Reduced Defenses?

[Anders]

How much would reduced Defenses cost? I guess Reduced Dodge is stuck at -15/level, since that's baked into the Basic Speed/Basic Move calculation. But the others?

[AlexanderHowl]

-1/level for -1 Parry with a single skill or for -1 Block, since you would avoid optimizing that skill. Maybe -5/level for -1 Parry to all skills.

[Kromm]

Yeah, reducing Dodge is universal and rather fatal . . . -15 points/level seems right. There aren't many cheesy workarounds to make that "meaningless."

Reduced Block and Parry are silly. You'll just go learn some other skill to defend with, or you'll dodge. That falls into the realm of Incompetence quirks. Since -4 to all uses of a combat skill would give -2 to the defenses figured from it, it would be fair to say -1 point gives you -2 to the relevant Block or Parry. On the upside, you could still learn the skill (you wouldn't be stuck at default-4). I would probably allow up to four "levels" (-8 to defend), as with an anti-Talent.

A generalized reduced defense with all possible sources of Block or Parry might be fair at -5 points per -1 to those defenses. I wouldn't give out more . . . Dodge is always there, after all.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Since -4 to all uses of a combat skill would give -2 to the defenses figured from it, it would be fair to say -1 point gives you -2 to the relevant Block or Parry. On the upside, you could still learn the skill (you wouldn't be stuck at default-4). I would probably allow up to four "levels" (-8 to defend), as with an anti-Talent.

A generalized reduced defense with all possible sources of Block or Parry might be fair at -5 points per -1 to those defenses. I wouldn't give out more . . . Dodge is always there, after all.

PU3p21 "Noncombatant" normally gives -15 points per -1 to skill (so you could take 2 levels at -30 to be only -1 to parry derived from your default weapon skills)

Is the reason why you'd only get a quirk-level discount because it doesn't penalize the attack rolls, only the parries?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Plane

Is the reason why you'd only get a quirk-level discount because it doesn't penalize the attack rolls, only the parries?

No, it's because being bad at a single skill you probably won't learn anyway isn't worth much; that's canonically -1 point per skill as Incompetence (p. B164). Being bad at just the defensive part is worth even less, really! It's generous at -1 point, especially if you can learn the skill.

You can't compare Noncombatant because it penalizes all possible combat skills, as well as non-skill "combat rolls," and means you can never learn combat skills above default. It also means NPCs treat you like a coward.

[smurf]

There is the Slow Reflexes Quirk. It pushes you down the initiative table. I guess you could add that you that you cannot win initiative contest with it too.