The other stuff looks covered.

I'm thinking of combat past early levels where there are few misses. By that I mean that first you dodge/parry/shield block. If something gets through those then there is a chance to deflect. That's laid out in the help. But if the chance to miss has not been changed what concrete effect is there? Put another way, if misses are so rare then does not this whole skill set cater to smallish niche?

Think of deflection as a fourth defense that happens to not be tied to a single skill. You can't deflect anything you can't parry, dodge, or block, for example.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com