Topic: Parrying attack against an ally?

[Jengada]

The rogue in my party has decided that his job in combat will be protecting the cleric. As part of that, he's asked about whether he can parry attacks someone is aiming at the cleric.
Assuming the rogue is adjacent to the enemy and can attack them, I think he should be able to do this, with possible restrictions on what weapons he could use in rather close space so he can intervene. Anyone ever had this question? Thoughts on the idea?

[Peter R]

It is my understanding that you can only parry attacks you are the target of. My Arms Law (RMC) says "To parry a Melee attack, the defender must be aware that they will be subject to the attack."

Your rogue does not meet that requirement. I would suggest he/she uses the disarm skill on the clerics attacker to acheive the same effect or just hit them.

[Hurin]

We might also note that RMU has now formalized rules for this, which might serve as a guide -- which is a pretty good indication that other people have had this question in the past, Jengada!

RMU has devised a new skill for precisely this: Protect. I'm not sure if RM2 ever had anything like that, but I haven't gone through all the companions to find out. Unless there is something there, I think Peter's interpretation of the Rules As Written is accurate. Personally though, I would probably houserule it to allow the Rogue to parry the attack at a significant minus. For comparison's sake, the RMU penalties are: -25 if the protector is between the attacker and target, -100 if the attacker is between the protector and the target; and -50 in all other scenarios. Skill in Protect will reduce these penalties.

[Sable Wyvern]

I'd be inclined to allow it as a houserule, because, why not?

You can only parry an opponent you're attacking, so the rogue would need to declare a melee attack against that opponent. I'd then allow his parry to be applied to the cleric's DB, on a 1-for-2 basis (so, for example, a parry of 30 would provide a 15 DB boost to the cleric).

[Jengada]

I like these suggestions - especially the disarm option, it doesn't require a new mechanic. I'm leaning towards allowing a ally-parry only from certain positions (like, being to the weapon-hand side of the attacker and not on a flank) and at a subtraction, like -15, somewhat symmetric to a flanking bonus. (I'm not going to make a new skill, as my players are already asking why there are so many...)