Brace

Brace is a stackable buff that provides flat damage reduction on incoming attacks. Each point of Brace reduces the damage of every hit by 1, making it extremely effective against enemies that deal many small hits but less impactful against single large attacks. Brace stacks persist until removed or the encounter ends.

Brace differs from Shield in that it reduces damage per hit rather than absorbing a total pool of damage. A cat with 3 Brace reduces every incoming attack by 3, meaning rapid multi-hit enemies deal almost nothing while a single massive hit is barely affected. This makes Brace and Shield complementary defenses: Brace handles volume, Shield handles burst. Several disorders like Boils and Broken Limb grant passive Brace, and Tank class abilities frequently stack Brace to create nearly invulnerable front-liners against the right enemy types.