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Hello all, I have a query about using the Bodyguard feat with reach weapons.
If you are using a reach weapon and standing behind an ally that provides cover from your attacks to your enemy, can you still make use of the bodyguard feat?
The cover provided by your ally makes it so that you are unable to make AoO's against that enemy BUT the bodyguard feat does not say you actually have to make an AoO. Is USING an AoO to attempt to aid another same as MAKING an AoO to attempt to aid another?
For instance, a gnome cavalier/battle herald/whatever else in one of my PFS games is riding around on a T-Rex mount with the reach combat evolution while wielding a longspear. Both have the bodyguard feat and the gnome has other abilities that add to it's aid bonuses. Whenever a creature attacks one of the party an almost auto bonus in the order of +8 is added to that AC.
I have no problem with this if it is legal but I am not convinced of the wording of bodyguard.
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Aid Another
In melee combat, you can help a friend attack or defend by distracting or interfering with an opponent. If you're in position to make a melee attack on an opponent that is engaging a friend in melee combat, you can attempt to aid your friend as a standard action. You make an attack roll against AC 10. If you succeed, your friend gains either a +2 bonus on his next attack roll against that opponent or a +2 bonus to AC against that opponent's next attack (your choice), as long as that attack comes before the beginning of your next turn. Multiple characters can aid the same friend, and similar bonuses stack.
You can also use this standard action to help a friend in other ways, such as when he is affected by a spell, or to assist another character's skill check.
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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.
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Yes, you do have to make the attack of opportunity.
You should be able to stand at and angle instead of direction beside your ally. that way you can avoid cover, but still be able to qualify for the AoO.
If you have a feat free and melee tactics you can take phalanx formation to ignore cover granted by allies.
That said I am not 100% sure wraithstrike is correct. For a couple of reasons:
1) When the enemy attacks he doesn't provoke an AoO, so you are not using AoO in the conventional sense right from the outset. If an AoO isn't provoked you can't make an AoO.
2) You are using an AoO, not making one.
I see it as spending the potential to make an AoO to Aid another. I would probably make you take the penalty to hit from the cover on your Aid another attempt though.
I'm not so confident that I'd get in a snit fit if a GM ruled otherwise though.
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Aid another defensively only requires you threaten the ally being attacked (as in Bodyguard).
If you aid another offensively you need to threaten both.
If memory serves this was a work around solution, comfirmed by the authors intent. Since RAW is unclear, consult your GM. I have yet to find one that rules differently than I described above, but they exist as evidenced on similar threads.
I'm reviving this post because this topic is still on debate.
Do I need to be adjacent ? Adjacent means 5 feat from you, then why is everyone using whip and bodyguard?
it's not up for debate, answers in your other thread