| Talent category | Class |
| Method of purchase | During gameplay or character creation |
| Personality traits | None |
| Required traits | Classed |
| Required base stats | Mettle 8+ |
| Required talents | Toughness |
| Banned talents | Evasion, Heavy Armour Expert and Strong Magical Shields |
Your skin, fur or scales are particularly tough. You gain a bonus to natural armour equal to your Mettle against crush damage, half of that against cut and stab damage, and a quarter of that against heat, cold, shock and poison damage. If your Mettle exceeds 10 then only every second point beyond that counts. The natural armour bonus from Mettle cannot exceed your normal natural armour.
If you are a Vampire or Werewolf, then each rank in Lupine Fortitude will give a further +2% soak vs physical damage and +1% soak vs energy and poison damage.
If you are a Demon, then each rank in Tainted Flesh will give you a further +2% soak vs physical damage and +1% soak vs energy and poison damage.
If you are a Dragon, then each rank in Dragon Form or Draconian Form will give you a further +3% soak vs crush damage, +2% soak vs cut damage and +1% soak vs stab, energy and poison damage.
This talent also increases your maximum post-bypass soak percentage from 75% to 90% for your natural armour layer (see ‘help armour’).