Defending
Getting hit really and truly sucks. Thankfully, you’ve got options.
A character’s standard Defense is 1. A character can defend to increase the Difficulty an attack must overcome to successfully hit its target. In response to an attack, the player may reflexively roll the highest of her Resilience Attributes without any Skills. Apply the successes on this roll to generate Defensive Stunts. Defensive Stunts persist until the end of the round. Penalties to Defense from sources such as Injury Conditions can never bring the character’s Defense below 1.
A character may want to spend her action in the round to take a Full Defense. To do this, roll double the character’s Defense pool. Each success increases the Difficulty required to inflict Injury (effectively providing soft armor — see below), or may be split among other Defensive Stunts (including any Defensive Stunts granted by Knacks or other powers). This is a simple action, and may not be part of a mixed action.
DEFENSIVE STUNTS
Defend: Unlike most Stunts, Defend generates successes, which an opponent must overcome in order to inflict an Injury. If this roll generates no successes, use the standard Defense.
Dive to Cover (Difficulty 1): In response to a ranged attack, you move up to one range band away to reach cover established in the Field. Cover utilized by this stunt absorbs Injuries as hard armor.
Roll Away (Difficulty equal to opponent’s Composure): Move away from the attacker one range band.
A character’s standard Defense is 1. A character can defend to increase the Difficulty an attack must overcome to successfully hit its target. In response to an attack, the player may reflexively roll the highest of her Resilience Attributes without any Skills. Apply the successes on this roll to generate Defensive Stunts. Defensive Stunts persist until the end of the round. Penalties to Defense from sources such as Injury Conditions can never bring the character’s Defense below 1.
A character may want to spend her action in the round to take a Full Defense. To do this, roll double the character’s Defense pool. Each success increases the Difficulty required to inflict Injury (effectively providing soft armor — see below), or may be split among other Defensive Stunts (including any Defensive Stunts granted by Knacks or other powers). This is a simple action, and may not be part of a mixed action.
DEFENSIVE STUNTS
Defend: Unlike most Stunts, Defend generates successes, which an opponent must overcome in order to inflict an Injury. If this roll generates no successes, use the standard Defense.
Dive to Cover (Difficulty 1): In response to a ranged attack, you move up to one range band away to reach cover established in the Field. Cover utilized by this stunt absorbs Injuries as hard armor.
Roll Away (Difficulty equal to opponent’s Composure): Move away from the attacker one range band.
ANTAGONISTS AND VARIABLE STUNTS
Most Antagonists (see Chapter Six) just have a “Defense” statistic. We’ve broken down the granular stuff that goes into what Difficulty you need to beat for these actions, but for nearly every Combat action rolled against an Antagonist, just beat their Defense and you’re golden. Antagonists often have high Defenses; failing to hit them in combat generates Momentum, which allows you to boost dice pools, which allows you to beat their Defense. Failing that, you should rely on teamwork and Stunts (and not just combat Stunts — remember, you can and should apply an Enhancement Stunt to a different Skill and Attribute combination) to carry the day. Similarly, Antagonists don’t per se suffer from Injury Conditions, but they should have Complications penalties applied to them as necessary.
For Stunts with variable success costs versus an opponent’s trait, assume that the successes are equal to one-half of the opponent’s relevant pool, rounding up for Attributes and rounding down for Skills. For example, grappling a huge but ungainly Villain would target their Desperation Pool (5 rounding up, that means the Grapple Stunt is 3 successes once you’ve beaten their Defense. If you’re trying to feint at a fast, but obviously unskilled, shadow ninja, you’d again target their Desperation Pool (5) but round down, for 2 successes.
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