Oops. You get 20. Edited in.
The stat you use to attack is the same stat they use to soak. You will likely have different values for this stat.
A swordsman is facing off against a woman with snakes for hair and a deadly gaze, the Swordsman has a stat line of Strength: 7, Agility: 8, Wits 6, Knowledge 7. The swordsman is using a 19 damage weapon and wearing 8 points of armor against Earth effects. The medusa, on the other hand, is attempting to transform the swordsman into a statue with her gaze attack, and using an ability that does a base of 22 points of damage, and has only 5 points of Metal armor. Her stat line is Strength: 6, Agility: 6, Wits 8, Knowledge 8. Ignoring, for the moment, skills and circumstances, we have a situation in which:
When the swordsman attacks the medusa, he rolls a d20 and adds 8 (his agility), attempting to hit the medusa (which he does on a 14, 8 + her agility). If he gets a minimal hit (which he does on a 14 or 15), she suffers 26 damage (19 for the weapon, 7 for the strength, and +0 for the to-hit roll). On a maximum hit (where he gets a 20, she'll take 7 extra damage for a total of 33. In either case, she now rolls a d20 and adds 11 (her strength plus Metal armor), attempting to equal the damage to successfully soak all the wounds. If she fails, she takes 1 wound for every 2 points she misses the damage DC on her soak roll (round wounds up). So if the swordsman rolls a natural 20 on his attack roll and the medusa rolls a natural one on her soak roll, she takes 11 wounds and crumples to the floor - she's down, but not actually dead.
When the medusa attacks the swordsman, she rolls a d20 and adds 8 (her Wits), and is looking for a 14 (8 + the swordsman's Wits). Once again, she scores a minimal hit on a 14 or 15, and a maximum hit on a 28. However, her attack is inflicting 30 to 37 damage (22 + her Knowledge of 8, with up to 7 additional damage coming in from the to-hit roll), and then the swordsman has to soak - which he does with a d20 + 15 (his Earth armor of 8 plus his Knowledge of 7). Again, a 20 on the attack roll and a 1 on the soak roll would incapacitate the poor swordsman.
The second one.
Yes, having drunken boxing that uses Alcohol as it's element is valid.
Sorry about that. If there's anything you would change, I'll edit that into the notepad file I have with the rules and use that for future games if there are any.