Defensive Gear for a Bodyguard?

[Palanan]

I have a third-level fighter who will be serving as bodyguard to a traveling scholar. The fighter has 3000 gp available for armor and other gear, and I'm open to all official 3.5 and Pathfinder sources.

Given the focus on protecting the scholar, what would be some good items to consider?

.

[Celestia]

A bag of holding and a bottle of air. Throw both the bottle and the scholar in the bag.

[Efrate]

If you aren't married to the fighter chasis, the aegis or warder from dsp in pathfinder do the job better unless you have some real specific need a ton of feats build in mind.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Efrate
If you aren't married to the fighter chasis, the aegis or warder from dsp in pathfinder do the job better unless you have some real specific need a ton of feats build in mind.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm sticking with first-party material for this one. Right now I could really use suggestions for gear that would help him in the bodyguard role.

[Ashtagon]

Devoted Defender is a 3.0 class that specialises in doing exactly this. I believe somewhere there is also a feat that lets you use your shield to grant its bonus to an adjacent ally.

[Firest Kathon]

I believe somewhere there is also a feat that lets you use your shield to grant its bonus to an adjacent ally.

The feat is named Saving Shield (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/saving-shield-combat/).

[stack]

Not items, but Bodyguard (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/bodyguard-combat)and In Harm's Way (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/in-harm-s-way-combat/) feats might help. Tanking is tricky. Area control is usually the best bet in first-party material, which means reach weapon and tripping. The linked feats let you absorb some damage, letting you tank damage off-turn. Maybe if your GM is generous you can use intimidate or bluff to taunt enemies into attacking you (there are feats that do things like this, but if I recall they mostly stink).

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

The feat is named Saving Shield (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/saving-shield-combat/).

Theres one from 3.0 or 3.5 that lets you give an adjacent ally your full shield bonus, saw it last weekend, trying to find it again.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Torc of heroic sacrifice let's you take one hit a day for an ally.
Gold/DM permitting Shield Other with permanency.
Transposer cloak lets you switch places with an ally within 30' as a swift action 3/day

Those are beyond your 3k I think though

[Efrate]

item of benign trasportation? even only a few times a day might be worth. Cheese costs by only having it work for certain members of an organization of a certain race and alignment to keep costs down.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by DwarvenWarCorgi
Torc of heroic sacrifice let's you take one hit a day for an ally.

Where is this from? I can’t find a source other than what looks like a homebrew website.


Originally Posted by DwarvenWarCorgi
Transposer cloak lets you switch places with an ally within 30' as a swift action 3/day.

This is perfect, but way out of budget.

If I dropped the function to 1/day, what would that do to the price?


Originally Posted by Firest Kathon
The feat is named Saving Shield.


Originally Posted by stack
Not items, but Bodyguard and In Harm's Way feats might help.

All good suggestions, thanks.

[Telonius]

A bodyguard needs to be aware of a threat, and able to do something about it. Anything that increases your Spot and Listen skills is going to help; Sense Motive is also one that might potentially come up. The item of Benign Transposition is a good idea. An Anklet of Translocation is another relatively low-cost way of getting to a threat quickly.

A Hat of Disguise (to make you look like your employer, or vice versa) is a nice way to potentially confuse attackers. If you can boost your Disguise check, that's even better, since it's unaffected by True Seeing.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Telonius
The item of Benign Transposition is a good idea.

Any idea what the cost of this item would be?

Also, I’m very interested in the source for the Torc of Heroic Sacrifice, but I can’t find anything official.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Also, I’m very interested in the source for the Torc of Heroic Sacrifice, but I can’t find anything official.

Magic Item Compendium pg143, and its exactly 3k, so probably out of reach for a few levels

[Palanan]

Okay, thanks. Managed to miss that completely.

It's far above budget for now, but I'll definitely keep it in mind.

[Lapak]

Any idea what the cost of this item would be?

Also, I’m very interested in the source for the Torc of Heroic Sacrifice, but I can’t find anything official.A custom 1/day command word Benign Transposition item should be 1 (CL) × 1 (SL) × 1,800 (Command Word) / 5 (1 charge/day) = 360 if I am doing this right.

But that is rough custom item pricing and would need approval. It's a bargain for the potential effect.

Edit: that's standard action activation, mind, part of why it is cheaper than the swift-action 3/day cloak above.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Okay, thanks. Managed to miss that completely.

It's far above budget for now, but I'll definitely keep it in mind.

You're welcome.

Can't find that feat I was talking about. I believe it was worded something like, "as a swift action during combat you may assign your shield bonus to an adjacent ally instead of yourself". But it's eluding me now. I did find "Allied Defense" from Shining South: whenever you use the Combat Expertise feat to gain a bonus to your AC in combat, the bonus also applies to an adjacent ally [sic]".

That could work nicely in a fighter/bodyguard build.

[Efrate]

Also from pathfinder 1st party are in harm's way and bodyguard feats.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/in-harm-s-way-combat/

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/bodyguard-combat/

[Efrate]

Also an item of wall of blades would not be remiss.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by DwarvenWarCorgi
I did find "Allied Defense" from Shining South….

Nice catch, worth adding to the list.


Originally Posted by Efrate
Also from pathfinder 1st party are in harm's way and bodyguard feats.

Stack scooped you on these. :smallsmile:


Originally Posted by Lapak
A custom 1/day command word Benign Transposition item should be 1 (CL) × 1 (SL) × 1,800 (Command Word) / 5 (1 charge/day) = 360 if I am doing this right.


Originally Posted by Efrate
Also an item of wall of blades would not be remiss.

Good suggestions on these, although the custom pricing rules seem like an adventure in themselves. :smalleek: