In D&D 5e you can go Total Defense gaining +4 to AC.
In Savage Worlds you can Defend and get a +2 to your Parry.
No such thing in OL that I can find so this is what I’ve done for my game.
FOCUS ACTION
Full Defense - During your turn you may use the Defend action without expending your next major action. This does not count towards your maximum Defend actions per turn.
Thoughts?
Part of the reason it isn’t there is because of the Defend Interrupt action
I think what you are meaning to say, Is you can choose to use up your Major, Move, and Minor actions during your turn to have a Defend Interrupt (b/c it would use your Major action that you aren’t using right now)?
You can kinda do that now, but without losing your Move and Minor actions. You can delay your turn and just wait to be the last to act in the Round.
Though it might be your choice of words here too.
B/c you can’t do a defend action during your turn, so I think you just meant Round.
Turn = Players turn during the Round
Round = Once all turns in initiative have been used
You could create a feat, or just a thing, that straight up increases your Defense by using a Major action to do “Patient Defense” to give you +2 or +4 to Guard.
I suppose technically you could, if you left melee range and had an AoO on you, you could do a defend interrupt then, which would be during your turn.
You’re right, I meant round. Basically the idea being getting to Defend yourself actively should be better than a flat bonus and more importantly, expend your current round’s action. Sound right?
As far as I see it, in open legend you do in the reverse of the DnD. You can defend (with the interrupt action) and loose your major action for the next turn, instead of using it before hand.
I have a player in my party who is playing a defend action fighter and he also needed to get used to the reverse order. But the advantage in this system is, is that you are only loosing your major action when you are actually attacked, and only when the monster actually hits you. In DnD you can defend and then not be attacked by a monster, and just lose your turn.
moreover, with the all the defend related feats you can make an defnder archtype. (mutlitple defend actions, lot of advantage on the rolls and you even deal damage when rolling higher than the enemy!)
I’m well aware of a Defender build, but this is a party member who is literally trying to avoid the fight. Not a pacifist, but in the world I built they are choosing to be ambassadors first. While there are rounds of them doing non-combat to deescalate a situation, sometimes a bad roll caused an animal to be agressive toward them, but that animal (wolf in this example) is a pet of someone they are trying not to offend.
Anyway, the point is not “how do I get to Defend” but rather, how can I protect myself from harm while the situation is changing. OL doesn’t have that so I’m brainstorming.
Like I mentioned, you can just delay your whole turn until after the wolf in your example and achieve the same thing, but without losing your Move and Minor actions in that case.
I get that (sorry for not acknowledging), but even that wouldn’t feel satisfying for the player I think. They want to act. I’ll have to run some numbers I guess and see if it’s still the best option (maybe with ADV1) or if a flat Guard bonus is better.
I find this idea actually interesting and I think it has some potential. Maybe a feat called defensive stance or something similar for 2 or 3 points:
Prepared Defender
You can raise your guard by +2, if you choose to forgo your major action and ready yourself for the impact of the incoming attacks. Additionally, you can also forgo your move action, to dig your heels deeper into the ground, and gain an additional +2 to your guard.
@ucffool If you are looking for a strictly core rules solution though, I’d say the resistance boon is your best bet.
I guess if you could provide more information about a specific instances in an encounter (and not just the fight, maybe what was leading up to it), b/c I guess I don’t fully understand the player right now and what they are really wanting to achieve.
EDIT:
Partially b/c they are wanting to lose doing anything in a Turn, whereas the other solutions provide them MORE they can do and still be able to defend.