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From the prd for the Advanced Players Guide:
Bodyguard (Combat)
Your swift strikes ward off enemies attacking nearby allies.
Prerequisite: Combat Reflexes.
Benefit: When an adjacent ally is attacked, you may use an attack of opportunity to attempt the aid another action to improve your ally's AC. You may not use the aid another action to improve your ally's attack roll with this attack.
Normal: Aid another is a standard action.
My questions:
1. What does the bodyguard have to roll for this? Normally, you have to make an attack roll against AC 10 to aid another to hit an enemy. Would that be the same to bodyguard an ally and boost their AC?
2. Also, I'm assuming that this can be used multiple times in the same round with the same ally and enemy, since it's an AoO. ie Bad guy attacks ally 3 times, and bodyguard with high dex and Combat Reflexes gets 3 AoO "aid another" attacks to boost the ally's AC - one for each enemy attack. Is this correct?
3. From the wording, it seems that I don't need to be adjacent to the attacker, just the person I'm bodyguarding. For that matter, it doesn't even specify melee attacks, so this could even be used against ranged attacks. Is that a correct interpretation?
1) Correct, AC 10
2) Correct
3) Personally, I would say no. The feat allows you to "attempt the aid another action." So we look at the entry for aid another in the Combat chapter, and see that it requires you be able to make a melee attack against a creature that is attempting a melee attack against an ally. That you have to be adjacent is in addition to, rather than in place of, the normal requirements to aid another.
However, your interpretation also makes perfect sense. That is, that the adjacent requirement replaces, rather than adds to, the normal requirements. I don't think there is a FAQ or even unofficial response on this, so it will likely come down to how an individual GM interprets things.
3) I'd say you don't need to be adjacent to the enemy, but he has to be within your melee range.
But if a friend (or another enemy) is between you and the attacker your DC increases as it would with a normal melee attack. At least that's how I understood it.
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Could the bodyguard not aid his ally's AC by attacking the enemies' attack that is incoming. I personally think the intent of the ability is you interrupt the enemies attack somewhat and cause your ally to become more difficult to hit because of this.3) I'd say you don't need to be adjacent to the enemy, but he has to be within your melee range.
But if a friend (or another enemy) is between you and the attacker your DC increases as it would with a normal melee attack. At least that's how I understood it.
My thought was that you could just push your ally out of the way of the attack. That doesn't require being anywhere near an enemy - it even works to try and help avoid bullets and arrows from a great distance.
But Mort may have a point that I overlooked. By RAW, aid another is only usable if you can reach the enemy that you're helping your ally against. So does that apply here?
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The key here is that in the wording of Bodyguard, it is circumventing the prerequisites for using Aid Another to increase an ally's AC. Ordinarily this must be true: you are adjacent to both your ally and the enemy; and you expend a standard action. Bodyguard says nope, you can increase their AC anytime they're attacked and adjacent to you by expending an AoO.
Where is the enemy? Doesn't matter. What kind of attack is it? Also doesn't matter. If you're in combat next to a friend and that friend becomes the target of a Ray of Frost spell cast by a wizard on a flying carpet fifty feet up in the air, you can use an AoO to give your ally +2 AC versus that ranged touch attack.
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That was my original thought, Xander, but Mort's got me wondering if that's necessarily true. I can see both sides.
Either way, this will definitely be a good feat for my dex based halfling build with the Helpful trait from Halflings of Golarion (I give +4 instead of +2 when I aid another). The down side is I'm only level 3 and I may not be able to take this feat until I hit level 9, because there's so much other stuff that I need first.
