By virtue of this skill, the character is able to order and structure his or her thoughts in a logical and patterned way. This order of thought grants the character greater defensive capabilities against forces that would alter thought processes. For each intensity of Mental Defense, the character is granted a +1 to spirit combat defense. For each 2 intensity points put into this skill, the character gains a +1 bonus to Save vs. Sleep Charm. To use this skill, the character much make a successful proficiency check at the commencement of spirit combat.
Characters with a Structured alignment get a +1 to this proficiency check, while Neutral-aligned characters are unaffected, and those with a Random alignment are penalized at -1 for this skill. Only Living Constructs can take this skill. Since Awakened Constructs do not have souls, they don’t need this skill anyway, because they cannot be attacked spiritually.
Critical Success: The character functions as if the skill were one intensity higher.
Critical Failure: The character's thoughts are thrown into disarray, and are at -2 to spirit combat defense, and -1 to sleep/charm for the next 2d4 rounds.