Rules for Defense

Rules for Defense

These are rules that allow you to avoid Damage.

Active Defense

    If your attack roll succeeds, you have not (yet) actually struck your foe, unless you rolled a critical hit. Your attack is good enough to hit him – if he fails to defend.
   A fighter can use three active defenses to evade or ward off an attack: Dodge, Parry, and Block. These active defense scores should be calculated in advance and recorded on the character’s sheet.
   If a foe makes a successful attack roll, choose one active defense and attempt a “defense roll” against it. Exception: The All-Out Defense (Double Defense) maneuver lets you attempt a second defense against a particular attack if your first defense fails.
  The active defense chosen depends on the situation – especially the maneuver chosen last turn. Some maneuvers restrict which active defenses can be made. No active
defense is available if the PC is unaware of the attack. And active defenses don’t apply to fighters who are unconscious, immobilized, or otherwise unable to react.

Active Defense Rolls

  The defender rolls 3d against his active defense score. If his roll is less than or equal to his effective defense, he dodged, parried, or blocked the attack. Otherwise, his active defense was ineffective and the attack hit. If this occurs, roll for damage.
   An active defense roll of 3 or 4 is always successful – even if the effective defense score was only 1 or 2! A roll of 17 or 18 always fails.

Dodge

Base Dodge = Base Speed +3
  A Dodge is an active attempt to move out of the perceived path of an attack. It is normally the only active defense you can take against firearms.
  Your Dodge active defense is Basic Speed + 3, dropping all fractions, minus a penalty equal to your encumbrance level (see Encumbrance and Move, B. 17). List Dodge on your character sheet for quick reference.
  You may dodge any attack except one that you did not know about! You only get one Dodge roll against a given attack.
   If a single rapid-fire attack scores multiple hits, a successful Dodge roll lets you avoid one hit, plus additional hits equal to your margin of success. A critical success lets you dodge all hits you took from that attack.

Enhanced Dodge

  You are unusually adept at evading attacks! This may be due to careful observation of your foe, focusing chi, or anything else that fits your background.

Acrobatic Dodge

  If you have put at least one point into the Acrobatics skill, you can try a “fancy” dodge once during your turn. You may define this as jumping over a sword blow, cartwheeling away, or whatever else you like. Make an Acrobatics roll before you attempt your Dodge roll. (If flying, roll against Aerobatics instead.) On a success, you get +2 to that Dodge roll. On a failure, you get -2.
  You can combine this option with a retreat (see Retreat, B. 377).

Sacrificial Dodge

  You can defend a friend by throwing yourself into the path of an attack against him. To do so, you must be close enough to interpose yourself between your friend and his attacker
by taking a step (see Step, B. 368). Announce this after the enemy makes his attack roll but before your friend attempts his defense roll.
  Use the ordinary rules for a dodge, except that you cannot combine this with a retreat (see Retreat, B. 377). If you succeed, you are hit by the attack. If you fail, you didn’t move in time, but your friend still gets his normal defense roll. In either case, since you moved, you cannot retreat if you are attacked before your next turn.

Vehicular Dodge

  An evasively maneuvering vehicle gets a Dodge roll. Instead of Basic Speed + 3, use half the operator’s skill (Driving, Piloting, etc.), rounded down, modified by the vehicle’s Handling statistic. For example, a biker with Driving (Motorcycle)-14 on a motorcycle with Handling +1 would have a Dodge of 8.

Parry

  Parry to deflect a blow using a weapon or your bare hands. You cannot parry unless your weapon is ready – or, if unarmed, you have an empty hand.
   You can use most melee weapons to parry. Some hefty weapons (e.g., axes) are unbalanced: you cannot use them to parry if you’ve already used them to attack on your turn. (You can still parry with a weapon in your other hand, if you have one.) A few long,
well-balanced weapons (e.g., the quarterstaff) get a +1 or +2 bonus to parry due to their ability to keep a foe at bay.
   Your Parry active defense with a given weapon is 3 + half your skill with that weapon, dropping all fractions.
  A parry won’t stop anything except melee attacks or thrown weapons, unless you have special skills.
  Exception: If a foe attacks you with a missile weapon and he is within reach of your melee weapon, you may parry. Success would mean that you slapped his bow or gun aside, causing him to fire wide of your body.
     Number of Parries: Once you have attempted a parry with a particular weapon or bare hand, further attempts to parry with that weapon or hand are at a cumulative -4 per parry after the first. Reduce this to -2 per parry if you are using a fencing weapon or have the Trained By A Master or Weapon Master advantage or to -1 per parry if both conditions are true. This penalty only applies to multiple parries on the same turn; it does not carry over between turns.
   Parrying with the Off Hand: You parry with your “off” hand (your left or “shield” hand if right handed; see Handedness, B. 17), or with a weapon held in it, at -4 to skill. Since Parry is calculated off half skill, this gives -2 to Parry. You may ignore this penalty if
you have the Ambidexterity advantage (B. 39).
   Parrying Thrown Weapons: You can parry thrown weapons, but at a penalty: -1 for most thrown weapons, or -2 for small ones such as knives, shuriken, and other weapons that weigh 1 lb. or less.
   Parrying Unarmed Attacks: If you successfully parry an unarmed attack (bite, punch, etc.) with a weapon, you may injure your attacker. Immediately roll against your skill with the weapon you used to parry. This roll is at -4 if your attacker used Judo or Karate. If you succeed, your parry struck the attacker’s limb squarely. He gets no defense roll against this! Roll damage normally.
Parrying Unarmed
  If you are fighting without weapons, or with at least one hand free, you may choose to parry barehanded. Beings that lack hands (like most animals) can’t parry unarmed they can only dodge.
  You can use Boxing, Brawling, Judo, or Karate skill – or DX, if higher – to parry with one hand. You can also parry with Sumo Wrestling or Wrestling skill, but this requires both hands. Your Parry active defense is 3+ half your skill or DX, dropping all fractions.
  There’s no penalty to parry another unarmed attack. You are at -3 to parry weapons, unless the attack is a thrust or you are using Judo or Karate (in either case, use your full parry). See individual unarmed-combat skill descriptions for other limitations.
  A failed parry means you are hit. If you are using hit locations, a failed parry against a weapon means your attacker may choose to hit his original target or the arm you parried with! If your arm suffers more than half your Hit Points in injury, it is automatically crippled see Crippling Injury, B. 420).
  Some unarmed skills (e.g., Judo) give you special options after a successful parry. See individual skill descriptions for details.

Block

Block=3 + half your Shield or Cloak skill
    Blocking requires a ready shield or cloak. Your Block active defense is 3 + half your Shield or Cloak skill, dropping all fractions.
    You can block any melee attack, thrown weapon, projected liquid, or muscle-powered missile weapon. You cannot block bullets or beam weapons . . . these come too fast to be stopped this way.
    You may attempt to block only one attack per turn.

ACTIVE DEFENSE OPTIONS

You can improve your odds of success with an active defense by choosing one of these options to go along with it.

Retreat

“Retreat” is not a separate defense, but an option you may add to any active defense against a melee attack. To exercise this option, you must move away from your attacker: at least one yard, but not more than 1/10 your Move – exactly as for a step (see Step, B. 368).
Retreating gives +3 to Dodge, or +1 to Block or Parry. Exception: If you parry using Boxing, Judo, Karate, or any fencing skill (Main-Gauche, Rapier, Saber, or Smallsword), a retreat gives +3 to Parry, as these forms make superior use of mobility.
Your step back takes place immediately. It is assumed to occur as your foe is striking. If it would take you out of your attacker’s reach, he still gets his attack. If he has multiple attacks (e.g., from an Extra Attack, All-Out Attack, or Rapid Strike), your retreat does not put you beyond the reach of his remaining attacks. However, you get your retreating bonus on all active defense rolls against all of his attacks until your next turn.
If your opponent attacked you with a maneuver that allows a step, but has not yet taken his step, he can choose to follow you by taking his unused step. In effect, he is forcing you back!
You can retreat only once during your turn. In other words, once you retreat, you may not retreat again until after your next turn.
You cannot retreat while in a sitting or kneeling posture, or while stunned. You also cannot retreat if you moved faster than your Basic Move on your last turn (that is, if you were sprinting or using Enhanced Move).
You can retreat (by rolling) if you are lying down.

Dodge and Drop

When under fire, hit the dirt! You may drop to the ground while dodging, earning a +3 bonus to Dodge. This is a “dodge and drop.” It is similar to a retreat, but only effective against ranged attacks. It also has a drawback: it leaves you prone on the ground.
Like a retreat, a dodge and drop applies to all of your defenses against one foe for one turn. Any cover you drop behind does not count against the initial attack that inspired the
dodge and drop, but is effective against subsequent attacks directed at you.
Sacrificial Dodge and Drop: You can use dodge and drop in conjunction with sacrificial dodge (B. 375) to protect a friend who is no more than a step away from you. If you succeed, you both fall prone and you take the hit . . . unless you succeed by 3 or more, in which case neither of you is hit! You can also use a sacrificial dodge and drop to throw yourself on an explosive (e.g., a hand grenade). If you succeed, treat the blast as a contact explosion (see B. 415).
Diving for Cover: You may also attempt a dodge and drop if you are within the area of effect of an explosion, cone, or area-effect attack and there is cover (such as a trench) only a step away. Success means you reach it in time; failure means you don’t. Even if there is no cover handy, an extra yard or two of distance from a blast can still help, since explosive damage declines with distance. If you succeed, you are a step farther away; if you fail, you suffer the effect before you make your step.
Flying or Swimming: Dodge and drop is possible only if a step would take you below concealing terrain (e.g., a flyer dropping below a hill-crest). You don’t end up prone. You can still dive for cover to increase your distance from an explosion, etc.

Passive Defenses

These methods do not require any rolls.

Defence Bonus (DB)

Damage resistance

Injury Tolerance