Full Defense

[Thomas LeBlanc]

We were trying out some of the combat stuffs last weekend and one of the players wanted to do a Full Defense action. I vaguely remembered it from 3.0. I don't remember Full Defense being available in 3.5. I also don't remember seeing it in the Pathfinder. I couldn't remember what it did, and none of us had a 3.0 book. He said it was +4 AC and couldnt as a full round action.

Will it be available in Pathfinder? I think it is pretty useful if you need to guard a rouge while he picks the lock to a door or a mage casting a longer spell.

[Eric Tillemans]

Thomas LeBlanc wrote:

We were trying out some of the combat stuffs last weekend and one of the players wanted to do a Full Defense action. I vaguely remembered it from 3.0. I don't remember Full Defense being available in 3.5. I also don't remember seeing it in the Pathfinder. I couldn't remember what it did, and none of us had a 3.0 book. He said it was +4 AC and couldnt as a full round action.

Will it be available in Pathfinder? I think it is pretty useful if you need to guard a rouge while he picks the lock to a door or a mage casting a longer spell.

Full defense is +4 AC and a full round action - it's in the 3.5 SRD and Players Handbook.

[Nameless]

In 3.5 it's called Total Defense and only takes a standard action:

The SRD wrote:

Total Defense
You can defend yourself as a standard action. You get a +4 dodge bonus to your AC for 1 round. Your AC improves at the start of this action. You can't combine total defense with fighting defensively or with the benefit of the Combat Expertise feat (since both of those require you to declare an attack or full attack). You can't make attacks of opportunity while using total defense.

There ya go!

[hogarth]

Eric Tillemans wrote:

Full defense is +4 AC and a [standard] action - it's in the 3.5 SRD and Players Handbook.

In Pathfinder, that increases to +6 AC if you're trained in Acrobatics.

[The Real Orion]

The answer to all D&D 3.X questions: http://www.d20srd.org

"Fighting Defensively as a Standard Action

You can choose to fight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a -4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC for the same round."

"Fighting Defensively as a Full-Round Action

You can choose to fight defensively when taking a full attack action. If you do so, you take a -4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC for the same round."

"Total Defense

You can defend yourself as a standard action. You get a +4 dodge bonus to your AC for 1 round. Your AC improves at the start of this action. You can’t combine total defense with fighting defensively or with the benefit of the Combat Expertise feat (since both of those require you to declare an attack or full attack). You can’t make attacks of opportunity while using total defense."