I don't find and don´t understand why parry, dodge and block actions have a recharge time of 2?

Thankful for clarification.

First you have to understand that the combat round is not a 1 - 1 ratio of one swing per 1 die roll. It's an exchange. Each time you play an action it's that special maneuver you are doing as part of that exchange. The defensive cards you are speaking about likewise don't represent a specific dodge for example against 1 specific attack. But they do represent that you are putting extra effort into dodging or parrying during an exchange. So the recharge on them is there to represent that you aren't able to be constantly always attacking and always dodging and parrying and blocking to your best ability. The recharge forces you do decide when you need to best focus those efforts. That's the sort of thematic reason.

The mechanical reasons, well not being the designer I can't say. But I can guess. If you could use dodge/parry/block every round you wouldn't need the cards. You'd just always add extra dice to your opponents attack. By putting a recharge on them it creates a game to the combat system. You can launch a weaker attack at an opponent and hope he uses his defensive actions on it so the next round or 2 you can launch a more damaging attack. Or perhaps you launch your big attack early. Hope he tries to defend against it. But that means your other attacks are more likely to hit as well as the attacks from your allies. This works the same from the GM side by the way. By setting the recharge at 2 instead of 1 it means you'll need to really try and assess when to use them.

Ok, so for example:

My opponent makes a melee strike every 'turn' (recharge 0)

As a defender, and in this case a useless 'commoner', I do the following:

- 1st turn I dodge (woops)

- 2nd turn I parry (with a stick), dodge recharges 1 (end of turn)

- 3rd turn I just watch as I get cut in two, dodge recharges 2, parry recharges 1

- 4th turn I dodge, oh! I cannot since I am dead..

If I were even more useless I couldn't even dodge (since I have not 3+ Agility) or parry (since I have not 3+ Strength)...

What have I misunderstood?

I'm still new to this game and to these boards but I think i can shed some light on this topic because I was confused over the very same thing. Remember that you recharge on the same turn you use a power so the round would look something like this:

Monster turn 1: It attacks, and your useless commoner (a career I love BTW) spits the straw out of his mouth and dodges

Your turn 1: You mount a feeble offense and at the end of your turn dodge rechanges 1

Monster turn 2: It attacks again and you attempt a parry with your hoe

Your turn 2: You now are dual wielding your hoe which is broken in half and at the end of your turn dodge recharges 2 and parry 1

Now dodge is ready to use again and parry will be next turn.

Martellus said:

Martellus said:

No.

Round 1 = You dodge, then if you haven't had your turn yet, then you will remove one token on the same turn.

Round 2 = You parry and maybe you have even recharged dodge already.

Round 3 = You use improved guarded position, a friend steps in and uses his guarded position as well, while the rest of the group attacks.

You can't see the defence cards that isolated. You have to take into account how your group use the initiative spaces, whom acts when... plus a combined effort to protect someone with improved guarded position is wicked good defence.

I also saw a houserule, where you could use a maneuver to guard your engagement, adding another Misfortune dice. I liked this, because I thought defence needed a boost.

If you use that as well, you can have two "tanks" back to back, giving their opponents a total of between 3-4 challenge dice and 4-5 misfortune dice every single round, which means taking them down is quite hard.

There are also some actions that allow defence cards to refresh faster. You can easily build a very defensive character.

Keep in mind that "natural" defense and avoidance is represented by the default 1 challenge die put in the attacker's dice pool. Parry/Dodge/Block represent an extra effort to Parry/Dodge/Block more often during that round.

Otherwise, the others have explained the mechanics pretty well. You recharge ALL of your action cards at the end of YOUR turn. In essence, a Recharge value of 2 means the card may essentially be used every other turn.

Great, thanks! Makes sense now.