Re: How to protect casters?
 

You'll still get more defensive horsepower out of Iron Arm or similar spell than Staff-parrying.

Re: How to protect casters?
 

That is correct, just making an alternate suggestion for anybody who may not have considered it. Sorry if that was unclear.

Re: How to protect casters?
 

You're spending Fatigue to do that, and you can't cast Iron Arm or any other Blocking spell while holding a Missile or Melee spell. So it's not a perfect defense in all instances.

Re: How to protect casters?
 

He He He. Comes from goofing off at work...

Rolling an 18 on my Mathematics roll and failing to correctly divide 12 by 2 and then add 3 and then add 2...

Your Math points are well taken. In my own defense; "I am a historian not a mathematician dammit!" -Dr. Len McCoy

As to stats vs skills...

I cannot think of a character I would design with a DX of less than 11, 98% of them would have at least 12. Base Dex has too many uses for me to see it otherwise. Of Course YMMV...

Re: How to protect casters?
 

All of the above is very true. I've seen a tactically oriented player use a fairly mediocre fighter to greater effect than a cerebral player could put a tactically awesome character. That's in a pregerated scenario. Now let the two types of players create characters that match their biases. It can get quite bad, but at the same time, it's a little unfair of the GM to say, "No, you can't create the character you want. You have to make him much more violent and combative." Thus, I think there's a large audience for advice on how tough-guy PCs can cover wimp PCs -- advice other than "Don't be a wimp, then!", I mean.

My only critique of the original post is that I hold out little hope that most of the likely advice will apply usefully to a two-man party. Formations resistant to flanking are only barely possible with three PCs, and really call for about six. Deep formations start around six and work better with huge groups of NPC spear-carriers. Neither is especially workable for two people. With parties that small, it's generally better to bite the bullet, avoid pitched battles, and have combat consist of "fighter holds off lone monster," "fighter is challenged to duel," "fighter distracts bad guys while friend sneaks," etc.

Re: How to protect casters?
 

And the ever popular...

"fighter dies with nobility, friend who ran away and lived mourns at his funeral."

Re: How to protect casters?
 

One interesting thing about this that comes to mind is that at the higher power levels that DF style (or even just really good operators) can chalk up, it strikes me that having a literal bunch of spear-carriers at your disposal is not only believable, but likely.

Think it...you're Zarg the Mighty, Victor of the Thousand Battles. Your very name will inspire fear in your opponents, and respect in the typical bystander. People will be coming to YOU with requests to be a student, or participate in adventures. It would be trivial not only for the magic user to summon up the skeleton army as Kromm suggests, but for the Fighter to have with him an Ally group of literal spear (or rifle...) carriers that are responsible for the defensive formations, allowing Zarg to direct the battle (lots of Leadership and Tactics rolls), single out dangerous critters (Mighty Warrior...HO!), and spend the needed PER and Wait actions to protect Ganderalfredo the Summoner of Lightning.

Re: How to protect casters?
 

Echoed. A player in my campaign did something like this with his priest: "Gee, I could have DX 13 and Staff-14 or DX 12 and Staff-18." Since he wasn't a physical type -- and had HT 12, so that DX 13 just meant Basic Speed 6.25 instead of 6, and thus no better Dodge -- he chose the latter. The +4 to skill and resulting +2 to Parry was totally worth it. Being good enough with a staff to strike vital areas, attempt Sweep at default, etc., also paid off for him.

Generally, if you're trying to give your squishy character a self-defense tool, "He studied self-defense with this one particular, highly defensive weapon until he was very confident with it," makes far more sense than, "He's agile but has no real combat training." And if the latter is truly where you're going with the concept, it's often smarter to leave DX at 10 and use the 40 points for +2 to Basic Speed. A direct +2 to Dodge and Basic Move (for running away!) will generally keep you alive for longer. And high Basic Speed lets you act early and take a Move maneuver directly away from trouble before the bad guys can fall upon you.

Re: How to protect casters?
 

The things that always put Iron Arm out of the running in my games are (1) the one Blocking spell-per-turn limit (if you're being flanked, you're usually outnumbered, and if you're outnumbered, you're usually facing many attacks per turn), and (2) all the stuff Iron Arm is worthless against, particularly the missiles that tend to get rained down on wizards who are floating or hanging back. Well, those things and areas without mana.

Re: How to protect casters?
 

On a more modest level, I see this in my current campaign, too. The PC general has four praetorians at his beck and call -- ostensibly bodyguards, but really more like gofers -- and these chaps generally get put on the party's flank, where they protect the potion-tossing artificer and death bolt-slinging priest. Now these are low-grade Allies, worth perhaps only 1/4 to 1/2 their PC's points . . . but the PC is worth around 900 points and the NPCs have "leveled up" to keep pace, so they're respectable 300-points-ish warriors. A pure 300-point warrior set to watch your flank does a respectable job.