Yes, that's what I meant - the only helpful time to use Defend is when
you think something will get better by itself by wasting a turn. Defend
may have more of an effect when you are engaged with multiple foes, but
unless something else is going to improve the situation while you Defend,
such as:
* your friends are going to come rescue you
* you're about to recover from DX effects of injury
* you can shift off of broken ground or darkness next turn, or escape by
jumping into a pit
* your foes have summons or spell effects that may wear off in a turn or
two
* other ? external situations
you're not going to improve the situation by merely reducing the enemies'
chances of hurting you this turn. Next turn you'll face the same
situation (except maybe more injured).
At 11:58 AM 1/30/2018, Jeffrey Vandine wrote:
I would say that the DEFEND
option is there primarily to defend against multiple opponents; not a
single one; or to overcome temporary DX issues. Having the ability
to give up your attack in order to attenuate the possibility of suffering
multiple hits (and greatly reduce the maximum damage possible) in a singe
turn would seem a worthwhile option to me. In addition, in the play
example in Melee, the Roman uses the DEFEND option to allow himself time
to recover from the negative DX effects of a wound; in effect sacrificing
nothing since with such a large DX loss, he would be very unlikely to hit
anyway. In short, it seems to me that instead of thinking of it
strictly in terms of rules effects, we need to start thinking of it in
tactical terms.
DODGE, of course, is self-explanatory and far less controversial than
this seems to be.