Defense

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About Defense

Defense, or more specifically, Defense Rating, is one of the factors determining how difficult it is to land a successful attack during combat. Defense Rating represents the abilities of shields, armor, or other defensive systems to deflect attacks entirely, or absorb or lessen incoming blows.

A character adds a number of equal to their Defense rating to all combat checks directed against them.

No character can have a Defense rating higher than 4.

Melee and Ranged Defense

A character’s Defense rating can be classified as one of three types: general Defense rating, Melee Defense rating, or Ranged Defense rating.

A general Defense rating applies against all combat checks directed against the character.

A Melee Defense rating only applies against close combat checks directed against the character (Brawl and Melee checks).

A Ranged Defense rating only applies against ranged combat checks directed against the character (Gunnery, Ranged (Light), and Ranged (Heavy) checks).

Defense Stacking

There are two sources of Defense: sources that stack, and sources that do not stack. You can think of this as sources that provide Defense, and sources that increase Defense.

If multiple sources that increase Defense would increase a character’s Defense higher than 4, the rating remains at 4.

Provides Defense

Sources that provide Defense (such as most armor) list the Defense provided as a number, or say that they ‘provide’ Defense. Some examples include:

These sources do not stack with each other. If a character could benefit from more than one of these sources of Defense, the player chooses the best one.

Increases Defense

However, other sources increase Defense. These sources say they ‘increase’ Defense, or they list the Defense provided as a number with a ‘+’ sign in front of it. These sources of Defense stack, both with each other and with any sources that provide Defense.