How Effective is DEF?

[Takanomiya Hijiri]

I've been unable to read much of what goes on in the OV, but I have been keeping track of the Coruscant threads, at least, and a couple of them in particular got me thinking about DEF. Gunther Stein was shot a bunch of times and ended up with quite a lot of gunshot wounds, even if they were mostly shallow. He has 5 DEF.

On the other hand, Harlan Higgs (3 DEF), was supposed to be tortured with a scalpel, but then it broke without even scratching him as soon as the ork holding it tried to cut him. According to Omniphysics (as I understand it, at least) moves are supposed to be more powerful the more drawbacks they have, and scalpels are considerably shorter range and slower than bullets... so in theory, they should be more harmful... at least, if the characters wielding them have equal ATK.

Prior to reading these two accounts the only information I'd seen on DEF was in the Rules, where it says:

3: Astoundingly resilient, the kind of person who would make doctors marvel.
4: Inhumanly resilient, as though wearing armor all over.
5: Mega resilient, most-calibur bullets will not break skin with just one bullet.

So going by that info there, both Gunther & Harlan are clearly correct: I dunno about you, but I'd sure marvel if I were a doctor and I met a patient who was immune to scalpels, and Gunther was definitely hit by a whole lot of bullets, so if we assume that 5 DEF is nothing more than bullet-resistant skin then it's not surprising that he'd be injured quite badly.

From my point of view I'd say I'm probably closer to thinking of it Harlan's way (I briefly mentioned one of my NPCs as being barely affected by lasers when she had 4 DEF). The way I'd interpreted it before reading Gunther's post was that 5 DEF meant being basically unkillable by normal guns. My reasoning was that to a normal human (2 or less DEF) small thorns, pins, or even a sheet of paper could all 'break skin'... whereas a person with 5 DEF would require multiple bullets for the same effect. By my logic trying to kill someone like that with RL-strength guns (3-5 ATK) would be like trying to kill a normal person by throwing paper aeroplanes at them and hoping to give them enough tiny cuts that they'd somehow bleed to death from it.

Clearly, though, that's not the direction Gunther went with it. So now, on the actual point of this thread:
I was hoping that other people who've written about characters with abnormally high DEF (above 2) would tell me how powerful they portrayed the stat as being in their posts?
And maybe even post a link to one if you're able, so I can read through it if I get time?

Thanks!  :fullderp: