Technique: Meat Shield

Meat Shield

Hard

Defaults: Dodge-2.

Prerequisites: Dodge, cannot exceed Dodge.

You can use an opponent as cover against ranged and melee attacks against you. To do this, you must be free to move, your opponent must be positioned between you and whoever is trying to hit you, and you must win a Quick Contest of your Meat Shield technique and the potential meat shield’s DX. If you win, the foe you trying to hit you takes a -2 cover penalty to hit you. Regardless of success, you suffer a -1 penalty to all further Dodge rolls and attack rolls this round.

If the foe attacking you through your meat shield misses by a margin of -2 or less, his attack hits the meat shield. The meat shield may attempt any active defense normally available to him, and any successful defense means he is not hit. If he successfully dodges, the attack still hits you, but you can still make an active defense yourself! If the meat shield’s defense fails, he takes damage as if your opponent’s attack targeted him normally.

Build

This defensive technique is built using the Technique Design System (TDS) from GURPS Martial Arts, p. 89-95. The -4 penalty for attacking through an occupied hex is reversed to be a -4 penalty to utilize an occupied hex for defense. Additionally, using this technique imposes a -1 penalty on further active defense rolls for a +1 to default, and a -1 penalty to any attack rolls for an additional -1 to default.