Building a defender / bodyguard / protector / guardian / whatever-you-call-it

[Cyberwolf2xs]

I'm playing a desna-believing half-orc defender/bodyguard/protector/guardian/mmo-style-tank/whatever-you-call-it. His quest is to protect a (also desna-believing) female aasimar oracle of the heavens. At any cost. She being half-blind and stubborn as a varisian mountain mule probably isn't going to make his task easier. And I know, a guard with a purple butterfly on his chest might not look very intimidating, but he's hopefully going to make up for it with sheer effectivity. ;)

That's where all you folks come into play – I need some input to make him really good at what he's supposed to do. What is the best approach to... to... well, to saving the oracle's cute ass?

Here's what I got so far, but, by any means, feel free to change everything to improve him, apart from the race – yeah, I know, now that there's the helpful halfing trait, that seems to be another viable approach, but I'd like not having to explain why my character transformed into something half his size at last full moon.

Race: Half Orc
(Darkvision, Intimidating, Orc Blood, Weapon Familiarity – traded Orc Ferocity for Sacred Tattoo)

Class: Fighter (phalanx soldier) 4 (so far)

Attributes (20 pt buy incl. racial and lvl 4 bonus):
Str 18 +4
Dex 16 +3
Con 12 +1
Int 13 +1
Wis 10 +0
Cha 8 -1

Trait (only one in our group, GM's call): Reactionary (+2 Ini)

Feats:
1. Combat Reflexes
F1: Bodyguard
F2: TWF (to reduce the penalty on shield bash, could be replaced later)
3: Improved Initiative
F4: Combat Expertise

Feats that should be included (sorted by relevance):
Imp Shield Bash -> Shield Slam -> Shield Master
Imp Trip -> Greater Trip
Pin Down
Shield Focus -> Greater Shield Focus and Missile Shield
Dodge -> Mobility -> Combat Patrol and Spring Attack -> Whirlwind Attack
Disruptive -> Spellbreaker -> Ray Shield

Feats that could be included, but don't have to be:
Antagonize (though I'd probably need a higher cha to do it, and normally our GM lets us do things like taunting through roleplaying, so it shouldn't be necessary)
Power Attack -> Felling Smash and Pushing Assault

Equipment:
horsechopper (reach, trip) + spiked heavy shield
alt: bill (reach, brace, disarm)
(Got to find somebody who can build a halbard with a longer shaft (read: reach) or fuse both my polearms into one.)
alt: throwing weapons like javelin, pilum, spear – could be substituted by a composite longbow for enhanced reach if necessary
light or medium armor (With spikes. For added spikyness. Got to make up for the purple buttlerfly somehow. >.<)

I think that it shouldn't be hard to guess where this leads us, but I'll explain my tactic anyway:
1. always stand right next to or better yet in front (soft cover for free) of the oracle
2. provide cover and ac with shield and bodyguard/aid another if necessary
3. control a large area of the battlefield by using polearms with reach (could be further enlarged by Combat Patrol)
4. use AoOs and readied actions to trip, shutdown or bull rush everything that wants to move closer
5. if something moves into adj, make shield bash bull rush to move him out again
6. as a last resort, use In Harm's Way to intercept

Build possibilities (I'll only mention the abilities that are benificial to my cause):

#1 Fighter (phalanx soldier) 20
-> Use polearms and spears one-handed with shield at level 3 – Three words: one handed reach. That's pretty much the main reason to go this route. (I know, there is a discussion still going on about wether you could as well use a small sized two handed reach polearm in one hand, but... I want to stay away from cheese-smelling territory as long as possible.)
-> Shield Ally – it's basically the reason to go further than just level 3. Use a heavy shield so that you can still shield bash, and grant up to +8 cover bonus to AC for an adj ally. Needs a move action, but still: neat. So together with Aid Another we're looking at +10 AC.
-> can grant allies evasion (and improved evasion)
But the other abilites are kind of... meh. I'd desperately want to mix this archetype with some of the standard fighter and/or polearm figher abilities, but my GM fears that it would lead right back into cheesyland so it's unfortunately no option.

#2a Fighter (phalanx soldier) 3+x / Cavalier (Order of the Dragon, Honorguard Archetype) 17-x
Simply put: if cavalier, then Honorguard. It's great – it replaces most of the abilties the cavalier has that would otherwise have no use in my build.
-> Perception as class skill might help to spot ambushes
-> Teamwork feat could be Escape Route or Shield Wall (my oracle could use a buckler to benefit)
-> -1 own AC, +1 adj ally's AC @ challenge
-> Intercept gives Bodyguard at Cav level 3, well... saves a feat, and +1 AC @ aid another. Should stack with improved aid another bonus of the Order ability (so we can be up to +6 at Cav lvl 14).
-> Strategy can give +2 dodge AC to allies within 30ft for 1 round at Cav level 8
-> Warding Charge and Defensive Challenge are also better for what I want to do, but I don't know if they're worth taking so many levels of Cavalier.

#2b Fighter (phalanx soldier) 3+x / Cavalier (Order of the Dragons, Honorguard and Emissary Archetypes) 17-x
Same as above, apart from:
-> lose Teamwork feat, gain full movement in medium armor
-> Mobility at Cav level 5, another feat saved
Other changes are uninteresting since I won't spend much time with mounted combat anyway, but this has no real disadvantage, so I'd probably take it.

#3 Fighter (phalanx soldier) 3 / Cavalier (Order of the Dragons, Honorguard (and probably Emissary) Archetypes) 3 or 5 / Bard 1 / Battle Herald 10 / Whatever +3 or +1
So this could bring us to an aid another bonus of 8 (can be reached at level 15, depending on the order I take the classes).
-> lose 1 point of BAB
-> can grant allies DR 4/-
-> improved versatility through different available commands
-> improved leadership score, which will never be used in my case (since our group is almost too huge even without everyone dragging a crapload of NPCs with him).
Would it be a far shot into cheesyland to ask if the Demanding Challenge of the Battle Herald could be replaced by Defensive Challenge of the Honorguard Archetype we took (which would normally replace the Demanding Challenge of the Cavalier)? *mumbling* Yeah, thought so... ;)

#4 Fighter (phalanx soldier) 3 / Cavalier (Order of the Dragons, Honorguard (and probably Emissary) Archetypes) 14 / Bard 1 / Battle Herald 1 / Whatever +1
Would I be better off with shuffling Build #3 around for this?
-> aid another +6 (+7 with Inspiring Command) and less usable rounds of IC
Are the Cav abilities better than the ones BH would give me?

Please tell me what you think of all this.
And as I said, feel free to change everything if you have a completely different build that would be better at protecting an oracle.

[EWHM]

What is the nature of your GM? Since he's controlling everyone you need to defend the oracle from, he is the one you really need to understand.

For instance, say you are between a pack of foes and the oracle, and to move-attack her would require that they accept an AoO from you, how often do they actually do that?

Does the threat of an AoO generally deter your GM from moving by you?
A lot of people have a psychological block against accepting an AoO against them. Is your GM one of them? Combat reflexes is a feat that you can use to increase how much your AoO capability deters him (a fair number of GMs have modest reluctance to trigger AoO unless they have a horde of expendables, in which case a designated victim will eat your AoO. Regularly getting an enlarge spell helps a lot here for reach.

Do you do a lot of your work in dungeons? Some GMs hardly do dungeons/indoor confined space fights at all these days, others do little but that. If your gm is into dungeons, or if he's a simulationist and his world includes a lot of dungeons and your party is interested in dungeoneering, the shield TWF build works quite well for control in those areas, especially if you've got shield slam and greater bullrush and other party members who can profitably use the AoO's you give them.

How much knowledge does your GM generally afford monsters and NPCs? If you were to wear obvious holy symbols, carry a few spell component pouches and shout 'Desna is Greater', would any foes assume you were a cleric and prioritize you accordingly? Would using disguise on yourself actually matter in terms of how his monsters/npcs behave?

[R.Cornelius]

I'm personally running a 13th level phalanx fighter using a TWF and shield slam build and I do have to say it rocks with a halberd. Personally I's go with Build 2a or 2b, 2a seems to fit your idea perfectly and is very useful at shielding your squishier half. While with 2b the full movement in full plate is incredibly useful, at least in my opinion.

[obadiah]

The Swap Places teamwork feat could help with keeping you "in front" of the oracle. It would also draw an AoO against you which is one less your charge has to worry about. If this was mentioned above I apologize I tend to skim most posts.

[Cyberwolf2xs]

I just found the Steel Falcon PrC. Yay. I could slap two levels of that into most of these builds to let the aid another bonus start at +4 instead of +2. It undoubtedly stacks with Honor Guard and Battle Herald (since these are "improvements"), but it would probably conflict with the Cav OotD ability which substitutes the +2 for +3 (or higher).
So it's effectively +2 for all builds if it stacks or +1 in those with less than 8 levels of Cav OotD... So you could take another order all together.
The question remains: does it stack?

To EWHM:

Well... Our GM actually tries to let NPCs and monsters react rather realistically.
That said... If the enemies are stupid beasts, they'll mostly just run into my threatened area and try to attack everyone at random. But there will be some enemies who'd first need a reason to try to attack the oracle instead of the fighter in front of her, but there could also be some who go all "kill the caster first" - and those would probably rather attack the squishier looking oracle instead of the spiked-halfplate-covered, spiked-shield and polearm-wielding threat.
Thing is... If I don't have reach, then even while adjacent, there's always one side of my protégé completely open to attacks.

I think dungeon crawling and outdoor adventures are on par. Additionally, in our round, going into a dungeon is no guarantee that there won't be any large open areas, as much as running around outdoor is no guarantee that there won't be confined spaces. While I don't really like enlarge person I'd say you can't ever have too much reach.

I hope that helps. ;)

[Caedwyr]

If you want a very heavily bodyguard/defense oriented character and your DM lets you use 3rd Party Pathfinder RPG stuff, you might want to check out the Armiger from Super Genius Games. They've also got trio of defense/bodyguard oriented prestige classes in their Order of Vigilance product.

[EWHM]

Enlarge is huge--sorry about the pun---in terms of giving you stickiness. It might even be worth paying for a wand of enlarge to give to one of your party members to have it on tap.
But the big question I've got for you about your gm is how willing is he to eat your attacks of opportunity. If he's gunshy about them, and a LOT of gms are, just getting combat reflexes, regular enlarge, and maybe a reach weapon coupled with improved unarmed attack or the like will give you plenty of area control...enough at least to prevent foes from quickly closing with your charge.

If on the other hand he considers eating AoO just a cost of doing business, you will likely need to add something like improved/greater trip to your bag of tricks. Stand still looks nice on paper, but unfortunately they've got to be next to you (adjacent) AND it still takes a roll. It used to actually be useful in previous editions.

[RedPorcupine]

Dotted for interest... just thinking about Bodyguards for KM-Rulers.

Nobody mentioned Saving Shield yet, any specific reason for that? Or did i just overlook it?

How about concentrating on your shield more, with Shield Focus, maybe Missile Shield ?

The Bardiche would also a fitting weapon- brace And reach, d10 and better critical.

[Cyberwolf2xs]

Thanks for your thoughts so far.

@EWHM: I will definitely need some more tricks in my bag.
If my GM sends mindless beasts that just charge into melee anyway, he will probably make some of them tougher so that a single AoO-hit won't stop them, and if he sends intelligent enemies, he will probably have them try to outmaneuver me. In any case, he'll of course try to come up with some ways to provide a challenge I can't easily overcome by shouting "AoO!" all the time. ;)

@Caedwyr: Thanks, that class looks nice, but no 3rd party stuff is allowed in our group since we had some bad experience with it back in the early 3.5 era... ;)

@RedPorcupine: Saving Shield is out because I want to save that immediate action for In Harm's Way (which, as I now realize, is only in my tactic section and not in my feat list, where it should be too) because I personally like to have that kind of last resort ability.
Otherwise Sav Shield would be a good choice, of course.
And yeah, a bardiche is nice - I completely forgot it, don't know why. I still want to have a weapon with reach, brace and trip though... :/