I just can't agree with that. In the first response to this post, Diamondew said
AC and HP are meant to represent, rolling with the blows/dodging/parrying attacks.
If that's true then why doesn't my AC go up when my Base attack goes up? In 2E a great swordsman could defend himself against a poor one all day and never get hit regardless of whether he was wearing armour or not. This is how it would be in real life, too. A great swordsman could stand there and block every shot you threw at them. In 3E, how good you are at defending yourself is strictly a matter of how much armour you have and how high your Dex is. How good you are with your weapon doesn't enter into the equation.
Aid Another is a poor representation of this. Sunder is close only if it prevents the other characters attack even if there isn't enough damage done to destroy the weapon.
Parry was an excellent option in the old days. Give up an attack to block their attack. If you had two attacks per round and the other guy had one AND you were a better swordsman, you would never get hurt. You use one attack to parry and the other to attack. That's why you wouldn't go up against a much better fighter.
I think you hit it on the head, Jeff when you pointed out the Attack of Opportunity issue. Parry would unbalance the game if it was allowed to be used during an AoO. A fighter wouldn't even need more attacks than their opponent to block every shot. They must have done away with Parry for that reason. It's sad though. They could have just said that Parry has to be used in place of one of your normal attacks and is used instead of an attack of opportunity if one presents itself.
Also, the Emporer not knowing that Vader would toss him down the shaft was the point of the whole movie. No one at all except Luke ever believed that Vader would be able to free himself from the Emporer's power. That one turning point is what the whole set of movies is about.
