Vaapad said:

The RAW arguement is all you need. The FAQ will prove that RAW and intent are one and the same. 

I think the misunderstanding with reactions in this game and other ffg lcg is the absence of "may". Essentially in ffg games, "Response" equals what in other card games would be may. I.E. Response: Draw a card = you may draw a card. 

Went back and re-read the wording in the rulebook.  I guess it is essentially saying what #1 states.

I have another question in that case: lets say 3 damage is about to be dealt to a character, can the guardian take two of that damage, or can the guardian not protect at all?

If the latter is true, then I'd say FFG really needs to re-think the protect trait.

Meant to state that I know the scenario was already dealt with in the first post, but with the way the rulebook reads, can the guardian really even take the two?

The rulebook clearly states that a protect unit can only take damage equal to its remaining health.

Here is the scenario:

You attack with Luke Skywalker (0 damage) and a Guardian of the Peace (0 damage). You place the shield counter on Guardian.

You go into combat against Darth Vader with his lightsaber.

Your opponent wins the edge and played a Heat of Battle. Heat of Battle deals 1 damage to luke.

Your opponent focuses Vader to strike and deals 3 damage to Luke. 

You activate Protect and can only bring 2 damage over to the Guardian and you use the shield to prevent 1 damage. The remaining 1 damage is placed on Luke Skywalker. 

At the end of the engagement Luke has 2 damage counters on him, the Guardian has 1, Vader has 2 damage. 

But the rulebook isn't clear about how the damage is split.  Do you know for sure that you can put ANY damage on the Guardian?  The way it reads in the rulebook, maybe you can't split the damage up at all and all three have to go on Luke until a card deals 2 or less damage, at which point the guardian can protect.  Also, what about multiple Guardians?  I'd say all of this would be much easier if they hadn't added in that line about only being able to take up to their available damage.

shaggscoob said:

pg 25 (emphasis mine)

"Protect [trait]
A card with the “Protect” keyword may take damage instead of any friendly card in play with the specified trait. In other words, if a friendly card in play with the trait specified by a “Protect” effect would take damage, the controller may instead place any amount of that damage on the card with the “Protect” keyword. (Damage beyond a protecting unit’s remaining damage capacity may not be re-assigned to the protecting unit.)"

Yes, we know for sure that you can choose to redirect any amount of the assigned damage, so the Guardian in the above example can redirect 2 of the 3 incoming damage.

If you had 4 Guardians going into combat with Luke and your opponent did  4 damage to Luke you could have each Guardian take 1 damage each and prevent all of that damage with the shields.

No matter how many guardians you have , you are allowed to activate them to take up to 2 damage, assuming they are at full health. So in some extreme circumstance, you could prevent a lot of damage with the guardians.

The presence of a Shield token will not increase the amount of damage that you can redicret to the guardian.   

OK cool.  I remember this mechanic being a tough one in other games as well.  Sounds like the #1 ruling is probably correct, then.