How to be an efficient bodyguard?

[Berenger]

Hello, my group started a D&D 3.5 campaign set in classical greece and my character is the bodyguard of another players character. Since this is my first actual D&D experience, I'd appreciate some advice how to do this - feats, items, tactics, whatever, I'm open to all suggestions. My (ingame and ooc) goal is to keep that other character alive and preferrably completely unharmed.

The bodyguard is a Human Ranger 1, STR 16, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 8, WIS 13, CHA 8. I ignored all "nature guy" skills and put most ranks in Listen and Spot (to detect danger in time), Climb and Swim (for mobility) and Heal (if all else fails) instead. His main armament are longspear (to threaten and intercept enemies before they reach the protected person) and heavy shield (to protect himself and his charge) with a scimitar and short bow as secondary armament. Feats are Shield and Spear to make that longspear / shield combo legal and Saving Shield from Pathfinder to give +2 AC to an adjacent ally. Currently, I plan to make my next feat Improved Animal Companion to beef up the guard dog I'm planning to get.

The protected character is Half-Elf Sorcerer 1. I already sold her player on the Look Harmless feat to redirect enemy attention to my Ranger.

Am I doing this right so far and where do I go from here, apart from hoarding healing potions and getting her a mithral chain shirt?

[flappeercraft]

IMO the best bodyguards have their first level in Commoner and the rest of their levels in Crusader. This is because with Commoner you can take the Delicious flaw (Dragon Mag 330) which makes every monster that can, be forced to attack you, plus because of it being a flaw you get a bonus feat. Problem being you will be squishy for a level. After that Crusader levels because they have D12 HP and their stances/maneuvers are also pretty for tanking.

[Eldariel]

What sources are you working with? Good choice on Ranger instead of Fighter or company if you're playing a coreish game (just Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide & Monster Manual); Ranger is definitely the best non-caster class (Cleric would probably be the only better option) for this job in PHB thanks to the skills. Though those skills aren't really that big that long; Tumble might be interesting, Handle Animal for a guard dog to watch for invisible enemies might be interesting, Ride (mount can be used as cover and mobility can be big) can be useful, and Heal is better done via. magic (Scroll of Cure Light Wounds does more than almost any Heal-check and costs 25gp - Wand of Cure Light Wounds has you set for 265hp of healing at 750gp) which you can naturally use thanks to Rangers getting spellcasting later.

You could carry a reach weapon like Guisarme to threaten 10' and trip any enemies trying to get near your charge, and of course this would have you invest in Improved Trip and Combat Reflexes ASAP. This is the only real way to "tank" in the game without additional material (Cleric spell "Shield Other" is quite useful though), but if you have access to the book "Tome of Battle", the Crusader-class is indeed better suited for this job. Other than that, you have made fairly good choices thus far and more Ranger would definitely work.

[ShurikVch]

This is because with Commoner you can take the Delicious flaw (Dragon Mag 330) which makes every monster that can, be forced to attack you, plus because of it being a flaw you get a bonus feat. Problem being you will be squishy for a level.The "Weresheep" flaw (from the same article) is better: it gives effect of Delicious when you're change form, but your hybrid form gets +2 Dex/Con, +1 natural AC, and DR 5/silver
Or is it - 10/silver? Flaw doesn't specified what sort of lycanthrope is Weresheep...
(Heck! Blacktooth Weresheep: +8 natural AC, DR 10/silver and magic, and SR 10+HD!)

[flappeercraft]

The "Weresheep" flaw (from the same article) is better: it gives effect of Delicious when you're change form, but your hybrid form gets +2 Dex/Con, +1 natural AC, and DR 5/silver
Or is it - 10/silver? Flaw doesn't specified what sort of lycanthrope is Weresheep...
(Heck! Blacktooth Weresheep: +8 natural AC, DR 10/silver and magic, and SR 10+HD!)

I know of that, I was just going with something that wasn't broken. Honestly Weresheep is only bonuses and a bonus feat.

[Fizban]

Taking Constant Guardian and Dutiful Guardian from Drow of the Underdark will give you the ability to switch places with your ward in response to an attack (10' range). It's no magic, but it will let you get between them and the most dangerous melee attacker pretty dang reliably. Remember that if you're standing between someone and the enemy attacking them, even if the enemy has reach you still provide soft cover for another +4 AC and preventing AoOs (unless the enemy is tall enough to reach completely over you- and there's magic that can make you bigger too). So that can be +6 AC even if you can't stop the attack.

If you take Combat Expertise and Allied Defense (from Shining South), allies adjacent to you will get the AC bonus from Combat Expertise- you all gain the benefit, but only you take the penalty. Up to +5 AC (or +10 with Improved Combat Expertise from Complete Warrior) is a lot. And all of these AC bonuses are either dodge or cover, making them work against touch attacks.

You don't need to wait for Animal Companion to buy a guard dog- you can get one now and just promote it to companion later. Mithril Chain Shirt still has 10% ASF, so you'll need to use more splats if you don't want to mess up their casting. It can be done non-magically, but I'm not convinced your game is high enough op for that to be necessary, so just using the Twilight armor ability (in a few books, including Magic Item Compendium) should be enough. They'll need more than that if they want to actually walk around on the front though, a Shield spell at least.

All of the above feats stack with what a Crusader can do- Iron Guard's Glare to give -4 attack to adjacent enemies trying to attack anyone but the Crusader and healing maneuvers that heal other people. The only conflict is that you can't use Dutiful Guardian and Shield Block (gives your ally extra AC vs an attack of 4+ your shield bonus) at the same time, since they both cost an immediate action.

A pair of Chains of Shield Other from Ghostwalk will let you use a Shield Other effect 1/day, taking half their damage, though the Shield Other spell requires you to stay within close range or it ends immediately. Useful if for some reason your usual defenses don't apply and sharing damage would help.

[ShurikVch]

I know of that, I was just going with something that wasn't broken.The possible problem of constant Delicious flaw is: it may completely ruin any chances on peaceful interaction with monsters
It may even obstruct the "stealthy approach", because DM may give monsters circumstance bonus to detect you - because you're "smell Delicious" :smallwink:

Honestly Weresheep is only bonuses and a bonus feat.Isn't the whole that article more or less like that?

XP Farm is literally a bonus feat for no downsides
Nagging Cough is a free feat for Cancer Mage
Chicken Infested is so good even TO Wizards are spending their 1st level as Commoners to get it
And Pig Bond gives you Orcus!!!

Even the Unimportant NPC is kinda neat - it have real downsides, but since you "have no name", nobody would be able to use magic which involves name on you, and lack of treasures may be mitigated by taking levels in Druid or Totemist (VoP optional)

[Anthrowhale]

If you take Combat Expertise and Allied Defense (from Shining South), allies adjacent to you will get the AC bonus from Combat Expertise- you all gain the benefit, but only you take the penalty. Up to +5 AC (or +10 with Improved Combat Expertise from Complete Warrior) is a lot. And all of these AC bonuses are either dodge or cover, making them work against touch attacks.

Improved Combat Expertise actually works up to full BAB.

Divine Prankster 5 has "Enrage Enemies" which is a 90' multitarget supernatural save vs a Perform(Comedy) result that forces enemies to melee for several rounds. The Perform check can be made very high so the save becomes impossible vs. any reasonable enemy. The required concentration action can be made Swift via the "Swift Concentration" action. The only remaining downside is that it is explicitly mind-affecting.

[ShurikVch]

Dragon #310 have "Bodyguard" - Fighter variant; Cover CF allow to transfer your Shield or Dodge AC bonus to a creature in an adjacent hex

Devoted Defender PrC (Sword and Fist): Harm's Way CF allow to switch places with your charge, when your charge within 5' of you and suffers an attack; Defensive Strike gives you AoO vs enemy who attacks your charge in melee; Deflect Attack allow 1/turn make Ref save to negate a hit with a melee weapon against your charge (if she's within 5')

[Darrin]

Huh. I could have sworn we had done an Iron Chef round with Devoted Defender, but all I could find was the Shiba Protector (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?420165-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIX/page4) round. That wasn't a particularly strong round, though.