Help me with my cavalier, please.


Advice


Ok, so I'm in a PbP that started out as just running Hollow's Last Hope and has since finished it and begun to move on in different directions. It's a 6 player party with a fighter, a 2-handed ranger, a chirugeon, an inquisitor, and a bard making up the rest of the group. The game started out at a 20pt buy, and I went for making my character more well-rounded rather than trying to min-max towards any particular goal. He's a sword-and-board guy for the most part, and I'm trying to make him the party tank while still being an effective front line fighter. But so far about half of the fights have taken place without my mount being involved, which puts me at something of a disadvantage and makes me think I'd be better off trying to push towards mitigating damage to my allies and acting as front line support rather than trying to directly smash faces.

My system mastery is rather low though, so I don't exactly know the best way to go about it. We were told we would be hitting level 3 soon, and so with that I planned on taking Combat Reflexes and working towards Bodyguard at either level 5 or 6. I was leaning more towards taking it at level 6 due to not knowing what other combat feats would be of real use to me. Also, I was planning on getting myself a set of Benevolent armor to further increase the viability of Bodyguard even more than my improved aid another already does. But beyond doing that combo, which I only know about because I read it in another thread, I've got no clue where else to go with it.

Any suggestions?

Stat block in spoiler.

full statblock:

Michael Stamford
Male Human Cavalier 2
NG Medium Humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses Perception +5
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Defense
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AC 19, touch 12, flat-footed 17 (+5 armor, +2 shield, +2 Dex)
hp 25 (2d10+9)
Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +0
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Melee Heavy Shield Bash +5 (1d4+3/x2) and
. . Shortsword +5 (1d6+3/19-20/x2) and
. . Warhammer +5 (1d8+3/x3)
Ranged Longbow +4 (1d8/x3)
Special Attacks dragon's challenge +2 (1/day)
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Statistics
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Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 11, Cha 12
Base Atk +2; CMB +5; CMD 17
Feats Power Attack -1/+2, Precise Strike, Toughness
Traits Beast Bond (Ride), Tactician (1/day)
Skills Acrobatics -4 (-8 jump), Climb -3, Craft (carpentry) +3, Diplomacy +6, Escape Artist -4, Fly -4, Handle Animal +6, Intimidate +6, Perception +5, Ride +2, Sense Motive +5, Stealth -4, Survival +0 (+1 to provide food and water for allies or to protect allies from harsh weather), Swim -3; Racial Modifiers +6 ride while riding your bonded mount., dragon's skills
Languages Common, Elven
SQ aid allies +3, animal companion link, orders (order of the dragon), tactician (precise strike) 4 rds (1/day)
Other Gear Scale mail, Heavy wooden shield, Arrows (19), Longbow, Shortsword, Warhammer, 3 snake skins, Backpack (13 @ 19 lbs), Bedroll, Belt pouch (1 @ 0 lbs), Blanket, Flint and steel, Rope, Shield Sconce, Torch (4), Trail rations (5), Waterskin, Waterskin, Weapon cord, 4GP
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Special Abilities
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+6 Ride while riding your bonded mount. (Ex) Cancel your armor check penalty of -6 while riding your mount.
Aid Allies +3 (Ex) Aid Another grants +3
Animal Companion Link (Ex) You have a link with your Animal Companion.
Dragon's Challenge +2 (1/day) (Ex) +2 to damage target, -2 AC vs. others when used, allies gain +1 to hit the target of your challenge.
Dragon's Skills +1 (Ex) +1 to Survival checks for allies.
Power Attack -1/+2 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Precise Strike +1d6 precision damage for melee attacks if you and an ally with this feat flank the same target.
Tactician (1/day) Gain a +2 trait bonus on an attack of opportunity.
Tactician (Precise Strike) 4 rds (1/day) (Ex) Grant the use of your Tactical feats to your allies within 30'.
Weapon cord Attached weapon can be recovered as a swift action.


A Honor Guard / Strategist cavalier depends as little as possible on his mount. Combine it with Order of the dragon, the Benevolent enchantment and the Adopted: Helpful for an awesome aid another action.


Here STR Ranger has posted an interesting Honor Guard / Startegist cavalier, check it out. Also read the guide.


Unfortunately, changing traits is out of the question at this point. Changing archetypes may not be, given time to retrain in game, but I don't know if the GM will allow it or not. So for right now I'm looking for ideas on where to go with what I currently have.

I read the guide before I made my character originally, but it's apparently not completed yet and outside of a breakdown of orders, mounts, and archetypes it doesn't seem to have anything for actually playing the cavalier to its fullest.

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