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.

[vierasmarius]

Have you taken a look at Focused Defense? (MA:Gladiators, pg 21) It does something similar to this, though not quite as flexible, and with modifiers to the attacker's skill instead of to the defender's parry.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

Have you taken a look at Focused Defense? (MA:Gladiators, pg 21) It does something similar to this, though not quite as flexible, and with modifiers to the attacker's skill instead of to the defender's parry.

Gladiators isn't really something I'm interested in picking up (I considered it during the sale, but opted against). I am marginally familiar with the Deny Left/Right options there, and as I understand it basically comes down to "Penalize foe's attempts to hit one side but become awkward using weapons on that side." That's something that could probably be combined with this system fairly readily, I'd imagine.

[McAllister]

But it's so complicated and fiddly... but there's no better way to model this... but it doesn't seem important to model this in 95% of cases... but in that one case where the Lich can only be destroyed by hitting his amulet you know damn well he's going to defend it... and what about things that have DR amillion on everything except the glowing spot on their heads, they might not even bother defending anything else...

Nothing about this makes me happy. I'm not saying I don't like your solution, I just think it would be hell at the table, but there's no solution to this problem that wouldn't be.

Idea: on a Defensive Attack or All-Out-Defense, you can nominate a large group of of hit locations (top half, left half, right half, bottom half) and add +1 to the bonus, or nominate a medium group (legs, torso, arms, head) and add +2, or nominate one specific hit location (face but not skull, torso but not groin, left arm but not left hand) and add +3. However, all other locations don't get any benefit from the maneuver. It's like what you described, only you need to take a defensive maneuver for it to apply and it doesn't offer quite so many options. It also means, among other things, that the Lich isn't focused on defending his amulet when he takes a Concentrate maneuver, so he's vulnerable then.

[The Benj]

I'd keep it to just the six major areas, but otherwise, this seems okay.

[Gigermann]

This is really close to the "Concentrated Defense" in Martial Arts (3e) p. 62. Summary of difference: 4 basic locations available (Head, Torso, Arms, Legs), with Vitals at +2 per -1; "notice" check based on 2/3 weapon skill plus target's defense bonus gained.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by McAllister

Nothing about this makes me happy. I'm not saying I don't like your solution, I just think it would be hell at the table, but there's no solution to this problem that wouldn't be.

I'm not certain it would be all that bad. Your knight says "Alright, this guy's going to try and go after my eye slits, so I'll be extra careful to defend those." Eye is part of Face, so he gets +3 to Face, +1 to Head, -1 Upper Body, -2 Lower Body. It's basically 3 tiers. Tier 1 is Upper vs Lower, and is +1 to one for -1 to another. Tier 2 is hit location, and is +2 for that, +0 for locations in the same set, -1 for opposite set. Tier 3 is sublocation, and is +3 for that, +1 for the same location, -1 for the same set, -2 for the opposite set.

Originally Posted by McAllister

Idea: on a Defensive Attack or All-Out-Defense, you can nominate a large group of of hit locations (top half, left half, right half, bottom half) and add +1 to the bonus, or nominate a medium group (legs, torso, arms, head) and add +2, or nominate one specific hit location (face but not skull, torso but not groin, left arm but not left hand) and add +3. However, all other locations don't get any benefit from the maneuver. It's like what you described, only you need to take a defensive maneuver for it to apply and it doesn't offer quite so many options. It also means, among other things, that the Lich isn't focused on defending his amulet when he takes a Concentrate maneuver, so he's vulnerable then.

Actually, that's pretty decent. I'll have to give it some thought.