Then in that case, the rules "de jure" take double and triple damage off the table, not "defacto".
And it also makes perfect sense, as I read it, that defending and dodging, even if you are still hit, would effectively remove the possibility of excessive damage from the hit, while simultaneously decreasing the probability of an automatic hit (drops from 4.63% to 0.386%). Similarly, it makes sense that there would be an increased chance of automatic failure (rises from 4.63% to 5.402%), and an increased chance of dropped/damaged weapons (rises from 1.852% to 2.701%).
Which actually tends to strengthen their effect in combat, even against high DX opponents. Put another way, a character with the highest effective DX in a 3/DX (DX 15) roll has a 95.37% chance of hitting his opponent. A character with the highest effective DX in a 4/DX roll under the DEFEND/DODGE rules on page 18 of AM (DX 19) has a 94.598% chance of hitting his opponent. In short, I'm not sure that argument supports the theory that DEFEND/DODGE are necessarily underpowered for high-DX characters.
Hi Jeff,
The defend and dodge rules are an exception to the general
rule that you can get extreme success on more dice. Under the
dodge / defend option in AM, they give rules specifically for
those options.
Warm regards, Rick