Focusing Defenses

[Varyon]

Over in the Attack Options Breakdown thread, I discussed when Setup Attacks (Pyramid #3/52) are a better idea than Deceptive Attacks. A great example of this was the introductory blurb of the article itself - a necromancer who is emphasizing the defense of a magical stone on his chest, while the hero is trying to find a way to get past his guard and shatter it. The problem here, however, was that to my knowledge there are no rules allowing for such an emphasis on defense of a single hit location.

I made a suggestion over there, but it was rather off-topic so I felt a new thread was necessary. Here's what I came up with (note this is slightly different than what I posted there).


A character can opt to emphasize defending certain hit locations over others. The most basic form of this is Upper Body - Skull, Face, Neck, Torso, Arms, and Hands - as opposed to Lower Body - Legs and Feet. A character can opt to get a +1 to one in exchange for a -1 to the other.

Following this, the character can emphasize a specific location within the set, with Skull/Face/Neck treated as a single location, and each Arm/Hand or Leg/Foot combination as a single location (so for this second set, you're looking at Head, Torso, Right Arm, Left Arm, Right Leg, and Left Leg as options). This gives a further +1 to defend that location, but negates the bonus to defend the rest of the set. Finally, one can opt to defend a sublocation (Skull vs Face vs Neck for Head, Arm vs Hand for Arm, or Vitals for Torso; Chinks for any location are also viable sublocations). This gives yet another +1 to defend that location, but a -1 for everywhere else.

A character who is trying to avoid getting hit in the Vitals thus has 4 options for emphasizing his defense. The first is to not bother and simply use normal defenses. The second is to emphasize Upper Body, for +1 there and -1 to the Lower Body. Next he could emphasize the Torso, for +2 there, -1 to Lower Body, and +0 elsewhere. Finally, he could opt to emphasize the Vitals, for +3 there, +1 to Torso, -2 to Lower Body, and +1 elsewhere.

Typically, emphasizing defense of a given location comes down to a combination of physical positioning and mental focus. For a normal character, this means emphasis affects all Active Defenses - if the character above were using sword and shield, the modifiers would apply to Block, Parry, and Dodge. A character with Combat Reflexes can split their attention a little more effectively, meaning he can set how much emphasis each defense gives, but they must follow the same trend - the above character could emphasize Vitals with Parry, Torso with Block, and nothing with Dodge, for example, but couldn't emphasize Vitals with Parry, Left Arm with Block, and Head with Dodge. A character with ETS can split their attention freely, and can set each defense individually - the above character could emphasize Vitals with Parry, Head with Block, and Lower Body with Dodge, for example.

Determining if someone is emphasizing a given defensive location requires a successful Per-based roll with the character's highest melee combat skill (Soldier and Tactics may also qualify, as might Body Language). This is at -4 as a free action (a glance) or +0 if taking a Concentrate maneuver. Success tells you Upper Body or Lower Body, Success by 5+ tells you hit location (if applicable), Success by 10+ or Critical Success tells you sublocation (if applicable). A character can opt to try and disguise the fact that he is emphasizing anything with an IQ-based roll with the character's highest melee combat skill (Soldier and Tactics may also qualify, as might Acting). This is resolved as a Quick Contest.