The Defend Ability??

[Deadpool91]

ok, me and my brother got in an argument regarding the defend ability. here's the case...he was using the human torch and adjacent to him was rookie invisible woman. she has an 18 value with defend. i wanted to attack the torch, so he says "ok that makes him a 20, because it's her defense plus his energy sheild deflection" (add 2). i say no way because it says clearly on the ability card "any friendly figure in a square adjacent to this character may use this character's defense value INSTEAD of it's own". so to me that clearly says either her 18, or his own value/ability. it doesn't seem right according to the rule card to add his ES/D ability to her value. can someone please clear this up. thanks

[Giant man]

Nope its just a plain old 18 deffence, it would be nice to have a 20 deffence though :)

[hcmaniac]

I am sorry to say but your brother was right

[Psylockeslover]

Unfortunately for you, He is correct. The Defend ability replaces the nuber value on the others defence. The recieving character still has access to any defence abilities, in this case ES/D.

[jklass1]

The Defend Power basically "replaces" the numerical value of the figure sharing it. Any other defense enhancers, in this caes Energy Shiled/Deflection, DOES come into play, so, yes, the Torch's number to beat, when adjacent to a rookie Invisible Girl, is 20. 18 from her shiled plus 2 for ES/D. But only against ranged attacks, otherwise it's just a still respectable 18.

[Deadpool91]

ok so i have 2 who say it was a 20, and one saying an 18. can i get a judge's view? hey i mean if it was a 20 then great, now i know for future play, that seems like a good tactic to me.

[Deadpool91]

ah, ok got it. well that's good to know. you can see why i didn't agree right? i mean by the rulecard alone, it's honestly not clear at all, nowhere does it say defense abilities of the shared defense character stays in tact, like the ES/D. but ok thanks for clearing it up.

[azhael]

Yes Torch can glom his sister's wonderful 18 defense and then add his ES/D to it for a 20 defense against ranged attacks, 21 if he's in or being targeted through Hindering Terrain.