Power Dodge

Power Dodge is a subtype of Power Defense.GURPS Powers, p.167
notably differences compared to normal dodges include:
*power dodge gets a bonus from half your talent
*power dodges do not benefit from Retreating or Acrobatics
*power dodges are maximum 1 per turn (also precluding a Power Parry or Power Block
*posture and attacking from above penalties to defenses do not apply
*tba
==Free Action Necessity==
Unlike a power block (ability must already be on) or a power parry (ability can be activated in 1 second) power dodges are only possible with abilities which can be activated as a free action.
==Stunt Workarounds==
For abilities which AREN'T as quick as above people might want some other options for TEMPORARY activation speed reduction.
Extra Effort has 2 approaches for this:
===Extra Effort in Combat===
Two things to note re MA131 options added:
*Heroic Charge's removal of the attack cap/penalty is NEARLY as good as getting a Move maneuver and an Attack maneuver after it: the only difference is that defense penalties would accrue across 1 turn and you don't get the '1 step' of an attack maneuver
*Rapid Recovery is similarly NEARLY as good as getting an Attack Maneuver + Ready maneuver (except as above no defense reset or extra step)
**this is mentioned to emulate one Defensive Attack benefit one could take instead of +1 to parry.
In either case it would seem like it's relatively fair to give roughly "one time extra non-combat maneuver" (a "free Move" or "free Ready") if someone spends 1 FP, so it could be reasonable for a GM to allow abilities requiring 1 Concentrate or 1 Ready to be "free action" at the cost of 1 FP
*this might be seen as removing incentive to design a Limited Enhancement of Cost Fatigue -10% to Reduced Time +20% (cost lowered to +18%) so GMs could make that mandatory instead to do this
===Wait and Temporary Enhancements===
P172 mentions GMs "should consider forbidding" a list of modifiers which includes Reduced Time. So it's not absolutely mandatory: a GM could allow a PC to add Reduced Time temporarily to a 1-action switchable ability.
This is great to do AHEAD of time when you know you may need to Power Dodge: you can spend a Ready or a Concentrate prepping your Temporary Enhancements.
If you don't want to risk wasting the FP (no need to power dodge if there is no attack) you can take a Wait>Ready (not a Wait>Concentrate for mental abilities, sadly) where "enemy attacks" (but not enemy ROLLS attack: you can't wait to see if it misses!) is what triggers you to make the attempt to temporarily enhance your abilities.
===Fast-Draw and Temporary Enhancements===
To remove the necessity of taking a Wait maneuver as above, a GM might possibly allow heroes to take a Fast-Draw skill that allows them to make Extra Effort attempts as a free action on a successful roll.
This might for example, allow you to Wait > Activate Ability as Free Action + Attack.
A failed roll would just mean the usual Wait > Ready.
If you did NOT take a wait, then reducing a Temporary Enhancements roll to a free action should open up the idea of attempting this as a power dodge.
Success would possibly mean allowing a 2nd power dodge with the trait whose time you reduced.
*This is against the standard rule of maximum 1 Power Defense per turn though, so GMs would need to come up with some way to allow that, such as charging for a Cosmic enhancement on abilities which are able to make power defenses even after a power defense was used earlier in that term
**the Cosmic Active Defenses rules could apply for that, since they allow defending in other situations which normally forbid it
===Reduced Time on Temporary Enhancements to Reduce Time===
One key aspect is that Temporary Enhancements benefit from Talent, so they benefit from Reliable.
This could mean they benefit (or suffer) from OTHER enhancements (or limitations) on the abilities.
*for example, if an ability has Hard to Use, that should probably penalize rolls for Temporary Enhancements too
*for example, if an ability has Takes Extra Time, that should probably mean attempting to add Temporary Enhancements too
*for example, if an ability has Costs Fatigue, that should probably mean attempts to add TE cost 3FP instead of the usual 2FP
The flip side of this, is that an ability which enjoys Reduced Time already might possibly extend that benefit to "Temporary Enhancements" attempts TOO.
*for example, if you had Shapeshifting w/ Reduced Time (to activate it in 5 seconds instead of 10) the GM could rule your attempts to temporarily enhance your ability are ALSO reduced-time, allowing you to attempt to enhance them as a free action
**you could then, for example, TE with 5 levels of RT (+100%) to reduce 5>3>2>1>0 to allow you to power-dodge with it
***you already made a "pseudo power dodge" to enhance your ability though, so as per previous section you would need Cosmic Active Defenses or similar Rules Exemption perks to allow more than 1 Power Defense per turn
==Movement or Transformation Necessity==
Only abilities which move a body or alter it's shape can be used to literally 'dodge' an attack (negate it outright)
Otherwise, such rules might adapt simply to activating an ability quickly enough to do something OTHER than avoid it
*for example, if you had switchable DR, simply to flip it on in time to subtract it from the damage
**this is different from a Power Block which assumes the ability is ALREADY on
*or alternatively, to activate switchable Injury Tolerance in time to reduce injury, rather than avoid it completely like Insubstantial can
*or maybe rather than lessen injury: to activate an aura in time to at least hurt your opponent
**since that's EFFECTIVELY an attack (though not technically) defenses should probably be allowed vs stuff like this or people using no-roll abilities like Emanation (activated w/ Ready) to move in time to avoid the Area Effect or contact.
==PP==
page 18 of GURPS Psionic Powers mentions this benefits from Enhanced Dodge.
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=30498 is a discussion comparing to Reflexive
==Supers==
*S43 gives a Sensory Power Dodge stat to Camouflage: Chameleon with Always On. This means it doesn't represent turning the ability on, but it adapting.
*S44 also gives SPD to Lightwarp: switchabile invisibility with Fringe
*S46 gives all 3 to Reconfigurable Mechanisms which were defined on S27 
**S46 also gives all 3 to Magical Rituals based on Grimoire
***in both cases it might just be defining these for various a bilities they might arrange
*S48 gives SPD to the Silence aspect of Cloak
*S50 gives SPD to Invisibility to Electromagnetic Vision. It is Switchable but lacks Reduced Time so it's unclear how this could benefit.
*S109 explains the previous notes under "how not to be seen":
**"Power Dodge can also be used with a concealment power, such as Invisibility, to attempt to make oneself undetectable quickly enough to avoid being noticed."
==Rethink Warp and Blink==
The -10 penalty represents "free action" activation (0 second instead of -5 for 1 second) activation of Warp.
Penalizing this activation roll leads to weird situations like your Warp failing because a mouse decided to make a Deceptive Attack against you.
*conversely, adding 'defense bonuses' to the activation roll would also be weird: you shouldn't be able to teleport with more skill because someone made a Telegraphic Attack against you
NOT penalizing this roll makes it too much of an "I win" tool, especially with No Roll Required. It should be possible to move unpredictably in a way that someone doesn't know when you're attacking, and get caught before they can teleport
Power Dodge is not meant to replace normal activation rolls for abilities, it's done to see if you can make those rolls (and thus use those abilities) prior to an attack hitting you. If you had "requires DX roll" on your stretching, a succesful power dodge would mean you make the DX roll AFTER and only successfully dodge if that wins too.
The best resolution here is to split the rolls:
*Power Dodge to see if you can make your roll before the attack hits (you could get a bonus if you just made a Defensive Attack or All-Out Defense: Determined, or if you were using One Foe or Feverish Defense) since Talent adds to Power Dodges, the Reliable enhancement for Warp would also add to Basic Speed for this purpose.
**success means the usual IQ roll which would not be subject to any of the usual 'defense modifiers'
**failure doesn't mean you fail to warp: it just means you make your roll AFTER you got hit
***this might cause an IQ penalty from shock though, making the warp more likely to fail
****presumably if you are knocked out, you can no longer make that free action attempt
==Other Extrapolations==
===semantic considerations===
If adapting this rules approach to the use of "free action" abilities during another's turn, two changes should probably be made:
*"power" is not appropriate if applying these to non-powers. One notable change is there is no Power Talent added to Basic Speed prior to halving it to determine the number to roll for
**for this reason not technically being a "power defense", it should not preclude the ability to do actual power defenses at other times in that turn
***nor suffer the maximum 1 per turn, though it should probably suffer at least the cumulative -1 per turn that Martial Arts added for dodges
****nor be immune to modifiers like a posture penalty to dodge: if bad posture penalizes rolls to parry with a weapon or rolls to quick-draw with that weapon, then it should also penalize a Basic Speed roll to react with a fast-draw or a weapon swap 
*"dodge" is not appropriate for non-transformation/non-movement abilities, as it implies avoiding an attack, this approach is simply to finish activating an effect prior to the completion of an effect it is responding to
Something like "ability preempt" for example, would better represent the larger class of abilities this could apply to, and what this actually describes doing.
===power dodge to fast-draw in time to parry===
People who have not drawn a weapon cannot use it to parry.
Normally drawing a weapon takes a full ready maneuver, meaning it would happen too slowly to react to an attack.
*it may be possible for normal people to do this against a Decreased Time Rate attack, though
*it may be possible for Altered Time Rate people to do this against normal people, though
For normal vs normal situations it is clearly never possible unless someone took a Wait maneuver and converted that wait into a Ready.
*B366 does allow Waits to convert into Readies
**if it is possible to convert that ready into a free action via a Fast-Draw (the RAW doesn't appear to clarify this either way) as per a standard Wait, the GM should require the character to also specify what they would do with maneuver that would replace the Ready
For those who have NOT taken a wait, some players may want to know if it is feasible to do a fast-draw during an opponent's turn instead of their own.
A Power Dodge is likely the best way to resolve that, if the GM wished to allow it.
Success meaning they reacted quick enough that they would be able to roll their Fast-Draw skill prior to resolving the attack, failure meaning the reaction was too slow and it would need to be resolved after.
In this case, an unsuccessful Fast-Draw should convert the NEXT turn into a ready, rather than one's current one (which one already presumably used, and thus could not risk)
===power dodge to switch weapons between hands fast enough to parry===
The -4 to DX penalty for an off hand causes a -2 penalty for parries with that hand.
Someone wanting to parry with a weapon held in their off hand who wants to avoid that penalty would want to switch it from their off hand to their off hand.
This normally takes a Ready maneuver to do, meaning it would not be possible if an attack had already initiated.
MA51's perk Quick Swap allows that to be done as a free action (doesn't even need a DX roll as Fast-Draw would).
Quick Swap can only be done on your own turn, so it could be used to switch off>on to ATTACK unpenalized, but since defenses happen on the opponent's turn, you could not swap the weapon to parry with that weapon.
Wait maneuvers are POSSIBLY one way to avoid that, but not everyone makes them.
Allowing a Power Dodge roll to swap weapons "late" in one's turn (choices are over)
===power dodge to use Grip Mastery fast enough to enjoy a defense bonus===
MA50's Grip Mastery perk allows "free action" instead of Ready to change between 1H/2H or regular/defensive grip.
This normally must be done on one's own turn, meaning you would normally need a Wait to do it in reaction to something an opponent does on their own turn.
*except with aforementioned DTR-attacks-normy / normy-attacksATR situations as possible exceptions
This leaves no option to do so for those who did not take a Wait.
Adapting the power dodge rules to allow the POSSIBILITY of this is a reasonable approach.
Success would mean you did it in time to get your defensive bonus. Since you used up an active defense, to still be able to make a parry would either require having taken AOD:double, with a way around that being to "pseudododge" something happening prior to the attack roll, such as the opponent's own "free action" activation (you dodge in response to seeing them begin drawing their weapon, swapping their weapon or changing grip on it)
*As with "reactive Fast-Draw" or "reactive Quick Swap", a "reactive Grip Mastery" should probably require a -2 to DX on both rolls per the Two things at once rule.
===power dodge to parry with your advantage===
Adding the Melee Attack limitation to an attack advantage (Innate Attack or Binding or Affliction) gives the ability to use it for parries unless you take Cannot Parry for -5%
This gives them the benefit of being able to avoid unarmed parry penalties and dangers, but possibly without needing to actually show they are not unarmed.
There is presumably no benefit at all to "keeping my melee attack manifested" as a visible weapon to dissuade people from attacking.
Conceptually it also is confusing because if the attack is invisible "until the last second" it should probably count like a surprise or invisible attack, which is what No Signature or Low Signature is meant to be.
A compromise would be to treat these attack advantages as having a "switchable as a free action" component.
This would allow people to turn it on (which could be detected, give some visual warning they are armed) and a weapon appears in the hand, and still attack, in the same action.
Someone who already did that, could then parry on others' turns.
But if it wasn't activated: you could have them roll a power dodge to let them free-action activate their attack capability (for example: a concealed shoulder cannon) in response to something done during another's turn (not necessarily an attack)
"the implement" and "the attack" are one and the same for melee attacks, but for ranged attacks they are different (ie cannon vs bullet)
"Low Sig" or "No Sig" purchases could be assumed to apply to both halves of the attack, or just to the attack itself.
In the case of melee weapons, this would be like the difference between "I can see them moving their hand holding something invisible" vs "I can see the sword itself".
The "visually see the arm movement" aspect could probably replace things like sounds, if only one OBVIOUS thins is needed (additional maybe being worth nuisance effect) though many things have both (guns have muzzle flash and bang, lightsabers have glowing movement and hum)
==Power Dodging with abilities that cost more than a free action==
Lightsabers are an example of a gadget (a handle) which creates a visible capacity to attack (blade is extended) distinctly from a visual attack (extended blade is swung) and probably normally take some time to activate (like a ready maneuver to switch it on).
One could allow a "Fast-Draw" skill to switch on a lightsabre as a free action instead of a ready.
In GURPS terms this is a Force Sword or Force Whip where it's possible that drawing their handles might be a distinct action from activating them.
If emulating these as abilities, you might allow Fast-Draw to avoid the Takes Extra Time of some attacks.
TET for attacks normally applies before EACH attack, so if 1 ready bought you TWO attacks it might be -5%, or -2% for five, or -1% for 10. This would reduce it's ability to discount the cost except for very high-level attacks.
Another way to resolve this is to use Shapeshifting to represent the activation time. Although this is very expensive to buy down to a feasible time, the 90% cost reduction of your ability could be well worth it
*this represents weapons that would vanish if you fell unconscious, such as a dead man's switch: you would need Once On Stays On to keep the sword/whip lit even when KO'd
==See Also==
*Power Block
*Power Parry
*Reduced Time
*Reflexive
== References ==
Category:Active defenses