**Defender declares defenses**Defender declares defenses
Each defender in combat is allowed to use all of their possible defenses on a given turn. A successful defense costs 1 Stamina Point (but none if they fail), but can save the character from serious injury and avoid mecha damage. If at any time the defender's defense roll beats the attacker's roll, the defender takes no damage (except potentially to gear, as noted in certain defenses).
Dodging is the first roll a player makes, and uses Dodging for personal-scale combat, and Mecha Piloting for mecha-scale combat. A successful dodge means the attack missed. A mecha's MV is added to this roll. Certain talents modify Dodging further. Any Dodge versus an attack by an adjacent opponent suffers a -5 penalty. If the dodging roll succeeds, the attack misses.
Electronic Countermeasures are applied in mecha combat only, using your Electronic Warfare skill plus the ECM's rating. Electronic Countermeasures have all their defense rolls modified by -5, since even a blind projectile is still capable of hitting the user. This does not apply to weapons fired at a mecha by a character on foot, unless they are guided. Electronic Countermeasures cost Mental Points as opposed to Stamina Points if they succeed.
Blocking can be done if a character or mecha has a shield ready. This uses either Mecha Fighting or Close Combat, and is modified by the shield's Defense rating. Each individual shield can only block three times a turn, at the most. Energy-based shields do not take damage when hit, but normal shields do, and lose DP according to the attack when they are hit (but are immune to critical hits, since they have no weak spots). If blocking succeeds, the attack skips to damage calculation. The defender never takes damage on a successful block, but cannot block with a destroyed shield
Weapons can also be used to intercept incoming projectiles from weapons size DC11 or greater. This does not apply to energy weapons, but allows a defender to shoot down large projectiles. The defender fires at the incoming projectile with a weapon that has the "Intercept" value. This uses up an attack with the weapon, and can lower its ammunition. The Burst Value and Accuracy of a weapon are factored into this attack, just as they would in a normal attack. This roll uses Ranged Combat or Mecha Gunnery.
Close combat weapons can be used to parry close combat attacks. They must be capable of attacking (at the time of the opponent's attack), and gain a +3 bonus, and the weapon's Accuracy bonus, to this roll. It uses an attack like interception, and works much the same. One thing to note is that if the weapon is material and defending against an energy weapon, it takes damage, or vice versa; no damage is taken when parrying with weapons of same types. Parrying only works when fighting with a weapon of the same size scale as the opponent or a larger weapon (this refers to personal versus mecha scale, a survival knife can parry a battleaxe).
After all this, certain talents can be activated to allow another defense, but only work under certain conditions; activating a defense with a talent always costs a Stamina Point whether it succeeds or fails.
