Parry
Combat, Defense
Prerequisites: (Brawn or Initiative), Strength, Great Fortitude
Requirements: You are not off-guard or staggered and are wielding a shield or lethal weapon and currently have a shield bonus to your Parry DC.
Activation: Reaction; Trigger An attack hits your Parry DC
Target: Triggering effect
Rolls: You make a Strength (Brawn), Strength-based maneuver, or Strength-based weapon attack against DC (triggering effect's attack roll result)
Critical Success: As a success but [Tier * 10].
Success: You redirect up to [Tier * 5] damage from the attack to your shield or weapon instead of you, treating it as a miss if this reduces it to 0 before resistances. Apply your weapon or shield's hardness as normal. This doesn't work against area effects unless using a shield or you currently have cover. This doesn't work against spread effects unless using a tower shield or you currently have cover.
BRUTE REDIRECTION (+1 tier)
Prerequisites: As Parry.
Benefits: When Parry causes an attack to miss, you may use a Reaction to redirect it to another valid adjacent target. If you already used a Reaction to Parry, this occurs as part of that same action. The attack is rerolled against the new target with the same bonuses and effects. Taking this upgrade a second time allows you to redirect to any valid target within 30 feet or the attack’s range (whichever is less). Each additional time increases this range by 30 feet.
BRUTE RIPOSTE (+1 tier)
Prerequisites: As Parry.
Benefits: When Parry causes an attack to miss, you may make an attack of opportunity against the attacker. You may forgo this to instead treat the attack as a critical miss.
DEFLECTING MANEUVERS (+1 tier)
Prerequisites: As Parry.
Benefits: Once per round, you may Dodge as a free action. This stacks for additional uses per round. If you have Brute Redirection or Sidestep, you may expend one of these uses to activate those upgrades. Each activation consumes one Parry use but not your Reaction.
DISARMING REACTION (+1 tier)
Prerequisites: Brue Redirection.
Benefits: Whenever you successfully Parry against a melee attack, you can also make a free Disarm or Sunder attempt against the weapon that you parried.
SIDESTEP (+1 tier)
Prerequisites: As Parry.
Benefits: When Parry causes an attack to miss, you may shift 1 space (5 feet) as a Reaction. If you already used a Reaction to Parry, this occurs as part of that same action. Each additional time you take this upgrade increases the distance by 1 space (5 feet), up to half your base speed.