building a bodyguard

[King of Nowhere]

the bodyguard, the warder, the protector.

the guy who is in charge of protecting the other guy. the guy who will cover his protegè with the shield, will parry attacks directed at him, will push him out of the line of fire, will even shield with his body in the extreme case.
that's a concept that's almost entirely missing in this game. perhaps because so many people are so focused on how much they can be cool on their own, or at least i get this impression from some arguments about sharing buffs with the team or gobbling them up .

anyway, if you are standing near your ally, you cannot protect him. you can just watch as he is killed. you can be caught in the same area of effects. Recently, for unrelated reasons, i came across some material that may allow otherwise

There's a rarely discussed version of this in Dragon #310, the "Bodyguard" fighter variant. It's pretty helpful: you get Diplomacy, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot as class skills and the 'Cover' special ability (which replaces a fighter feat) allows you to apply your shield bonus and combat expertise bonus to another character. Furthermore, these explicitly stack. A different approach to a similar effect is the Allied Defense feat from Shining South. That allows you to apply combat expertise to all adjacent allies (including yourself).

and it got me intrigued. My villains tend to have many human qualities and to form tightly knit groups that would stick for each other and with their cause. The reasoning behind it is that those are the successful villains; the villains who cannot inspire loialty in their minions, whose lieutnants are willing to backstab them for power, are villains who won't go far. at most, they can aspire to become joke villains and showcase, through their incompetence and disfunctionality, how much more dangerous the main villains are.

anyway, I would like to have some dedicated bodyguard.

So, bodyguard variant is a good starting point to give a nice AC bonus to your allies. A shield of arrow catching is another useful resources, and will be useful as at least one pc is specializing in ranged attacks.
however, there is nothing i know to shield an ally from magic, which would be the most important part. I want my bodyguard to jump on top of his mark when the fireball explodes. I want him to put himself in front of a disintegrate ray meant for his ally, to provide a morale bonus to saving throws just by being near.

what resources are there to do it? how can i build a character who's entirely dedicated to keeping another one alive?

P.S. being a caster and buffing would help, but it certainly lacks the flare of shielding your ally with your own body. I want the character who shields the ally with his body. those npcs will anyway be resourceful enough that they will have buff spells anyway.

[H_H_F_F]

For completely martial options, I think you'll find the Knight Protector (complete warrior) does this by giving up their AC for the person they want to defend - though it's limited to allies with lower HD.
Another maneuver would be taking The hindering opportunist and stalwart defense feats from PHBII, which let you aid another as an AOO provoked by the enemy attacing an ally. Anything boosting aid another would help with that - like Purple Dragon Knight, also from complete warrior.

[Thurbane]

DotU has some feats aligned to this type of thing: Constant Guardian & Dutiful Guardian.

The Tactical Soldier PrC (MH) also has some class features that mesh with being a bodyguard.

[ShurikVch]

Devoted Defender PrC (Sword and Fist)

Dragon #339 has Body Guard feat, which allow to make saving throws for other people (as long as they're withing 5' of your character, and agree to it)

[Doctor Despair]

Master of Mockery is good for forcing people to ignore your allies

Dutiful Guardian has a funny interaction with an Acorn of Far Travel

[King of Nowhere]

Dragon #339 has Body Guard feat, which allow to make saving throws for other people (as long as they're withing 5' of your character, and agree to it)

that's the first magical defence, but it seems way too overpowered - and at the same time inadequate to my situation, because i envision a bodyguard of lower level

[Seerow]

There's a lot of tricks to improve your bonus for fighting defensively, I would focus on boosting that.

You already have Cover to give up your bonus to grant it to an adjacent ally. The Allied Defense feat grants your combat expertise bonus to all adjacent allies. Arguably, since it's a dodge bonus, coming from different sources, this should stack. Doubling up on that is plenty to take them into unhittable range.

For saving throws, is working some Paladin in there an option? Gift of Grace lets you transfer your divine grace to another creature, so the bodyguard could be giving their wizard a pretty hefty bonus to all saves. It is an exalted feat which is an issue for a villain, but as the DM I assume fudging something like that is not out of the question.

Edit: Also Dutiful Guardian that someone else mentioned above should work against any magical attacks that require an attack roll. So stuff like jumping in front of disintegrate he could totally do with that.

Sadly not a lot of ways I can think of to make him actually bat back a fireball or other AoE effect, or force single target save effects to target him instead, short of some sort of custom magic item.

[Telonius]

Just got done watching some Haven, and I'm playing with the idea of a Cursed Item. The "Armor of Arrow Attraction" makes you vulnerable to ranged attacks. But what if you had an "Opposite Effect" cursed item of Deflect Arrows? Such that ranged attacks would actually be redirected to you instead of their intended target. A bodyguard with an item like that could literally take an arrow for their employer.

[Draconi Redfir]

i would personally look into the "Inspiring commander" archetype for the Pathfinder Cavalier for inspiration. Particularly with the whole Teamwork Feat thing.

Inspiring Commander effectively allows the party to have access to teamwork feats without actually needing to take them themselves. so if your inspiring commander bodyguard has a teamwork feat that allows the two users to switch places as a swift action then he can temporarily give that feat to any party member even if they don't meet the prerequisites. this can allow the commander to swap places with a party member without issue. Also handy for feats that allow one user to give the other a portion of their armor or shield AC, to reflect the commander getting in the way of the attack to try and protect the other character.

From the looks of things, the teamwork feat thing isn't even just limited to the commander and someone else. the entire party has access to the feats, so you could swap places with your bodyguard while other members of your party also swap places with eachother.

ability to use "Aid another" from a range is also pretty helpful.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

The Devoted Defender prestige class would be my go-to for this concept. Level 1 lets you shuffle allies out of the way of danger while taking the attack in their place, level 2 lets you parry attacks directed at allies, and level 3 lets you retaliate with attacks of opportunity against anyone that attacks your charge (in addition to shuffling them out of the way and parrying the attack, if you so choose). There's a lot of optimization you can do on AoOs to up your damage, but it's not very relevant to the idea of being a body guard.

The Crusader base class is my other go-to for building tanks. At level 1 you can grab Iron Guard's Glare to give enemies penalties on attacking adjacent allies just by glaring menacingly (this doesn't require an action, and -4 to attack is nothing to sneeze at), and at level 3 (or level 1 if you've already got 4 levels in another class) you can grab your first active defense in Shield Block.

You may also be interested in the Knight base class, which lets you challenge enemies, forcing them to attack only you. Unfortunately, from what I understand this scales badly, not least because it only increases with Knight levels.

[Biggus]

Probably not what you're looking for, but there's the epic prestige class Guardian Paramount. You'd have to take a few levels of Rogue or something to meet the prerequisites though.

[Caylin]

If the bodyguard is dragonborn you can get a lot of mileage out of: wings of cover.

[daremetoidareyo]

Piggy had a dancing with shadows kalashtar build using improved expertise that got the AC mad high, which pairs with the Guardian feats well

[tiercel]

P.S. being a caster and buffing would help, but it certainly lacks the flare of shielding your ally with your own body. I want the character who shields the ally with his body. those npcs will anyway be resourceful enough that they will have buff spells anyway.

The irony is that the shield other spell allows one to shield an ally with one’s own body hp total even when not adjacent, so a simple buff/heal cleric who always keeps shield other up may do a better job than a nervously adjacent Big Old Shield carrier.

I’d really think benign transposition would be another standout; though it’s Sor/Wiz, it’s very wandable, if your build has the UMD for it, or Magic domain, or even a 1-level dip.

Heck, resurgence (also eminently wandable) seems like another resource that’s Really Very Useful for a bodyguard-type to have.

I realize “buffshield Cleric” doesn’t satisfy the traditional bodyguard image so much, but presumably one could stack some bodyguarding paraphernalia onto a Cleric build [notably, Martial Study: Shield Block at 6th level] or, squeeze shield other onto a more classic bodyguard build (though that’s either a lot of UMD uses of wand charges or a nontrivially expensive pair of rings).

[King of Nowhere]

The irony is that the shield other spell allows one to shield an ally with one’s own body hp total even when not adjacent, so a simple buff/heal cleric who always keeps shield other up may do a better job than a nervously adjacent Big Old Shield carrier.

I’d really think benign transposition would be another standout; though it’s Sor/Wiz, it’s very wandable, if your build has the UMD for it, or Magic domain, or even a 1-level dip.

Heck, resurgence (also eminently wandable) seems like another resource that’s Really Very Useful for a bodyguard-type to have.

I realize “buffshield Cleric” doesn’t satisfy the traditional bodyguard image so much, but presumably one could stack some bodyguarding paraphernalia onto a Cleric build [notably, Martial Study: Shield Block at 6th level] or, squeeze shield other onto a more classic bodyguard build (though that’s either a lot of UMD uses of wand charges or a nontrivially expensive pair of rings).

yes, shield others was on my to-do list, but it's only 2nd level, so it's easy to get. even a 3 level cleric splat would be acceptable. benign transposition is available as a martial effect from the bodyguard prc as an immediate action, so no need to cast for it. by the way, how can a teleportation effect be 1st level?

[Efrate]

If 3pp pathfinder is on the table a warder from DSP is kind of the penultimate guardian, especially with some well chosen iron tortoise or eternal guardian maneuvers.

[Maat Mons]

A one-level dip in Marshal could get a bodyguard either the ability to give allies a bonus on Fortitude saves, or the ability to give allies a bonus on Will saves. If you have two body guards, you can benefit from both.

The Destiny domain granted power would let a bodyguard grant someone else a reroll 1/day. He wouldn't even need a Cleric level, just the Planar Touchstone feat. And if you have two bodyguards, each one can give you a reroll every day.

One possible source of Shield Other is Armor of the Dread Emperor. It's not too expensive, but being chained to four other people could cause logistical issues. Like, do you try to time bathroom visits so that everyone relieves themselves at once?

[King of Nowhere]

ok, so i made a partial project that goes like that

paladin 2, marshal 1, cleric 3, devoted defender 3, tactical soldier 4
(note: i houseruled that paladins serve deities, so they can be of any alignment as long as they have an appropriate patron. the good-based abilities and spells are changed accordingly)

feats: gift of grace, combat expertise, allied defense, constant guardian, 2 more

he fights with sword and shield.
- the shield is arrow attraction, so he protects his mark from ranged attacks.
- with gift of grace, he give the charisma bonus to saving throws to his mark
- as marshal he boosts another saving throw, still to be determined
- as cleric, he casts shield others. maybe i should swap that with an item, a 3 level splash is quite a waste otherwise. i may swap that out for a level of fighter bodyguard variant for cover. then again, his mark is rich enough to get an animated shield, is it really worth losing his entire shield bonus to slightly improve another? probably not
- as devoted defender he can interpose (whether he can do it with ray attacks is up to interpretation, but i'd say he can). then again, given how much this guy will boost his mark just by being there, maybe it's better to not interpose after all
- he can also interpose as tactical soldier, when the mark is actually hit. that's probably better, as it can use the mark's high armor class.
- he also gets, once per round, to make a saving throw to negate an attack against his mark
- he fights defensively all the time, with weapon expertise maxed, and sacrificing a -2 to constant guardian. this gives his mark a +9 AC.
- furthermore, with flanker he also can provide flanking bonus to his mark despite being adjacent.

any other perks i'm missing that i can slap in here?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

any other perks i'm missing that i can slap in here?

Once you reach 6th level, the feat Martial Study (Shield Block) lets you give +4 AC to an adjacent ally as an immediate action once per encounter. (Dipping Crusader at 5th level or later lets you pick it up without a feat, and recover it potentially within a few rounds... but how Crusaders get maneuvers is a little weird, so you're not guaranteed to have access to it in the 1st round of combat.)

If you do that, the feat Martial Stance (Iron Guard's Glare) gives any opponent you threaten a -4 penalty to attacking your allies. Doesn't require an action, always on. (This one can also be picked up with a Crusader 1 dip at any time without needing either feat).

[ShurikVch]

Sacred Warder of Bahamut (Draconomicon) gets Area Sacred Shield as a capstone.
It's usable 3/day, covers 30' radius, and absorbs 120 points of damage from any possible source (except those which shouldn't hurt anyway - say, because of immunities).
But since it's 12-levels-long PrC with BAB 15 requirement, you wouldn't get it pre-Epic without some cheese (draconic ignore of requirements, negative LA, two levels in Emancipated Spawn PrC, etc)

[Toliudar]

Presumably the caster version of this would be a divination and abjuration focused wizard or cleric - to see the threats coming before they land - with otiluke's resilient sphere for when the threats actually arrive.

[Falontani]

Did someone say bodyguard?!?

Least Dragonmark of the Sentinel has Shield Other 1/day CL 1.
with 4 levels in a decent class (Dragonmarked Heir) we can get this to 4/day CL 14 (and this is done by level 8)
this also gives you Lesser Globe of Invulnerability 3/day and Globe of Invulnerability 1/day, which can block spells of level 4 and below (fireball!)
the class is all good saves, 3/4ths bab, and 4+int mod, so if you aren't needing caster classes, it is a decent add in to any build, and it only costs you your level 1 feat and human bonus feat. (and 4 levels I guess)

From Forge of War we have Protective Interposition, which as a swift action lets you swap places with an ally within touch range, and grant them some bonuses for a round.

[ShurikVch]

Dragon #301 has Parry feat line; Protective Parry feat allow to parry hits intended for other creatures (withing your threatened range)