Guard

Typically used with: Endurance.

In short: take a hit. If Dodge gets you out of the way of damage, Guard's your buddy once you've screwed that up.

Resisting Damage

When you receive an attack in combat (and you're aware of it), you get to make an Evasion Roll to get out of the way. If that fails, your opponent makes a Damage Roll and you make a Guard Roll. If you're wearing armor, you can add the armor's bonus to your Guard check. If you meet or exceed the incoming Damage Roll, you don't lose any HP.

If the Damage Roll is higher than your Guard Roll, you deduct the difference from your HP. See the "Guard" entry in the Defending section of Chapter 10: Combat. A Critical Failure of a Guard Roll actually causes harm to any armor you're wearing. See the "Degradation" entry in the Defending section of Chapter 10: Combat for more information.

In addition to attacks from opponents, you also use Guard to resist damage from hazards, like a spiked pit. A very well-equipped and tough hero might be able to fall in a pit trap and have the metal spikes below clang harmlessly off her armor.

Landing

You can use a Gymnastics check to soften a fall, removing one foot of distance per point of the roll. Whatever distance remains calls for a Guard roll. Make a Guard check excluding worn armor (unless you have some kind of miracle armor that protects against falls). For every 5 points of your result (to a maximum of 25 points), you can subtract 10 feet from the distance fallen and move one stage down the Knockout Track. Anything left over is deducted from your HP.

If you're already suffering Knockout Track penalties, you're limited to subtracting 10 feet for each remaining stage. For example, if you're at stage 3 on the Knockout Track, you must subtract a maximum of 20 feet.