Yet another HeroClix Rules question about the rule of 3

[Thrice]

Does the "Defend" power get limited by the Rule of three?

Defend states that "before any attack roll, any adjacent friendly character can replace its defense value with this character's unmodified defense value (including a replacement defense value) for the duration of the attack."

So let's say the character with defend has 20 defense. and the character adjacent has 14 defense. Will I only be able to give the adjacent character 17 defense because of the rule of three?

[CastleKing]

Defend grants a replacement value and thus is not subject to the rule of 3.

So you would be able to give the full 20 defense to the adjacent character.