Silly thought

[tomorrow]

Umm... it occured to me the other day when I was making a street-level type hero that "Combat Sense" and "Deflection: Automatic" seem redundant.

If you have Combat Sense you can't be caught flat-footed and not be able to defend yourself... even against invisble attackers. Right?

So if your character has Combat Sense... would taking automatic still serve a purpose... since there shouldn't be any attacks capable of catching you off guard? Am I missing something here?

[Steve Kenson]

Combat Sense allows you to retain your full Defense bonus, it doesn't allow you to use Deflect against attacks out of turn or against attacks you can't see coming (which is not the same thing as retaining your normal Defense bonus). So they are not redundant, no.