the inDefinite Guide
to Shield of the Legion
What is Shield of the Legion?
Shield of the Legion is the third rank of the House Guard talent, introduced in the Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies supplement. Like the rest of its tree, it focuses on protecting your allies, specifically by punishing those who would do them harm. It reads:
1/round, when you reduce damage to an allied character, cancel an attack against them, or cause one to miss, you may deal 2 energy damage to the attacker and knock them Prone.
The idea behind Shield of the Legion (sometimes called HoG3, to differentiate it from HG, Heavy Gunner) is simple enough - when you defend your allies, you deal a negligible amount of damage, and knock the attacker down, no save. Unfortunately, it’s not so simple, specifically because of the wording of the trigger. Reduce damage, cancel an attack or cause one to miss. Counter-intuitively, this means that some effects that feel they should work like Saladin’s Warp Shield won’t trigger it, while others like Swallowtail’s LB/OC Cloaking Field might.
What triggers Shield of the Legion?
Ask your GM.
No, I’m unfortunately serious, that’s the actual answer. Does this trait/system/whatever trigger Shield of the Legion? You have to ask your GM because whether or not something triggers it or doesn’t is very much a matter of interpretation. Thus this is the answer:
Ask your GM. And maybe send them this guide, which contains… not answers, but advice on how to interpret the rules and answer the question.
But ultimately? If in doubt, ask your GM.
What is the point, then?
I don’t have the answers. What I do have, is time and effort to go through every option that could, might, or won’t work, and offer my advice and opinion on how to treat it, whether or not it should work. It should in no way be considered binding, or the final word - but it might be helpful all the same.
Who am I, then?
I am vonBoomslang (vB for short), long-time roleplayer, notorious homebrewer and addicted buildcrafter. I’ve played and DM’d campaigns, I’ve participated in freeform and rule-heavy RPs, and I’ve taken apart systems for fun to see how they work. I’m the sort of guy who, finding a piece of media he enjoys, starts writing fanfiction, thinking up new content, working on homebrew and mods, and more. It’s how I enjoy stuff. Does this qualify me to offer advice? I don’t know. Maybe. Can’t hurt though.
How will this guide work?
Quite simply, I intend to go through every talent, system, frame trait and core power and give my opinion on whether or not it interacts with HoG3. Obviously, many things simply don’t interact with it, and won’t be listed. The rest I will categorize and color-code, for ease of reference.
The colors in use will be:
- Blue entries are things that explicitly reduce damage, cancel an attack, or cause one to miss, and thus definitely work with HoG3. Spoiler alert: There won’t be many.
- Green entries are things that don’t work explicitly, but a case can be made for why they probably should. Come to think of it, most of this guide is me making that case.
- Orange entries are also things that can also have a case made for them, but I think they shouldn’t. These two categories are by their nature subjective, but I feel pretty confident about them. My reasoning will be generally explained a bit lower down.
- Red entries are things that won’t work. They might seem they work, but they don’t, sorry. I am listing these in part because, even though the rules don’t support them, a GM might decide they fit the spirit of the talent, and decide they do - but again, it’s entirely up to a GM choosing to ignore the rules.
- Indigo entries are a catch-all for weird edge cases and things with unclear interactions. I’ll list an explanation and recommendations for each one individually.
Also, because quite a few mechanics will repeat themselves, rather than go into an essay every time, I’ll give a run-down of them here, along with my reasoning as to where they fall on the above scale. Arranged in rough order of works-with-HoG3-ness:
- Effects that explicitly reduce damage, cancel an attack, or cause an attack to miss, using that exact language, require little explaining. These are the few effects that clearly and explicitly work with Shield of the Legion.
- Redirects are effects which either make you take some or all of the damage that an ally would otherwise take, or make you the target of an attack instead of them. This is very similar to reducing damage or canceling an attack, but it doesn’t use that wording, and thus isn’t a clear example. The vB advice is they absolutely should work, and if you think this is pedantry, whoo boy you’re in for a ride with some of the later entries.
- Granting Resistance to an ally reduces the damage they take, so it should clearly count, right? Well… no, it’s not that easy. If you look at the definition of resistance (page 78 in the core rule book), you didn’t reduce the damage they took, they did. You just gave them the resistance. The vB advice is that it should work, but I can understand why somebody might rule otherwise.
- Granting Immunity seems analogous, but it’s even worse - the problem is, immunity doesn’t reduce damage to 0, in fact, it explicitly is not a reduction. Shield of the Legion, meanwhile, triggers off reducing damage, but not preventing it entirely. It’s quite obvious that making it work would be in the spirit of the talent, and the vB advice is that it should work, but I want to be clear, I am advising it despite it being against the rules. I will be bolding Immunity to draw attention to it.
- Granting Invisibility actually is analogous - you give your ally a status which gives them a chance to be automatically missed, the only question is whether you made the attack miss or they did. Either way, the vB advice is that it should work, and the only reason it’s below resistance and immunity is conceptual - invisibility isn’t as strongly associated with defensive characters, which seems to be the theme of House Guard. One important consideration, however, and something one should ask their GM (or the GM should ask themselves) - is it enough that the attacker lose the invisibility coin flip, or they need to lose the coin flip but also make an attack to see if they would have otherwise hit (as if shooting at an invisible Gorgon).
- Imposing Difficulty on an enemy attack (and by extension, Impairing them or granting your ally Cover) seems like something it should work, since letting an ally hide behind you or throwing up a shield to protect them seem the most defender-y actions possible… but unfortunately, the vB advice is that it should not work. The reason is that even though it makes sense, and it’s easy to argue imposing difficulty on an attack roll causes it to miss, it’s not easy to keep track of it. There are just a lot of weird edge cases - if there are multiple sources of difficulty, how do you determine which one was yours? If a source of accuracy canceled some difficulty, was it yours that was canceled or not? If the attack ends up a flat roll, should you check it with accuracy to see if it’d hit? And so on, and so forth. It’s just too much of a hassle to keep track of it all and in my opinion, not worth the headache it’d cause. Still, a GM may well decide it works when the situation is clear, I just really wouldn’t recommend formalizing it. If you do not want to see the various (and many) sources of difficulty listed, you may be interested in the aBridged version of this guide.
- Reaction Denial is a very tricky one to handle - realistically, it shouldn’t ever trigger, since the attack that would be canceled never happened. At the same time, there are situations where an attack would absolutely be expected - an Archer’s suppressing fire, a Ronin’s riposte, or even plain old Overwatch. On the gripping hand, all reactions (with the honorable exception of Enkidu) are voluntary, and the enemy could just… not (try and fail to) take it, if it meant doing nothing but being knocked on their ass. Overall, while I firmly believe this should not work, a GM might keep this in their back pocket to reward interesting clutch plays that let one’s allies get out of a sticky situation.
- Giving an ally Overshield could be thought of as reducing damage they take, but that’s not how the game handles it - Overshield gives special hit points which are depleted before normal ones, so even though it’s a good defensive option, it does not work. A GM is free to rule otherwise, and as long as the source of the overshield is tracked (why wouldn’t it?), it won’t cause any mechanical problems, but the reading of the rules is clear.
Anything else?
I’d like to thank the Pilot.NET community for helping me put this guide together through advice, examples, and being excited for it.
I’d like to thank whoever made the Things to Do With a Raleigh While You're Waiting to Reload guide for directly inspiring this one.
Comments? Criticism? Disagree with my opinion on something? Want to buy me a coffee? For me to look at your weird neat homebrew? I can be reached under skarmory@gmail.com or, preferably, @vonBoomslang on Discord. Can also tag me in Pilot.NET, if you prefer.
By popular demand, a version without the various sources of cover, impairment and other sources of difficulty has been made available and can be found here.
Peace out, Lancers.
and now Onto The Guide
All entries arranged in release, then alphabetical order.
Basics
- Engagement - Imposes difficulty on ranged attacks. Hopefully this helps demonstrate why this is a tricky option to include.
- Grappling - Denies Reactions.
- Invade//Fragment Signal - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
Talents
- Bonded 2 - Sundance//Intercede - Redirects damage onto you.
- Bonded 3 - Cover Me! - The interaction here is unclear - the attack is not explicitly canceled, but you can gently persuade the attacker to not attack a specific ally. The vB advice is that it should count, if only for the mental image of threatening somebody so well they fall on their ass. Additionally, the attack resolves before the triggering one, which means it can cancel an attack through, for example, Stunning the attacker or knocking them out of range, in which case the vB advice is that it should also count.
- Centimane 1 - Ten Thousand Teeth - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Centimane 3 - Tidal Suppression - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Drone Commander 3 - Invigorate - Overshield is not damage reduction.
- Exemplar 3 - To The Death//Duel To The Death - Imposes +3 Difficulty against other characters.
- Heavy Gunner 1 - Covering Fire - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Infiltrator 2 - Ambush - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired and Denies Reactions.
- Leader 3 - Inspiring Presence - Lets allies expend the dice to reduce damage. The argument can be made that it’s the ally reducing the damage, not you, but the vB advice is that it should count.
- Empath 1 - Sympathetic Precognition - A case could be made for making an ally pass a save that would deal (more) damage on a failure, but that stretches the definition of ‘reduce damage’. The vB advice is that it should not count.
- Empath 3 - Shared Subjectivity - See above.
- House Guard 2 - Greater Guardian - Your mech now provides hard and soft cover.
- House Guard 3 - Shield of the Legion - Hi mom!
- Black Thumb 2 - Rodeo//Field Repair - Overshield is not damage reduction.
- Field Analyst 3 - Active Interference - Can cause an enemy attack to miss.
- Sysop 2 - Firewall - Imposes Difficulty on enemy tech attacks. Shield of the Legion does not specify what sort of attack must miss.
- Sysop 3 - Aggressive Countermeasures - Can reduce Heat dealt by an enemy attack to 0, but Heat is not damage (page 67 of the core rulebook). However, imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
GMS Frames & Licenses
- Sagarmatha//Rallying Cry//Raise The Banner - Grants Resistance to allies in range. Remember that Shield of the Legion is 1/round, and thus can only be used once. Also, a reminder that Heat is not damage.
- Pattern-A Jericho Deployable Cover - Provides hard cover.
- Pattern-A Smoke Charges - Provides soft cover.
IPS-N Frames & Licenses
- Drake//Guardian - Provides hard cover.
- Drake//Fortress//Fortress Protocol - Provides Resistance against area attacks and hard cover.
- Argonaut Shield - Provides Resistance to one ally.
- Concussion Missiles - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Aegis Shield Generator - Explicitly reduces damage. You can’t even argue it’s the generator doing it, you need to take the reaction.
- Portable Bunker - Provides hard cover and Resistance against area attacks.
- Lancaster//Latch Drone - None of the effects trigger HoG3.
- MULE Harness - Provides soft cover to riders.
- Aceso Stabilizer - Overshield is not damage reduction.
- Tortuga//Guardian - Provides hard cover.
- Daisy Cutter - Provides soft cover (as a side effect, really)
- Kidd//Reroute Power - Overshield is not damage reduction.
- Kidd//Jolly Roger//Swindle - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- PEBCAC//Activate PEBCAC - None of the effects or downsides trigger HoG3.
- Omnibus Plate - Shield of the Legion only specifies an allied character, which can be a drone deployed atop an Omnibus Plate and receiving Resistance.
- FORGE-2 Subaltern Squad//Emplacement - Provides hard cover.
- FORGE-2 Subaltern Squad//Damping Station - Provides Immunity to Burn. Note that clearing existing marked Burn is not reducing damage.
- FORGE-2 Subatlern Squad//Armor Pack - One could argue that increasing an ally’s armor means reducing damage they take, but it’s a convoluted line of logic and a pain to track. The vB advice is it should not count.
- Smokestack Heat Sink - Although it absorbs Heat, Heat is not damage.
- Zheng//Destructive Swings - The obstacles created provide hard cover.
- Total Strength Suite I - The obstacles created provide hard cover. Good luck keeping track.
SSC Frames & Licenses
- Black Witch//Mag Parry - Can make an attack miss. Doesn’t get clearer than that.
- Black Witch//Magnetic Field Projector//Mag Field - It’s not clear if, should somebody attempt an attack which is stopped by the field, it counts as canceled. The vB advice is that it should.
- Orchis//Perfect Parry - Provides Immunity against damage from missed attacks. Like with other sources of immunity, may or may not count. Seeing as this is a mech released alongside HoG and, conceptually, the HoGgest HoG to ever HoG, the vB advice is that it should count.
- Orchis//Guardian - Provides hard cover.
- Orchis//Hunting Eagle - Denies Reactions.
- ICEOUT Drone - Normally, tech attacks cannot be made from or into the area of an ICEOUT Drone - but should through some convoluted chain of events that happen (e.g. an interrupting attack knocked the attacker into one), the attack will be canceled, in which case the vB advice is it works.
- Black Ice Module - Imposes Difficulty on tech attacks - HoG3 can trigger off making those miss.
- Magnetic Shield - Provides soft cover and Resistance.
- Veil Rifle - Provides soft cover to allies in the line.
- Neurospike//Mirage - The target treats an ally as Invisible, which can make their attacks miss.
- Burst Launcher - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Stuncrown - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Oasis Wall - Provides hard cover and Resistance.
- Flash Charges - It’s tricky, but should the enemy be, for example, knocked into a blind field by an interrupting attack, the attack will be canceled, and the vB advice is that it works. In fact, I’d say it works for both the person who threw the flash charge and the person who knocked them in it. Neat.
- Hunter Logic Suite//Terrify - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Swallowtail//Cloudscout TACSIM Swarm//Prophetic Interjection//Tactical Simulation - Try saying that three times fast. Also, provides Resistance.
- Swallowtail (Ranger Variant)//Scout Battlefield - Provides hard and/or soft cover.
- Swallowtail (Ranger Variant)//Gaia Inheritance//Guerilla Warfare - Provides soft cover but can also make your allies Invisible.
- LB/OC Cloaking Field - Makes your allies Invisible.
- White Witch//Fluid Burst - Explicitly reduces damage dealt to an ally.
- White Witch//Guardian - Provides hard cover.
- Sympathetic Shield - It sounds like a Redirect, but it’s not - it’s overshield, and it’s not damage reduction
- Camus’s Razor//Intervention - This one is a Redirect though.
- Dominion’s Breadth - Overshield is not damage reduction, but imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Shahnameh - Overshield is not damage reduction, and while it provides Resistance to Heat, Heat isn’t damage.
- The Walk of Kings - Overshield is, once more, not damage reduction.
HORUS Frames & Licenses
- Balor//Hellswarm//Hive Frenzy - Provides soft cover to adjacent allies.
- Hecatoncheires//MYRIOS Long-Leash Directed Greywash//Deploy Razor Swarm - Provides soft cover to allies in the area.
- Hive Drone - Provides soft cover to allies in the area.
- H0r_OS System Upgrade II//Construct Other: False Idol - Does not explicitly say it cancels an attack against an ally but it’s a pretty safe assumption. The vB advice is it should count.
- OSIRIS-Class NHP//Hurl into the Duat//Second Gate - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Gorgon//Metastatic Paralysis - If an enemy targets you and an ally with an attack, and rolls a 1-2 against you, it can be argued the Stunned interrupts the entire attack, canceling it against your ally. The vB advice is it should count.
- Gorgon//Guardian - Provides hard cover.
- Mimic Mesh//Battlefield Awareness - Lets you interrupt enemy actions with movement. Cannot do anything on its own but could feasibly enable another system, for example Black Ice Module.
- Sentinel Drone - Interrupts enemy actions with damage. Could feasibly cancel an attack if, for example, it deals Structure damage, stunning the target or destroying a weapon. The vB advice is it should count.
- //SCORPION V70.1 - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Hydra//Shepherd Field - Provides Resistance to adjacent drones, which can trigger HoG3.
- Hydra//OROCHI Disarticulation//Guardian OROCHI Drone - Provides soft cover.
- Tempest Drone - The drone has Resistance to all damage, but I feel that claiming that as reducing damage to an allied character would go against the spirit of the talent, and the vB advice is that it should not count.
- Manticore//Charged Exoskeleton - It’s niche, but both the passive and the active deal damage instantly when the Manticore is dealt Heat or energy damage, which could feasibly cancel some attack, but it’s so convoluted I can’t think of an example.
- Lycan//Interference Field - Imposes Difficulty on attacks not targeting the Lycan.
- Lycan//Power Flux - Imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- SISYPHUS-Class NHP//Probabilistic Cannibalism - Almost a blue but it doesn’t use the language of forcing an attack to miss. Needless to say, the vB advice is that it absolutely should count.
- Kobold//Slag Spray - The obstacles created provide hard cover.
- Kobold//Terraform - The cubes provide soft, then hard cover.
- Slag Cannon - The obstacle does not say it provides hard cover. Probably an omission.
- Lich//Chronostutter//Glitch Time - Can be used to Redirect an attack onto yourself.
- Wandering Nightmare - Denies Reactions.
- Antilinear Time - Has no way to prevent damage or an attack.
- Stay of Execution - Provides Immunity to a target, so if they would take damage, the vB advice is it should trigger. Keep in mind Shield of the Legion only works if the protected target is allied.
HA Frames & Licenses
- Barbarossa//Colossus - Provides hard cover.
- Barbarossa//Apocalypse Rail - Provides soft cover in the blast zone, and if fired with the Apocalypse Die at 2, imposes Difficulty via Impaired.
- Genghis//TBK Sustain Suite//Expose Power Cells - Provides Invisibility to targets in the area, followed by soft cover.
- “Worldkiller” Genghis Mk I//Juggernaut//Furiosa - While in the Danger Zone, Denies Reactions.
- AGNI-Class NHP//AGNI Protocol - Provides soft cover in the area.
- Kutuzov//Emergency Blinkfields - Can indirectly reduce damage by clearing Shredded. The vB advice is while it normally wouldn’t trigger, it’s such a specific effect that it feels right it should trigger.
- Kutuzov//Parallel Projectors//Parallel Projectors - Provides soft cover and reaction denial.
- Stasis Bolt//Interdiction Point - Chance to force an attack to miss. Doesn’t get clearer than that.
- Stasis Generator - Provides Immunity to a target, so if they would take damage, the vB advice is it should trigger. Keep in mind Shield of the Legion only works if the protected target is allied.
- Stasis Barrier - Can consume an attack, which is canceling it in all but name, and also provides soft cover.
- Saladin//Guardian - Provides hard cover.
- Saladin//Warp Shield - It breaks my heart to say, but this only imposes Difficulty on an attack, and I cannot in good heart say it should trigger.
- Saladin//Tachyon Loop//Tachyon Shield//Defensive Pulse - Gives the target Resistance against an attack.
- ENCLAVE-Pattern Support Shield//Blinkfield Intervention - The shield itself only imposes Difficulty, but the reaction provides Resistance against an attack.
- Flash Anchor//Flash Lock - The effects this reaction prevents are not damage.
- NOAH-Class NHP//Diluvian Ark - Forces attacks to miss. Finally a win for Big Sal. We love you, big guy.
- Tagetes//Chorak Skirmish Gear//SANDSTORM Heat Dispersal System - Provides soft cover to allies in the area.
- Tachyon Lance - The Danger Zone backblast provides soft cover.
- Blink Charges//Blink Mine - Very niche, but it’s possible that in the process of making an attack, the attacker sets off a mine which teleports them out of range and/or jams them, canceling the attack, in which unlikely situation the vB advice is it should work. And also be immortalized in song.
- Final Secret - Another niche option, but more practical: Some NPCs make multiple attacks per action (for example, Operators, Ronins and Hives), and a well-timed Final Secret can put the target out of range or line of sight of follow-up attacks. Whether this is a redirect or a canceled attack, the vB advice is that it should not work due to just how convoluted it is.