I could not agree more! It's all so complicated, and what for...?
I honestly don't see why FFG did not just choose the simplest option and allow all defence/setback dice to stack!
After all, the game is already heavily weighted in the direction of attack. Once you have a little experience, it is no problem to boost your main attack to 4 or 5 proficiency dice. Actually hitting is no longer a challenge, so what is the occasional 5 or 6 setback dice against that?Edit: boost --> setback (of course)
Be that as it may, this is a conversation which has been had numerous times elsewhere on the forums, and will likely not be settled until FFG gets around to a thorough revision of the defense rules. I think in the meantime, OggDude has the right idea in sticking to a stricter interpretation, as many players take their rules cues from the character generator, and it is generally easier for a GM to relax the expected rules than to tighten them.
But it is not really an interpretaton, is it? As the FAQ clearly says that "increase Defense" means that you add it to the static defense.
The Defensive quality does increase melee defense, but only if the item in question is the one "source" for melee defense. In other words, Armored clothing gives melee defense 1, ranged defense 1. Vibrosword gives you melee defense 1, ranged defense 0. Net result is melee defense 1, ranged defense 1.
I'm not saying that this necessarily makes sense, but it is the current interpretation of the defense rules as given by the devs:
Stacking Defense3 Brawn
Sentinel: Shien Expert
1 Rank Defensive Training
Wearing Armored Robes
Wielding a Riot Shield (Left Hand) and a
Shoto Lightsaber with a fully Modified
Lorridian Gemstone and a
fully Modified Curved Hilt ? And why? How would the various defenses stack?"
Answered by Sam Stewart :
Ranged Defense 2
Melee Defense 3
The modified lightsaber would be the source of the defense, because it has the highest ranged and melee defenses. The shoto lightsaber has no innate defense, but the Llordian Gemstone comes with Defensive 1. Its mods allow you to increase the weapon’s defense. Same goes for the curved hilt, its mods also allow you to increase the weapon’s defense.
All of the other defensive sources are from different items, and do not stack
When later asked for a clarification:
Question asked by KommissarK :
( https://community.fa...-8#entry2004999 )
The Defensive talent is worded as:
" Defensive (passive): Defensive weapons are particularly good at fending off incoming melee attacks. A character wielding a weapon with the Defensive quality increases his melee defense by the weapon’s Defensive rating."
The Deflection talent is similar, but for ranged defense. When it says it "increases his melee defense," how does this interact with a character?
I understand there can only be one source of a ranged/melee defense rating in effect, but this "increase" wording seems to indicate that it is there to work around the "one source" limitation.
If my character is wearing armored clothing (defense 1), and I am wielding a Defensive 1 weapon, does this mean that I have melee defense 2, ranged defense 1? Or, when it says "increases his melee defense" is that speaking specifically of the character, and as such its a choice between the -character's- melee defense of 1, or the armour's melee defense of one?
How does this work with dual wielding? If I have a weapon with Defensive 1 in one hand, and Deflection 2 in the other hand, do I have a total of ranged defense 2 and melee defense 1, or is it only one or the other (i.e. does a weapon need to be selected as the "primary")? How does this work if stacking the same quality and dual wielding? Defense 2 on both weapons. They're both "increasing" the same target melee defense value (either my armor or my character, as per above answers), so it doesn't seem to violate the multiple sources principle.
Or is the increasing terminology incorrect and the weapon with the deflection/ defensive property actually just "gives" a ranged/melee defense rating.
Answered by Sam Stewart :
We are currently re-evaluating how personal scale defense works in the game, and may have a more comprehensive answer in the future. So at this point, we cannot answer your question.
This was months ago and, as far as I know, this re-evaluation hasn't yet occurred. So for now, I'm going with the last official response on this topic, which is how the generator currently works. As soon as I hear anything different, the generator will be updated.
I know a lot of you guys look to the generator for what is "official", so I'm doing my best to follow the RAW. So far, the two parts of the rules that seem to generate the most confusion for people are the way defense works, and the way obligation/duty options works. In both cases, rest assured that the generator does follow the rules.
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