GUARD your allies

[Rias]

Characters may now GUARD other characters (including NPCs!). Simply type GUARD [TARGET], i.e. GUARD RIAS or GUARD WOLF.

When you are guarding someone, you have a chance to intercept incoming attacks on them, switching the attacker's target to yourself instead of the person you're guarding. Chances of intercepting an attack are based on the General Combat skill of the attacker versus that of the guarder.

An example:

Didymus, Sarah and Jareth are in a room.
Didymus, feeling chivalrous, guards Sarah.
Jareth attacks Sarah.
Didymus successfully makes his guard check, so Jareth's attack targets Didymus instead of Sarah.

- Type GUARD by itself to see your guard status - whether you are guarding someone, or someone is guarding you.
- To stop actively guarding someone, type GUARD STOP.
- If either the guarder or guardee leaves the room, the guarding will be canceled.
- If you are being guarded and use a melee attack, you will push past your guard(s) and attack, causing you to no longer be guarded. Ranged attacks can be used as normal while remaining guarded.
- Multiple characters can guard a single target.

Be careful who you guard. If they decide to be treacherous and attack you while you're guarding them, your defense against their attack will be severely hindered. Thus it is not a good idea to guard, for instance, hostile NPCs.

While anyone can perform a GUARD, members of specific guilds (particularly Templar) will be particularly good at it and will be able to gain certain abilities that grant specific benefits to guarding others, such as attacks of opportunity that interrupt the original attack.