because of the plate, he does no damage.
According to the rules, while no damage has been done, the guy with the big sword is now at a disadvantage, as the guy with the short sword is 'inside his guard' or somesuch.
That confirms it's the way I thought it should be, Nick, but my inner pedant was screaming "but that's not a level 0 hit, it's a -3 hit!" :)
Ah, well, I enjoy breaking math, so when I see a -3 = 0 make sense, it brings me great joy.