Rolling “McGyver” in Savage Worlds

Here's a good blog article about tweaking the lethality of Savage Worlds at The Geek Life Project.

In summary:

• Be generous with bennies. Really generous. Give them out like candy.
• When you spend bennies as a GM, don't spend them to "beat" the players, but to increase drama. Use them to re-roll encounter-turning skill rolls like Notice or Stealth, not for soak rolls or for attack rolls. Use GM bennies outside of combat more than in combat.
• Don't use the Incapacitation chart and Injury table, just use the Incapacitated-on-fourth-wound status as written up on p. 76 of the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition. That is, they're out of the fight until healed.
• Use the "toughing it out" rules from Winterweir: make a Toughness and a Spirit check to keep up and fighting despite Incapacitation.

My own suggestion would be to use the death spiral and Incapacitation chart, but treat all results as if they were nonlethal. Heroes and Wild Card enemies then can only be properly killed if they're first taken out and then served a coup de grace while unconscious.

That gives you, as the GM, lots of options for unconscious heroes, and it makes it easier for fallen heroes to be dragged off by their companions to get healing. It also puts heroes in a moral quandary when they defeat a villain: to kill in cold blood, or not?

Use the injury table if you want that kind of long-term Incapacitation consequence, or not.

There's a number of ways to build a defensive fighter. I'm going to assume you're not using powers/magic (though there are a lot of good defensive powers too).

There's some non-edge stuff to consider first, like attributes:

• Vigor. You'll need a high vigor to soak wounds and generally survive
• Agility. You want to max your fighting skill to maximize your parry.
• Smarts (optional). You need some smarts to qualify for initiatve feats, ensuring you can get to the squishy in time.
• Movement bonuses. Again, you want to be able to get close to the squishy.
• Bennies. You'll be soaking a lot, so bonus bennies will be helpful.

After setting up your attributes, it's time to start picking edges. I would not recommend most leadership edges, as they mostly only apply to NPCs. If you're limited to core rules, you might ask your GM to house-rule leadership edges to work on PCs.

I've listed a few edges that I think are useful for defensive fighters. Many of these edges have improved versions that aren't listed. This is in no way a conclusive list:

Core/Expansion Settings:

• Arcane Resistance - Magic of all sorts less effective.
• Brawny - Toughness and Load Limit multiplier increased
• Block - (Seasoned) Learned to block an opponent's blow; adds bonus to Parry
• Bring 'Em On - (Seasoned) Unaffected by Gang-Ups
• Combat Reflexes - (Seasoned) Improves ability to recover from being Shaken.
• Combat Sense/Wall of Steel - (Seasoned/Veteran) Unaffected by Gang Up attempts
• Dodge - (Seasoned) Become harder to hit at range.
• First Strike - (Novice) Free Fighting attack against one adjacent foe each turn.
• Fleet-Footed - (Novice) Pace and running die are increased.
• Guardian - (Novice) Gains bennies by acting as a human shield for a specific person
• Hard to Kill - (Novice) Wound modifiers not applied to Knockout Blow and Injury tables
• Iron Jaw - (Novice) Bonus to Soak rolls
• Iron Parry - (Heroic) Foes take damage on unsuccessful Fighting attacks
• Level Headed - (Seasoned) Draw extra action card and keep bes
• Movement of the Serpent - (Veteran) Can withdraw from combat unmolested.
• Nerves of Steel - (Novice) Able to partially ignore the results of pain
• Rebel Yell - (Novice) May use Intimidation against multiple targets
• Solid Determination - (Heroic) Gets a free Soak roll against wounds that would result in being Incapacitated.
• Tactician - (Seasoned) Modify your allies initiative with a specific knowledge roll
• Take the Hit - (Novice) Good at rolling with punches; bonus to Soak rolls
• Spurred On - (Seasoned) Allies gain attack and damage bonus when you're wounded
• True Hero - (Heroic) Get a free Soak roll when Incapacitated

Licensee Settings:

• Courageous - (Novice) Better control over fear and panic
• Dig In! - (Novice) Benefits from using cover more effectively
• Dragon Hide - (Seasoned) Chosen gains natural armor
• Eye for Terrain - (Novice) Bonus to spotting and setting up ambushes
• Improved Defense - (Novice) Can make better use of the Defend rule.
• Tactician - (Novice) Allies get better initative due to your understanding of tactics
• Wall of Steel - (Veteran) Can better defend against multiple attackers.

Finally, there's one last ability that's worth mentioning. Absorption from Necessary Evil allows you to absorb attacks against you and increase your Vigor instead of taking damage. If you're allowed to combine settings, the Guardian edge and Absorption power make for a ridiculous combination.