Defending#
Nobody remembers a good parry. That's rather the point of it.
Not getting hit
Your Defense is the number an attack has to reach to hit you: your Natural AC and Dexterity modifier, plus a parry, a shield and a dodge if you’re trained in them. Armor doesn’t make you harder to hit. It takes a share off the blows that land, and it wears down as they do.
Your Defense#
Add these up, and write the total in the Defend box on your sheet:
- Natural AC
- From your race: 10 for a human, 15 for a dwarf, 5 for a pixie. It's the Natural AC row on the sheet.
- Your Dexterity modifier
- Getting out of the way.
- Your guards
- A parry, a shield and a dodge, for those trained in them.
- Anything else
- Spells and stances that say they raise your Defense or your AC.
A creature’s Defense is the AC on its Creatures entry. Its guards are already in that number.
Against arrows
Parries, shields and dodges don’t count against a shot or a throw. Against those, your Defense is only your Natural AC and Dexterity modifier.
Parry, shield and dodge#
Three guards add to your Defense. Each needs its ability, and each adds that ability’s efficacy divided by a number, rounded down.
| Guard | Needs | Adds to Defense |
|---|---|---|
| Parry | The parry ability and a weapon in hand | Efficacy ÷ 20, up to +5 |
| Shield | A shield in your off hand | +1 for carrying it, and the shields ability’s efficacy ÷ 20 on top, up to +6 |
| Dodge | The greater dodging ability | Efficacy ÷ 25, up to +4 |
A page with 40 efficacy in shields and a shield on her arm adds 3.
The classes that learn each guard, with a tick where they start with it and a level where they learn it later:
| Parry | Shield | Dodge | |
|---|---|---|---|
 Headhunter | · | ✓ | ✓ |
 Page | · | ✓ | ✓ |
 Plainsman | · | · | ✓ |
 Pickpocket | ✓ | · | ✓ |
 Scout | · | · | ✓ |
 Runescribe | · | ✓ | ✓ |
 Monk | · | · | ✓ |
 Minstrel | ✓ | · | ✓ |
Heavy armor
Heavy armor slows a dodge. For each heavy piece past the second on your chest, head, legs, feet or hands, take 1 off your Defense, up to 3.
Off your feet#
Where you are when a blow comes matters as much as what you wear. A sentry asleep at their post takes twice the damage and can’t defend at all. Damage taken is rounded down.
| Position | Damage taken | Guards |
|---|---|---|
| Standing | Whole | Count |
| Sitting | ×1.25 | Count |
| Resting | ×1.5 | Lost |
| Asleep, stunned or down | ×2 | Lost |
- Prone
- Knocked down or tripped. Take 2 off your attack rolls and 4 off your Defense until you get up, which takes a turn.
- Off-balance
- Take 2 off your Defense until your next turn.
- Stunned
- You lose your turns while it lasts, your guards don't count and blows do double.
- Blind
- Take 4 off your attack rolls, or 2 if you have blind fighting.
Creatures off their feet
A creature has no guards of its own to lose. Where a character would lose theirs, take 2 off the creature’s AC instead.
Wear, and where a blow lands#
A blow that does damage to anyone of level 15 or more may wear down what they wear. The attacker can say where they’re aiming. If they don’t, roll a d100 for where the blow lands:
If a piece is worn there, roll a d100 again. At or under a third of its tier’s wear (Materials), it loses a point of its tier’s durability. Metal, stone and gems, cloth, leather, wood and the exotic stuff all wear this way, and the craftsmanship makes no difference. At 0 the piece is gone: metal is beaten into a hunk, stone, gems and the exotic stuff into dust, cloth and leather to threads and wood to sawdust.
A shield that blocks a blow rolls the same way, whether or not the blow then hurts. A parry wears nothing, and weapons don’t wear from blows, but for a fumble.
Pieces nobody aims at
Necklaces and rings are never hit. They add their AC to yours and keep it when everything else has been knocked to pieces.
