Low DX dodge and defend

[Anaraxes]

The rules seem clear enough to me. Defend (and Dodge) are options. You can always change your mind about your option as long as you haven't violated the conditions for the one you want (usually movement; in this case, having attacked).

There's not a requirement that it be "your turn" when you change your mind about your option; the entire "round" of rolling for initiative, everyone moving, everyone taking an option, is called a "turn" (not round), and you can change your mind "during a turn". (There's not formal jargon for "just one player's segment of an entire turn", but "move" and "option" come close.) Effects of options don't persist past the end of a turn -- which is okay, because you can always choose Defend early in the next turn if need be.

Some players might not like that rule, of course, but it doesn't seem ambiguous to me. You could invent a rule that Defend persists until your next option, but you only need that to patch the problem created if you assume you can't choose Defend before your adjDX slot comes up. "Fixing" the rule seems to make it more complicated only to get the same net effect.

Rather than being useless for low adjDX, low adjDX characters actually have a bit of an edge, as they can be more reactive in their use of Defend. A high adjDX character will get their option early, and so have to decide to attack or not before the other characters. If they attack, they've lost their ability to Defend, but they don't know how many other characters might attack them. If they're worried about that rank of skeletons ganging up on them, the fast character has to preemptively Defend, giving up their attack just in case they get attacked. The low adjDX character can just stand pat, waiting as all other characters make their choices, choosing to switch to Defend if it becomes necessary, and still getting that last attack if no one happens to attack him. Acting first has many benefits, but that doesn't mean it must be an unalloyed advantage, better in all respects than acting later.