Defense

Defense represents how hard it is for opponents to land a solid, damaging blow on a character (or object). It's the attack roll result that an opponent needs to achieve to hit a target. The average, unarmored civilian has a Defense of 10. Character Sheets often list 3 different defense scores: Total, Touch, and Flat-Footed.

## Types of Defense

The total defense score is a combination of all possible bonuses (and penalties) the character can take advantage of.

### Touch Attack Defense

Some attacks disregard armor. In these cases, the attacker makes a touch attack roll (either a ranged touch attack roll or a melee touch attack roll). The attacker makes his or her attack roll as normal, but the character's Defense does not include any equipment bonus or armor bonus. All other modifiers, such as class bonus, Dexterity modifier, and size modifier, apply normally.

### Flat-Footed

A character who has not yet acted during a combat is flat-footed, not reacting normally to the situation. A flat-footed character loses his or her Dexterity bonus to Defense.

## Dexterity Modifier

If the character's Dexterity Score is high, the character is particularly adept at dodging blows or gunfire. If the character's Dexterity is low, the character is particularly inept at it.

Sometimes the character can't use his or her Dexterity bonus. If the character can't react to a blow, he or she can't use his or her Dexterity bonus to Defense.

## Class Bonus

A character's class and level grant an innate bonus to Defense. This bonus measures the character's combat savvy and applies in all situations, even when the character is flat-footed or would lose his or her Dexterity bonus for some other reason.

## Equipment Bonus

If the character wears armor, it provides an equipment bonus to the character's Defense. This bonus represents the armor's ability to protect the character from blows.

Armor provides a minimum bonus to anyone who wears it regardless of feats, but a character who is proficient in the use of a certain type of armor receives a larger bonus to Defense.

Armors limit a characters movement and list a maximum (Dex) that may be applied to defense while the armor is worn. This limit only applies to defense and has no effect on the character's ability to use their full Dexterity for other tasks.

Sometimes the character can't use the equipment's bonus to Defense. If an attack will damage the character just by touching him or her, the character can't add an equipment bonus (see Touch Attacks).

## Size Modifier

**Table: Size Modifiers**
 Fine | +8

The bigger an opponent is, the easier it is to hit in combat. The smaller it is, the harder it is to hit. Size Modifiers are always taken into account. Size modifiers are shown on the Table below.

## Other Modifiers

Other factors can add to Defense.

**Feats:** Some feats give a bonus to Defense.

**Natural Armor:** Some creatures have natural armor, which usually consists of scales, fur, or layers of thick muscle.

**Dodge Bonuses:** Some other Defense bonuses represent actively avoiding blows. These bonuses are called dodge bonuses. Any situation that denies the character his or her Dexterity bonus also denies the character dodge bonuses. Unlike most sorts of bonuses, dodge bonuses stack with each other.

**Magical Effects:** Some campaigns may include magic. Some magical effects offer enhancement bonuses to armor (making it more effective) or deflection bonuses that ward off attacks.

## Combat Actions

* **Fighting Defensively** will provide a +2 dodge bonus while incurring a -4 to attack.
* **Total Defense** attack action will provide a +4 dodge bonus for one round, but no other action can be taken.
* **Charging** incurs a -2 to defense until the start of your next turn.
* **Running** provides a +2 bonus vs ranged attacks to defense, but also denies the character their (Dex) mod.

### Conditions

* **Cowering** characters looses their (Dex) bonus and takes a -2 penalty to her Defense.
* **Grappled** characters loses their Dexterity bonus to Defense, except on attacks from characters with whom he or she is grappling.
* **Helpless** characters have an effective Defense of 5 + size modifier.
* **Pinned** characters takes a -4 penalty to Defense against melee attacks and loses their Dexterity bonus to Defense.
* **Prone** characters gains a +4 bonus to Defense against ranged attacks, but take a -4 penalty to Defense against melee attacks.
* **Stunned** characters loses their Dexterity bonus and take a -2 penalty to Defense.
* **Unconscious** characters are unable to defend themselves. The character is **helpless** and typically falls **prone**.

## Cover

Cover provides a bonus to Defense. The more cover a character has, the bigger the bonus. In a melee, if a character has cover against an opponent, that opponent probably has cover against the character, too. With ranged weapons, however, it's easy to have better cover than the opponent.

The GM may impose other penalties or restrictions on attacks depending on the details of the cover.

Cover is assessed in subjective measurements of how much protection it offers. The GM determines the value of cover. This measure is not a strict mathematical calculation, because a character gains more value from covering the parts of her body that are more likely to be struck. If the bottom half of a character's body is covered, that only gives one-quarter cover, because most vital areas are still fully exposed. If one side or the other of a character's body is covered, the character gets one-half cover.

cover bonus overlaps (does not stack) with certain other bonuses.

**Cover Reflex Save Bonus:** Add this bonus to Reflex saves against attacks that affect an area. This bonus only applies to attacks that originate or burst out from a point on the other side of the cover.

### Striking the Cover Instead of a Missed Target

If it ever becomes important to know whether the cover was actually struck by an incoming attack that misses the intended target, the GM should determine if the attack roll would have hit the protected target without the cover. If the attack roll falls within a range low enough to miss the target with cover but high enough to strike the target if there had been no cover, the object used for cover was struck. This can be particularly important to know in cases when a character uses another character as cover. In such a case, if the cover is struck and the attack roll exceeds the Defense of the covering character, the covering character takes the damage intended for the target.

If the covering character has a Dexterity bonus to Defense or a dodge bonus, and this bonus keeps the covering character from being hit, then the original target is hit instead. The covering character has dodged out of the way and didn't provide cover after all. A covering character can choose not to apply his or her Dexterity bonus to Defense and/or his or her dodge bonus, if the character so desires.

## Concealment

Concealment includes all circumstances in which nothing physically blocks a blow or shot, but something interferes with an attacker's accuracy.

Concealment is subjectively measured as to how well concealed the defender is. Examples of what might qualify as concealment of various degrees are given in Table: Concealment. Concealment always depends on the point of view of the attacker.

Concealment gives the subject of a successful attack a chance that the attacker missed because of the concealment. If the attacker hits, the defender must make a miss chance percentile roll percentile die {{{2}}} to avoid being struck. When multiple concealment conditions apply to a defender, use the one that would produce the highest miss chance. Do not add the miss chances together.

**Table: Concealment**