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Re: Rick's comments on the Defend Option



I think if you're by yourself and confronted with multiple enemies, you would either attack or surrender, not wait for them to wear you down.  Or run away, if at all possible.

Again, all tactical decisions, not something to be regulated by the rules.



From: Peter von Kleinsmid <pvk@oz.net>
To: tft@brainiac.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2018 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: Rick's comments on the Defend Option

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.