When in melee, it causes people making melee or brawl attacks against you to get a SB dice I believe. (Book not in hand).

Is there ever a time, you would not just make your melee attack and then take the posture so that you never suffer the penalty and it is always a bonus?

I'm a little confused on it.

-Edit, this should have been Guarded Stance

I assume you're talking about Guarded Stance. Technically yes, you could perform a combat action and then make a Guarded Stance maneuver to suffer no downsides that turn, but the description of Guarded Stance specifically states that the setback die that it adds to your combat maneuvers last until the end of your next turn. That means that any combat checks that you make next round are going to suffer a setback die.

I wouldn't say a must. The entire defensive stance is quite costly; a maneuver and a setback dice to your combat check until the end of your next round. Also the Guarded stance gives you 1 melee defense until the end of the next round. Since defense bonuses do not stack then anything that gives you melee 1 defense or higher already does what Guarded Stance gives without adding a setback die.

So a Guarded Stance is useless when you're wearing armored clothing, or heavy battle armor, or wielding a personal deflector shield, or any weapon with at least defensive 1 item quality, or any armor above soak 2 with Improved Armor Master talent, or after you get Superior Reflexes talent. Also a single threat is enough to cancel the positive effects of a guarded stance. This is similar when using cover, except replace defensive 1 item quality with deflection 1 item quality. You can get a similar effect of defense by spending two advantage, and at least that stacks with defense.

So a Guarded Stance is useless when you're wearing armored clothing, or heavy battle armor, or wielding a personal deflector shield, or any weapon with at least defensive 1 item quality, or any armor above soak 2 with Improved Armor Master talent, or after you get Superior Reflexes talent. Also a single threat is enough to cancel the positive effects of a guarded stance. This is similar when using cover, except replace defensive 1 item quality with deflection 1 item quality. You can get a similar effect of defense by spending two advantage, and at least that stacks with defense.

Hmmm... is actually sounds totally useless.

A weapon with Defensive 1 might stack, since I think that adds 1 to melee defence rather than set it to 1.

I wouldn't say a must. The entire defensive stance is quite costly; a maneuver and a setback dice to your combat check until the end of your next round. Also the Guarded stance gives you 1 melee defense until the end of the next round. Since defense bonuses do not stack then anything that gives you melee 1 defense or higher already does what Guarded Stance gives without adding a setback die.

So a Guarded Stance is useless when you're wearing armored clothing, or heavy battle armor, or wielding a personal deflector shield, or any weapon with at least defensive 1 item quality, or any armor above soak 2 with Improved Armor Master talent, or after you get Superior Reflexes talent. Also a single threat is enough to cancel the positive effects of a guarded stance. This is similar when using cover, except replace defensive 1 item quality with deflection 1 item quality. You can get a similar effect of defense by spending two advantage, and at least that stacks with defense.

So then we would agree, if you don't have armor or another source of defense, Guarded Stance is a no-brainer (other than the potential setback die that would occur the next turn)

So then we would agree, if you don't have armor or another source of defense, Guarded Stance is a no-brainer (other than the potential setback die that would occur the next turn)

I believe this is exactly what this maneuver is for, to give unarmored/shielded characters a source of defense.

But all of it stacks if you allow cover and armor to stack! Which I do because I fight the power on a regular basis.