Introduction

The PF2 Guardian’s feats are primarily focused on durability and on defending their allies, though there are a handful of feats which offer new offensive options. Many feats offer new or improved Reactions, especially around using shields.

Table of Contents

Understanding RPGBOT’s Rating System

RPGBOT uses a 4-tier rating scheme which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Guardian Class Feats

1st-Level Guardian Feats

  • Bodyguard (Ba!): The usefulness of this feat diminishes as your party grows in size. In a small party when enemies have few potential targets, this is great. In a large party with numerous targets, enemies have enough other targets that they won’t care. I would only consider this in a party of 3 or fewer players with no pets.
  • Defensive Advance (Ba!): This is really good at level 1, but quickly becomes obsolete as you get other Action compression options like Shielding Taunt which will offer similar compression with more versatility.
  • Larger Than Life (Ba!): Essential if you plan to rely heavily on special attacks in combat.

    Note that this only functions while you’re wearing heavy armor. For Large Guardians, this makes you immune to maneuvers from medium opponents.

  • Long-Distance Taunt (Ba!): Only helpful if you’re frequently in fights that take place over a wide area. If you’re crawling dungeons most of the time, this is useless. Even if you’re fighting outdoors, most fights take place in tighter quarters than this.
  • Punishing Shove (Ba!): The damage makes it easier to Shove instead of making a Strike. The damage isn’t amazing, but it scales enough that it will still feel impactful.
  • Reactive Shield (Ba!): Raising a shield costs an Action, which is a difficult commitment when an extra attack seems more useful, or when you need to Stride and also hit some stuff. This is a good fallback, but if you’re committed to using a shield, you’re probably counting on using the Shield Block Reaction, which will conflict with this until you get Quick Shield Block. If you’re not actively using Shield Block and still want the AC bonus, use Farabellus Flip if it’s available to you.

    Once you reach level 7 and get Reaction Time, you’ll be able to use both Reactive Shield and Shield Block in a single round. Unfortunately, you can’t use them against the same attack since you can still only perform one Reaction in response to a given trigger.

    However, you can also get this feat by taking the Bastion Dedication feat, so strongly consider that instead.

  • Shield Warfare (Ba!): A paltry amount of additional damage. You might retrain into this at high levels if your low-level feats have become obsolete, but it’s not impactful enough to justify at low levels when you have few feats to lean on.
  • Shoulder Check (Ba!): This relies on you being good at fist unarmed strikes or having your gauntlet enhanced to be a worthwhile weapon. If that’s you, this is strictly better than a regular Strike. Unfortunately, the Success benefit is only impactful if you make multiple Strikes in a single turn.

2nd-Level Guardian Feats

  • Aggressive Block (Ba!): A fantastic improvement to Shield Block, especially once you have Reaction Time and can use this multiple times per round.

    Larger Than Life appears to affect this feat, so taking the two together will make Aggressive Block more impactful.

  • Covering Stance (Ba!): Lesser Cover is +1 to AC and +2 to Reflex saves. Those are decent benefits, plus your ally might get a free Step if enemies still attack them.
  • Hampering Stance (Ba!): A great way to prevent enemies from moving past you to reach your allies. This is especially useful if you’re Large because you’ll cover a considerably larger area.
  • Phalanx Formation (Ba!): Standing between allies and enemies to provide cover is an easy way to defend your allies without leaning on stuff like Covering Stance, but it also blocks allies’ attacks. If your allies have ranged attacks or reach weapons, this allows you to interpose yourself without impeding your allies.
  • Raise Haft (Ba!): Two-handed weapons, especially those with reach, are great for the Guardian because you have more flexibility to remain near your allies while still able to reach your enemies. But using them means giving up a shield, which is a lot of potential AC to sacrifice. Raise Haft and a Parry weapon close that gap. Unfortunately, your list of options is small and mostly weak.
  • Shield Your Eyes (Ba!): Too situational.
  • Shielding Taunt (Ba!): Excellent Action compression for Actions which you’re likely to use almost every turn. If you’re not using a shield, strongly consider Taunting Strike.
  • Taunting Strike (Ba!): Good, but difficult to use at range unless your primary weapon is built for throwing or you have reach. If you’re using a shield, take Shileding Taunt instead.

4th-Level Guardian Feats

  • Area Armor (Ba!): Even more motivation for allies to stand adjacent to you so that you can use Intercept Attack reliably. Remember that this is a Circumstance bonus, so it won’t stack with cover. But given the choice between this and Energy Intercepter, Energy Intercepter will be more impactful against the majority of effects which would damage your allies.
  • Armored Courage (Ba!): 1 Action for as much additional durability as Toughness, it reduces Frightened, and you can use it once per hour.
  • Energy Interceptor (Ba!): Great for protecting your party from spells and other effects, but you might take the damage twice depending on the source of damage. If you take this, look for ways to get Resistance to common energy damage types like fire and cold.
  • Flying Tackle (Ba!): Only situationally useful, but a great way to quickly get into melee with an enemy. For two Actions you get to Stride, Leap in some fashion, and then Trip. But if you’re close enough to Stride into melee, there’s no real benefit here. Upgrading a Success on your Trip to a Critical Success gets you 1d6 damage, and that’s not enough to make this exciting.
  • Not So Fast! (Ba!): Not as broadly useful as Reactive Strike, but you impose a speed penalty in exchange for this not affective Manipulate actions. You need to be in Hampering Stance to use this, and between the two you become very difficult to move past. I would only take this if you’re using a Reach weapon, though. With Reach and Hampering Stance, you can block a huge area and make it difficult for enemies to approach you or to move past you to reach your allies.
  • Proud Nail (Ba!): It’s difficult to predict how often you’ll be able to use this since it’s so dependent on subjective choices made by your GM when they play enemies in combat. If you’re using Taunt and then intentionally making yourself hard to target directly, that could make this very effective. If you have other allies in melee with you, you can use Intercept Attack to still take attacks for your allies, then still use Proud Nail becuas the Strike wasn’t made against you.
  • Shielded Attrition (Ba!): Too situational. To justify this, you need there to be multiple enemies with something like Reactive Strike in an area which would prevent your ally from getting away by other means like Step.

6th-Level Guardian Feats

  • Disarming Intercept (Ba!): Disarm as a Free Action, you don’t need a free hand, and you don’t need your weapon to have the Disarm property. The only thing keeping this from being blue is that so many enemies don’t depend on manufactured weapons, so they can’t be disarmed.
  • Guarded Advance (Ba!): Spectacular action compression.
  • Lock Down (Ba!): You need to be in Hampering Stance to use this, making this amazing if you’re not using a Reach weapon. Your enemy won’t be able to move out of your 5-foot radius of Difficult Terrain, which means that they won’t be able to Step and their Strides won’t get them very far.
  • Reactive Strike (Ba!): Consistently amazing on any martial character, and especially great on the Guardian since you’ll get Reaction Time at level 7. It’s entirely possible to use this against the same creature twice in a single round.
  • Reflexive Shield (Ba!): Being gradually worked down by damage behind Reflex saves is a weakness for the Guardian. This patches that weakness.
  • Retaliating Rescue (Ba!): Only situationally useful. You can only use this when an ally is in melee and doesn’t want to be. That happens occasionally, but that’s what our orange rating is for. When it does happen, this is good action compression with a helpful attack bonus attached.
  • Ring Their Bell (Ba!): You can only use this when enemies choose to ignore you and this has strict, so this is only situationally useful. Then when it does apply, the effect still allows a saving throw, so you have two points of failure. The effect is excellent if it does work, but the odds of it working are frustratingly low. To get the most out of this you’ll want to position yourself so that your taunted target will struggle to reach you, making it more likely that they’ll still attack your allies.
  • Stomp Ground (Ba!): If you’re being attacked by multiple melee enemies, this could be a good way to trade Actions. But you need to be fighting at least 2 (preferably 3) enemies in melee to justify the Action cost, and then those enemies still get to make a saving throw. The Success effect is largely useless to you since you’re spending 2 of your 3 Actions to use it, leaving just 1 to potentially Strike something, so you really need enemies to fail for this to be worthwhile.

8th-Level Guardian Feats

  • Group Taunt (Ba!): A dramatic improvement to Taunt and to anything that relies on Taunt.
  • Juggernaut Charge (Ba!): An amazing combination of action compression and forced movement. You can use this to drag enemies away from your allies or into dangerous positions, such as into an ongoing area effect or into position for your allies to hit them with an AOE spell.
  • Mighty Bulwark (Ba!): Most, but not all, Reflex saves are to resist damage. The +1 increase to the effect of Bulwark is the primary effect, but a consistent +4 to the remaining types of Reflex saves is still good.
  • Repositioning Block (Ba!): More versatile than Aggressive Block, but Aggressive Block may still be more effective, and you can’t use both on the same Shield Block.
  • Shield from Arrows (Ba!): The bonus is fantastic, but very few enemies rely on physical ranged attacks, so this only situationally useful.
  • Shield Wallop (Ba!): Strictly better than a regular Strike, but remember that this has the Flourish trait. If you’re built to attack with shields, this is essential.

10th-Level Guardian Feats

  • Belly Flop (Ba!): Very impactful against powerful single enemies if you’re built to use options like Trip and to use either unarmed strikes or gauntlets. Keeping a foe Prone and Immobilized will make it easy for allies to drop ongoing damage effects on them and quickly wear them down.
  • Get Behind Me! (Ba!): This can get frail allies out of melee with enemies, or it can get melee-friendly allies out of the attacker’s reach, forcing them to spend additional Actions to move to a new target.
  • Momentum Strike (Ba!): This is only reliably useful if enemies are within 5 feet of each other, and even then the forced movement might not be useful, and the damage alone certainly isn’t worth the hassle or the feat.
  • Sure-Footed (Ba!): How often are you becoming Clumsy that you can justify a feat to negate a single status condition?
  • Tough Cookie (Ba!): It’s only once per day and will only last through one fight since the Temporary Hit Points expire after a minute, but it’s a huge amount of THP.

12th-Level Guardian Feats

  • Armor Break (Ba!): The damage is good, but breaking your armor is a huge cost that you should take very seriously.

    The Kineticist has three feats which will let you magically summon armor for one Action, which you can then detonate. You can effectively turn yourself into a bomb for 3 Actions.

  • Armored Counterattack (Ba!): This is really good, but you want either a reach weapon or a weapon which you can use at range to maximize the benefits.
  • Devastating Shield Wallop (Ba!): Shield Wallop is great, and this makes it even better.
  • Paragon’s Guard (Ba!): If you’re relying heavily on shields, this could save you a ton of Actions. But if you’ve been using Shielded Taunt until now, skip this.
  • Right Where you Want Them (Ba!): Very powerful if you’re getting value out of Shove or Reposition. Note that this doesn’t affect things that automatically move targets, such as Aggressive Block.
  • Scattering Charge (Ba!): Too situational. You need to be able to reach a position where you can Shove 2 or 3 creatures in a way that’s useful without moving between Shoves to justify using this over spending 2 Actions to Stride and then Shove. Lining up that positioning to make this actually good is not going to happen often enough to justify the feat.
  • Shield Salvation (Ba!): If you’re depending heavily on your shield, you’re likely spending a lot of money to enhance it. Having your expensive shield destroyed really sucks, and this can prevent that horrifying and expensive tragedy from occurring.
  • Weakening Assault (Ba!): A great debuff against many melee enemies and you can use this regardless of your choice of weaponry.

14th-Level Guardian Feats

  • Blanket Defense (Ba!): 3 Actions is too much for this. If your allies want an AC bonus for hiding behind you, tell them to use you as cover.

    The effect ends when you no longer have a shield raised. If you can keep a shield raised, the effect will continue. Therefore, if you have Paragon’s Guard running, you can activate this once in combat and have Nlanket Defense running until you fall out of the stance.

  • Bloody Denial (Ba!): Only situationally useful. Many enemies don’t have Reactions, so this won’t affect them.
  • Keep up the Good Fight (Ba!): This is excellent insurance. If you don’t already have something similar like Orc Ferocity, this is a great choice.
  • Opening Stance (Ba!): If you have a stance which you rely on, this is essential. Saving an Action on your first turn will be impactful in every encounter.

16th-Level Guardian Feats

  • Clang! (Ba!): You have the best AC progression in the game and you might be adding on to that with a shield, so enemies critically missing you is going to happen sometimes. Not reliably, but occasionally, and this is great when it happens. The biggest risk is falling into the Tank Fallacy hard enough that enemies simply don’t attack you, but you can mitigate this with Taunt and forcing movement to position enemies where you’re the only target.
  • Clobber (Ba!): This puts the results of your Strike and your Stride both behind the same roll. Normally doing both would require you to Strike then Shove with a multiple Attack Penalty. This puts all of your metaphorical eggs in one basket. You’re more likely to hit on the roll, but you also don’t get a separate roll to Shove if you miss the attack.
  • Improved Reflexive Shield (Ba!): This can dramatically reduce the amout of damage which your party takes from area damage, making it even safer for your party to cluster together around you. This also means that you don’t need to choose between protecting your allies or protecting yourself from the triggering effect.
  • Never! (Ba!): Too situational.

18th-Level Guardian Feats

  • Demolish Defenses (Ba!): A great debuff and you get some extra damage, but you need to hit and the target also gets a save. Two points of failure means that this won’t be reliable.
  • Perfect Protection (Ba!): Only situationally useful. Your AC is better than almost any character in the game, so crits should be rare. Even worse, this won’t do anything to help Intercept Attack.
  • Quick Vengeance (Ba!): Only situationally useful. This requires an enemy to do something that will trigger either Shield Block or Intercept Attack while also being far enough away that a Stride is useful. These things will absolutely happen, but I can’t guarantee that they’ll be frequent enough to make this feat feel good.
  • Shield from Spells (Ba!): This is good, but requiring Shield From Arrows first to take this is too much cost for such a situational benefit.

20th-Level Guardian Feats

  • Boundless Reprisal (Ba!): Absolutely incredible. You could use Intercept Attack, Reactive Strike, or Shield Block once on each enemy’s turn. This is in addition to your normal Reaction and the Guardian’s level 7 feature Reaction Time.
  • Great Shield Mastery (Ba!): Only useful if you’re using Tower Shields, Fortress Shields, or something similar. If you are using one of those, this is fantastic. Otherwise, it’s completely useless.
  • Unyielding Force (Ba!): Another 5 points of resistance to physical damage. Not especially exciting, but consistently useful.