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I want to try the Guardian out but I'm just not seeing how I would use this or build around it? I'm out of ideas can I have some help?
I can save a bit of damage which I can take instead of an ally. I mean that has some use value but I still will end up taking most of the damage. It just seems worse than Reactive Strike or all the Champion Reactions so any sane player is going to take one of those reactions instead.
Why doesn't the Guardian get something decent like DEFENSIVE SWAP instead?
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Why doesn't the Guardian get something decent like DEFENSIVE SWAP instead?
It is kinda baffling that the Commander gets access to a near straight upgrade to one of the Guardian's key features. Definitely an odd choice.
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So here's my theory: Paizo wanted to have their cake and eat it too by giving the Guardian both top-tier AC via their armor progression, and top-tier damage soaking via greater armor specialization. Turns out, being the game's best soak tank and the game's best avoidance tank at the same time would make for a class that's far too spongy, so the Guardian's core features ended up having to degrade those strengths, in particular by bypassing or reducing the benefits of their armor.
I could be wrong, but all of this is to say that Defensive Swap, or simply being able to Leap to the target of your Intercept Strike, would have both been much better alternatives to a reaction that both has you take damage and requires you to already be adjacent to your ally. I'd much rather strip the Guardian of some of its more excessive and passive power if it meant having access to an interception mechanic that redirected attacks to their AC, and perhaps also a taunt that also didn't reduce their effective AC at level 1 to that of a Wizard.
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I'm not going to try to theorize why the designers did this. But the idea of Intercept Strike is to protect your ally who is fighting alongside you (usually that rogue with Gang Up who uses his reactions to attack together every time you attack).
And that's it, the use of the reaction was restricted to protecting an ally from an enemy that eventually tries to hit him, because the mechanic to stop attacking him is already in the Taunt (which is terrible for the economy of actions as a whole).
That's why in another thread I even suggested removing the bonus for the enemy and making a Taunt a free action or part of the Intercept Strike (the latter would make it very similar to the effect of Glimpse of Redemption), I know it would be a very lame solution for basically making the Guardian an undivine Redeemer. But honestly as it stands, the Guardian is basically operating as a difficult Tank to make it worthwhile. He's not good for hitting because he doesn't have anything really offensive (apart from that ridiculous +2 to +6 bonus), and the two standard mechanics that serve to protect allies put him in a very bad self-sacrifice situation.