Defense

Defense is a derived statistic in Fallout: The Roleplaying Game.

Gameplay
In Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, defense is one of two statistics by which a character can avoid damage; the other being various damage resistance types. Defense occupies the "first step" for an attack to land in-combat and simulates the difficulty of landing a hit on targets. Defense is entirely derived from the Agility attribute.

In gameplay, an enemy rolling 2d20 against a character must meet or exceed the total defense of the character, i.e. a character in optimal range with a defense of 2 has a difficulty of 2 to hit so 2 or more success must be made to achieve a hit.


 * Initial level
 * Agility 1-8: Defense = 1
 * Agility 9+: Defense = 2.

The overextended complication can decrease defense for a single round, should the character be using a melee, throwing, or unarmed weapon.

Raising defense

 * Defense can be temporarily increased by 1 when succeeding a Defend major action during combat.
 * Weapons with the Parry quality can increase defense from melee attacks by spending one action point.
 * Stealth Boys increase defense by +2 even while detected.
 * Emergency Protocols power armor mod raises defense by 1 while health is 1/4th its total maximum.
 * Wasteland Survival Guide: Self Defense Secrets increases defense by 1 against melee attacks.

Related perks

 * The Moving Target perk increases defense by 1 when using the sprint major action.
 * The Dodger perk reduces the difficulty of the defend major action.