So, I've pretty much decided that the only reason to take the Tactician archetype of Fighter over, say, the Drill Sergeant or just playing a Cavalier is the Cooperative Combatant ability. But before I say more, I want to quote this ability.
At 11th level, when a tactician uses the aid another special attack, he may affect one additional ally per point of Intelligence bonus. For each ally that a tactician aids, he can pick whether to grant that ally the +2 bonus on its next attack against the opponent or the +2 bonus to AC against the opponent’s next attack on that ally, and can grant different allies different bonuses.
This ability replaces armor training 3.
Now, I have a few concerns about this ability.
1. By RAW, I assume that on a regular Aid Another special attack, you can only affect allies that are engaged in melee with a particular opponent, yes?
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.
So, with Cooperative Combatant, your allies have to be engaged in melee with an opponent that you can reach still, yes? Meaning that unless you have a party that loves getting into melee, Cooperative Combatant is pretty useless?
What about when you use the Bodyguard feat? Can you affect multiple allies with it, thus giving them more AC? (Of course, those allies would still have to be adjacent to you...) And I assume the issue is similar with the Vanguard Style feat?
Basically, are you only ever going to be able to affect people who are adjacent to you or an enemy with Cooperative Combatant, meaning your selection of valid targets is still very limited?
I'm also curious about this. Also, how does that interact with traits, class features, etc, that raise the Aid Another bonus? +2 is specifically called out, but that may just be because that's the normal value for it and Tactician wasn't written with those abilities in mind.
It states that when he uses Aid Another action (with the requirements mentioned), he can affect allies. It does not require the ally be engaged in melee with the opponent. However, any benefit only covers the interaction of the ally and the target enemy the aid another involved.
So he can aid the ranged folk gain +2 BAB or +2 AC once, but only involving that opponent.
/cevah