Guarding

When a character guards, she waits for her opponents to come to her. Guarding is a half-move action, or a no-move action if the character stands her ground. A guarding character strikes the moment an attacker moves into the guarding character's threatening squares, regardless of her actual initiative and action phase. The only way an enemy can attack a guarding character first is with a longer-ranged weapon.

If a guarding character is attacked by a charging character, the character that won initiative attacks first (unless one of the characters has a longer-ranged weapon than the other). If both the charging and guarding characters have weapons of equal range, then the character with the larger weapon strikes first. Guarding characters are considered to be set for charge, and spears and spear-like polearms inflict double damage against charging creatures (see Chapter Seven).

For example, Aerwen loses initiative and is armed with a long sword, normally a weapon of average speed. A very fast size M creature takes a half-move to attack her with claws in the fast phase, but since Aerwen is guarding, she attacks first. If the very fast creature were charging, it would attack first since it won initiative for the round. If Aerwen had a long spear (range 2), she would get the first blow despite the creature's charge.

If no one attacks a guarding character, she can abort to an attack at the end of the round and take a half-move to reach someone.