Defences

"Defences" generally refers to the set of skills that determine the DC needed to affect a character. There are two forms of defence: passive and active.

A passive defence is equal to 10+a character's ranks in the appropriate skill+that skill's associated ability modifier.

An active defence is equal to d20 roll+a character's ranks in the appropriate skill+that skill's associated ability modifier.

For an ability to affect you, it must meet or beat your appropriate Defence score.

Most of the time, when you use your defences, you don't have to use your actions or your reaction. You don't even need to be able to act to attempt to use your defences. However, in some special cases you might have to take an action to attempt a defence. For instance, you can try to recover from the sickened condition by spending an action to attempt an Endurance check, or you  can attempt to regain control of your mind from an illusion by making a Resolve check.

Basic checks involve most attack roles and many spell and ability checks. Basic checks work just like any other role, the "basic" part refers to the effects. The following outcomes applies based on your degree of success:

• Critical Success Your target takes double the listed damage from the effect (roll twice as many damage die). Flat bonuses are not increased.
• Success Your target takes the full damage listed from the effect.
• Failure  Your target takes half the listed damage from the effect.
• Critical Failure  Your target take no damage from the spell, hazard, or effect that caused them to attempt the save.

One way to consider defences is to divide them up into mental, physical and spirital, and then power and reactive. 

Mental defences protect against attempts to manipulate your thoughts, perceptions and emotions and represent your mental health; physical defences protect against attempts to damage your body and represent your physical health; and spiritual defences represent your overall spiritual and metaphysical health. 

Power defences are defences that are constantly active. Armour, Endurance and Resolve are constantly protecting you from threats, such as ambushes, disease and fear. Power defences can be thought of as the "tough it out" defences, allowing you to push through the attempts to harm you. 

Reactive defences kick in on instinct, saving you from threats in the nick of time. Awareness, Dodge and Composure are all reactive. If a grenade is tossed through a window, Dodge allows you to duck behind cover at the speed of thought. Likewise, Composure kicks in to keep you calm, collected, and in control of a social situation. Reactive defences can be thought of as allowing you to manoeuvre your way around traps, either physical or mental.

Willpower is both power and reactive, as it represents your spiritual health and your ability to absorb or ignore metaphysical attacks on your soul. 

Defence Types 

Defences are as follows: 

Armor 

Armor or Armor Difficulty Class (AC) represents your ability to dodge or resist physical attacks directed at you. Your armor is calculated by the following: 

AC=10+your Agility Modifier (up to your armor's Agi cap)+your ranks in Defence+your armor bonus+other bonuses

Armor can benefit from bonuses from a variety of sources, much like attack rolls. The armour itself grants an item bonus, so other item bonuses usually won’t apply to your AC, but magic wards and enchantments can also improve armour. 

Penalties to AC come from situations and effects in much the same way bonuses do. Circumstance penalties come from unfavourable situations, and status penalties come from effects that impede your abilities or from broken armour. You take an item penalty when you wear shoddy armour. 

Special AC

In certain circumstances, you may be denied certain benefits to your AC. For example, if you are pinned, you may be denied your Dexterity modifier to your AC. These are unusual, but are why your AC modifiers are broken down individually. 

Awareness 

Your Awareness defence measures how aware you are of your surroundings. It uses your Wisdom modifier and is calculated as shown in the formula below: 

Awareness DC=10+Wisdom Modifier+your ranks in Awareness+other bonuses 

Your Awareness role works with, and is limited by, your senses. 

Composure

Composure defence measures how well you can keep your cool and maintain a level head against emotional attacks and attempts at social manipulation. It uses your Charisma modifier and is calculated as shown in the formula below:

Composure DC=10+Charisma Modifier+your ranks in Composure+other bonuses

Dodge

Dodge defence measures how well you can respond quickly to a situation and how gracefully you can avoid effects that have been thrown at you. It uses your Dexterity modifier and  is calculated as shown in the formula below:

Dodge DC=10+Agility Modifier+your ranks in Dodge+other bonuses

Endurance 

Dodge defence measures how well you can resist abilities and afflictions that can debilitate the body. It uses your Constitution modifier and  is calculated as shown in the formula below:

Endurance DC=10+Consitution Modifier+your ranks in Endurance+other bonuses

Resolve

Resolve defence measures how well you can resist abilities and afflictions that affect your mind, including trauma, madness, panic and illusions. It uses your Wisdom modifier and is calculated as shown in the formula below:

Resolve DC=10+Wisdom Modifier+your ranks in Resolve+other bonuses

Willpower

Willpower defence measures how well you can endure magical attacks that attempt to manipulate your spirit or soul. It uses your Spirit modifier and  is calculated as shown in the formula below:

Willpower DC=10+Spirit Modifier+your ranks in Willpower+other bonuses

Counteracting

Some effects try to counteract spells, afflictions, conditions, or other effects. Counteract checks compare the power of two forces and determine which defeats the other. Successfully counteracting an effect ends it unless noted otherwise.

When attempting a counteract check, add the relevant skill modifier or another appropriate modifier to your check against the target’s DC. If you’re counteracting an affliction, the DC is in the affliction’s stat block. If it's a supernatural ability, set the DC as the following:

Counteract DC=10+Supernatural Skill Ranks+Supernatural Skill Modifier

Supernatural Skills and their modifiers are as follows:

• Horrors: Shroud (Cha)

• Human: Gnosis (Spr) or Shadow (Spr)

• Mages: Spellcraft (Int)

• Shifters: Harmony (Wis)

• Talisman: Talisman Potency

• Vampires: Potency (Con)

What you can counteract depends on the check result and the effect's level. If the effect is a supernatural ability, its counteract level is equal to its caster's ranks in their supernatural skills. If the effect is a mundane ability, its counteract level is equal to the person who created the effect's ranks in the appropriate skill. For example, when counteracting a secruity system hack, the counteract level is equal to the hacker's ranks in Computer Science.