Meet the Guardian
“Danger up ahead. You might want to get behind me…”
Grab your shield, your helmet, and your heaviest armour: it’s time to learn about the stalwart Guardian.
Background
With threats around every corner, you’re always going to want someone tough in front of you when venturing into the Tempest, and that is exactly what a Guardian provides. Adorned with heavy armour, a glowing shield and the confident swagger only a peerless defender can have, a Guardian strides forward into danger without hesitation.
Appearance
For Guardians, armour will never go out of fashion – but it will always be in a state of evolution as it adapts to the ever-changing nature of warfare on the Continent. Heavy metals come and go in response to sharp, slashing weapons. Flame-proofing enchantments rise and fall in popularity along with the fire-based attacks they protect against. And so on.
The point is, the way “heavy” armour looks can be very different from one fighter to the next.
Guardians take up all manner of melee weapons, but often prefer spears and staves.
Guardians almost unanimously equip shields. In fact, a Guardian’s shield is usually their most prized possession. With it, they channel magic as well as protect themselves and their allies from harm.
Rules
The Guardian is tough. Real tough. At Toughness 7 with Armour 2, they can laugh off most attacks without even needing to use their Deflect bonus of 2 – which brings them up to a rock-solid Armour 4!
They pay for this toughness in mobility, however. Movement 4 won’t get them anywhere in a hurry, and Dodge 2 won’t help against any but the most innaccurate attacks.
Getting your Guardian into the right position is important for making good use of their abilities: Defend and Ward.
Defend is pretty simple – you just have to understand how lines of attack (18.1) work.
This fighter’s base is treated as being 2” wide for the purposes of determining lines of attack on friendly fighters.
This means that the Guardian is effectively twice as wide as other fighters, letting them get in the way of attacks on their allies easily. Said allies, meanwhile, can shoot past their Guardian friend with impunity.
Ward: Planting their shield in the ground and channelling forth the Wind of Death, the Guardian provides a bubble of protection to their allies – for as long as they remain still.
Until this fighter’s next Action, visible other friendly fighters within 2” are treated as being in cover (Core Rules, 18.2) when attacked.
Conclusion
The Guardian is an invaluable tool in any scenario that requires defending a position or object, or is just a great way to generally improve your warband’s survival chances!
Next week, we have a particularly keen-eyed fighter in our sights…