When you plant your feet and make yourself immovable, roll +Tough.

• 10+: You cannot be moved, knocked down, or forced back this scene. Anyone trying to get past you must go through you first.
• 7–9: You hold your ground but it costs you, take -1 ongoing to Agility rolls while maintaining this stance.

When you take action specifically to prevent civilian casualties or collateral damage, roll +Tough.

• 10+: Everyone who shouldn't be hurt isn't. You pulled it off clean.
• 7–9: You protect them but the mission suffers, the GM introduces a complication from the restraint.

When you push through pain, exhaustion, or conditions that would stop most people, roll +Tough.

• 10+: You keep going and don't take any penalty from your current harm level for this scene.
• 7–9: You push through but it costs you, the GM will extract the price at an inconvenient moment.

Your body absorbs damage that would break other people. Reduce all incoming harm by 1 (passive). This stacks with armor.

When you declare you're guarding a specific person or location, any enemy who targets your ward must go through you first. If they try to bypass you, roll +Tough.

• 10+: They can't get past you. Not now, not without dealing with you first.
• 7–9: They're slowed and take -1 forward — but they're still trying.

You talk trash throughout every fight. Whenever an enemy goes to attack a teammate, roll +Tough.

• 10+: They redirect their attack to you instead.
• 7–9: 50/50, the GM flips a coin.

You have trained your body to tolerate most known poisons and toxins in small doses. Mundane and chemical compounds don't affect you. Otherworldly or supernatural compounds still work normally (passive).

You are immune to fear effects, morale penalties, and intimidation (passive). Mental attacks still require a roll to resist.

(1/session)

When you're the last one standing or the only one between your team and something catastrophic, something in you shifts. For the rest of this scene, ignore your current harm penalties and deal +2 harm on all attacks.

When you would take harm that would put you at Beaten (5–6) or Dying (7), roll +Tough.

• 10+: Take 1 less harm than the attack would deal.
• 7–9: Take the harm but stay on your feet and functional.

When you physically absorb an environmental effect, explosion, structural collapse, a shockwave, on behalf of your team, roll +Brawn.

• 10+: Your team takes no harm. You take half.
• 7–9: Your team takes half harm. You take full.

(1/mission)

Once per mission, completely ignore an enemy's damage roll against you. You have to spit blood on the ground and say "is that all you got?" to use it.

(1/mission)

When you're close enough, throw yourself over an area effect attack meant for a teammate. You take all the harm. No roll required.

You don't age or get sick. Harm that would kill a normal person leaves you gravely wounded instead, you always stabilize eventually. However, you can still reach Dying and still need to be stabilized in a scene. Once per mission, when you would permanently die, you survive, but take a permanent scar, limitation, or loss the GM defines. This has happened before. It will happen again.

When you position yourself to absorb or redirect an explosion, shockwave, or area attack before it reaches bystanders or teammates, roll +Tough.

• 10+: You contain it. Full harm to you, zero to everyone within 20ft.
• 7–9: You redirect most of it, bystanders take 1 harm, you take full.

When things are going badly and you plant yourself as an anchor for your team, roll +Tough.

• 10+: Every teammate who can reach you does so safely and clears 1 harm.
• 7–9: Two teammates reach you safely and clear 1 harm.

When civilians are in the combat zone and need to move, roll +Tough.

• 10+: Everyone clears the area without taking harm.
• 7–9: Most clear. One person hesitates or is caught — you choose: take 1 harm yourself to cover them, or they take 1 harm.

When you take harm from a melee attack and stay standing, roll +Tough.

• 10+: Deal 2 harm back immediately.
• 7–9: Deal 1 harm back.

Once per scene, when you're at Hurt or worse, clear 1 harm through sheer willpower and aggression. No roll required. The moment must be narrated, it should feel earned.

Once per mission, when a teammate would reach Dying, you may take the full harm instead, their harm track resets to where it was before the hit, yours takes it all. No roll. You chose this.

### Improvements, At 5 XP, Choose One

• Take a new Protector move
• Take a move from another playbook
• Add +1 to Tough (max +3)
• Add +1 to Brawn (max +3)
• Add +1 to Intuition (max +3)
• Add 1 to your harm track maximum
• Your THICK SKIN passive now reduces all incoming harm by 2
• Your SENTINEL move: on 10+ they cannot reach your ward this scene at all

### Advanced Improvements, After 5 Improvements, Choose One

• Unbreakable: You cannot be reduced below 5 harm (Beaten) by a single hit regardless of the damage dealt. Each hit still takes you further from Beaten but nothing one-shots you.
• The Wall: Once per session declare that nothing gets past you. For the rest of the scene, any attempt to reach someone you are protecting must go through you physically. No exceptions.
• Change playbook: You have grown into someone different.
• Retire: You stood down. Tell the table whether it was your choice.