Glourious Minmax Technique (Exalted)

[tribble]

So, I have this Twilight Caste, and because I am a noob and my DM is a Monty Haul, I don't have a perfect defense. I intend to get one, because at the rate we're going he's going to kill me off by accident. (long story)

So, I have 3 essence, 3 dots in resistance, and 2 dots in Dodge. I normally use my dodge dv, but when it fails, I use a resistance-based defence, which produces some amusing reactions from NPCs. anyway, I'm torn between Seven Shadow Evasion and Adamant Skin Technique. so far, I've been leaning towards A.S.T., but I'm not sure if it's the better choice. Can I get some opinions? I can provide Charm Lists if necessary.

[wayfare]

AST is nice as you get to us it late in the resolution phase -- you can let your DV do its thing, see if you take too much damage and the go -- nope! didn't take damage after all.

[Tengu_temp]

SSE requires 4 Dodge, has only one prerequesite charm, and costs 3 motes. AST requires 5 Resistance and 3 Essence, has three prerequesite charms, and costs 4 motes. From what you said it seems you already have Spirit Strengthens the Skin and/or Iron Body Concentration, so you should probably go with the latter.

On a sidenote, IBC is a semi-perfect defense, and if you're not a primary combatant and the game is still somewhere around Essence 2-3, it should be enough for you as long as you have a good Stamina+Resistance pool.

[The Rose Dragon]

Iron Skin Concentration is a great defense as long as damage is the only thing you have to fear. For non-damage effects, you still need a perfect parry or dodge.

[Draxar]

Adamant Skin Technique

Pros:

Lets you use your DV as a 'filter', meaning you'll have to use it less often if you've got a reasonable DV
Can be used on things that other perfect defences can't be – if you're falling out of an airship, you can't dodge the ground, but you can soak it. You can also do fun things with this, like jumping out of a flying craft some way above your target (be it a boat, a wagon, another flying craft), and activating AST as you hit the target, likely doing quite some serious damage to it, and leaving you unharmed.
Its prereqs mean you'll also have what's needed to take Iron Kettle Body, which is a fairly good scenelong soak adder if you're not wearing armour. IIRC, somewhere around there's something that lets you use it in armour.
Resistance 5 is quite useful against a variety of nasty effects you'll face


Cons:
Costs 1 more mote than Seven Shadow Evasion
Has more prereqs than SSE.
Does not protect you against 'Bad touch' attacks, which are effects where all they need to do is touch you, no damage required, and then your soul falls off, or you are turned into a duck. OTOH, many bad touches can be prevented by other charms, anti-shaping, anti-crippling or anti-poison.
Rather obliviates most of the need for its prerequisites – since they're all also instant charms, whilst there will be situations where they might be more efficient, given the cost of sticking them all in a combo, and the added complexity, chances are you'll generally just fall back onto AST.


Seven Shadow Evasion
Pros:

Cheaper
Stops bad touches
With certain environmental effects, if you're able to reach the edge of them, activating it will move you out of the damaging area
Lower prereq stats required, less prereq charms required.
Its prereq charm is sufficiently different and cheaper that there might be times you'd use it rather than the Perfect Defence.
If you have the stats for SSE, you have the stats for Reflex Sidestep Technique, and you can combine that with SSE to dodge attacks you didn't see coming, without dipping into Awareness for its surprise negator
SSE's prereq, Shadow Over Water, is also the prereq for Leaping Dodge Method, which lets you jump away from people attacking you, stopping them from getting a flurry of multiple blows off.
Dodge 2 -> Dodge 4 = +1DDV, meaning you'll be filtering out more attacks


Cons:
The aforementioned stuff that it can't dodge – the floor.
Dodge is a relatively tiny charm tree with less stuff in it. Though there's some nice stuff in the Dreams of the First Age Errata
The fact that if an attack could seriously harm you and has a viable chance of getting through your DV, you pretty much have to SSE it, you can't wait to see if it'd actually hit without your perfect.


I think that's most of it. Beyond those, there's the thematics – do you see your character as nimble and quick, or as enduring, watching his enemies blades shatter upon his body.

I will also note that there's the nasty trick that you get when you take both of them and combo them, it's what's known as a 2/7 filter. Anything that's a bad touch, or that absolutely will hit you, you SSE. Anything that doesn't fall under that, you see if it can get past your DV, if it does, you AST it, if not, you're effectively up the motes from not having been forced to SSE.

Then again, that's for relatively high paranoia/optimisation games.