It's probably somewhere on these forums, but no search I did could find it.

Questions:

-A PC carrying 2 weapons with ranks in Defensive (2 Ancient Swords for example). Do they stack?

-A PC with the Defensive Training talent wielding 2 melee weapons. do both of them gain the Defensive quality? (For example, does a PC with 2 ranks in Defensive Training, wielding 2 melee weapons, grant each of them Defensive 2?)

Basically I'm asking if my dual Ancient Sword wielding Niman Disciple PC currently has Defensive 4.

Defensive doesn't stack. Both have 2 pts in Def? Total is 2 not 4. Throw on armor with Def 1 and you still have 2. etc....

I thought armor stacks with a weapon? And the generator allows for it. Defensive stacks just not defensive from same type of item.

Armor SETS your Defense, Defensive INCREASES your defense, so those do stack. The important distinction is that armor and cover don't stack 'cause they both SET your Defense

"Multiple sources of defence do not stack. However, the character always uses the best defense rating available to him."

P213.

I dunno. Sounds like the two swords don't stack to me. That said, 1 from armor would give ranged 1, but not increase anything from the melee 2 with the blades.

As for Defensive Training, that replaces any ranks in Defensive the weapon already has, doesn't add to it. Though you would still take Def 2 for the blades if you only had Def Training of 1, that being the higher stat of the two.

I feel like there's a well known FAQ entry on that, specifically calling out that cover and armor don't stack cause they both set your defense. I just wanted to know if multiple sources that add to defense are the same way

Again I though armor sets defense and the defensive quality adds to defense. However two armors or in the case of cover don't stack and two defensive qualities don't stack. There are many threads that point out two weapon fighters should have a more damaging weapon in one hand and a defensive in the other due to them not stacking and if you can get the defensive to also have accuracy even better. All of my two weapon npcs when I run and my duel saber pc when I play have a superior hilt Shoto with the LordIan gem and paired modification as primary weapon and a full lightsaber as my secondary weapon with a more damaginger crystal.

From this thread, answered by Sam Stewart:

Does a character wielding two Ryyk Blades (or two superior vibro swords) gain automatically two advantages with his melee checks? or just one?

Does he gain 2 points of melee defence (one per weapon) or just 1?

Answered By Sam Stewart:

Just one advantage, and just one melee defense.

Also, defense granted from weapon qualities DOES stack with defense granted from armor, but not with itself.

ah thank you mysterious fox man!

The only time a defense bonus stacks is if it has a + sign before it.

It's worth noting the Defensive quality only increases your melee defense rating, not your ranged defensive rating.

They way they set up defense in this game is really confusing.

One of the Dev's answered this in another thread - you get the best but no stacking from the same source.

So:

Shield (+2 defensive, +2 reflective) + Vibro Sword (Defensive +1) + Smugglers Trench (Defense 1)= Melee 3/Ranged 3

The advantage is that using the shield & a sword, you can use the shield's qualities when being attacked & the swords when attacking - so there is no technical reason you can't use a standard lightsaber or a shoto hilt & a cortosis shield at the same time - or a pike & a shield if you have more than 2 arms. Basically, you're choosing a weapon to use offensively & get it's qualities, then using the alternate weapon to get it's qualities at a different time.

Shield (+2 defensive, +2 reflective) + Vibro Sword{Balanced Handle} (Defensive +1/Accurate +2) + Smugglers Trench (Defense 1)= Defense Melee 3/ Defense Ranged 3/ Accurate+2

Note there are additional rules if you're acutally attacking with 2 weapons - you can't activate a quality on a weapon you didn't hit with, the difficulty is upgraded, take the worst skill/characteristic, etc.

One of the Dev's answered this in another thread - you get the best but no stacking from the same source.

So:

Shield (+2 defensive, +2 reflective) + Vibro Sword (Defensive +1) + Smugglers Trench (Defense 1)= Melee 3/Ranged 3

The advantage is that using the shield & a sword, you can use the shield's qualities when being attacked & the swords when attacking - so there is no technical reason you can't use a standard lightsaber or a shoto hilt & a cortosis shield at the same time - or a pike & a shield if you have more than 2 arms. Basically, you're choosing a weapon to use offensively & get it's qualities, then using the alternate weapon to get it's qualities at a different time.

Shield (+2 defensive, +2 reflective) + Vibro Sword{Balanced Handle} (Defensive +1/Accurate +2) + Smugglers Trench (Defense 1)= Defense Melee 3/ Defense Ranged 3/ Accurate+2

Note there are additional rules if you're acutally attacking with 2 weapons - you can't activate a quality on a weapon you didn't hit with, the difficulty is upgraded, take the worst skill/characteristic, etc.

I let players and enemies activate qualities from either weapon. The difficulty increase and the cost to activate second weapon cost enough to me to allow the second weapon to get a quality off if they did the activation of said weapon. That and if passive qualities like breach work I don't like other qualities not being able to.