Dual wield two Shields?

[Sir Sebastian Hardin]

A friend of mine came up with this character concept:
A Fighter that fights with a shield in each hand... Maybe exotic round shields with a sharp edge, or spiked shields... It does look wierd, but maybe it is character with a very exotic personality.

He wanted to take all the cool shield feats from the PHBs
Improved Shield Bash, Shield Specialization, Agile Shield Fighter, etc

And the "Weapon.." feats, so he can spend
Weapon Focus, Weapon specialization, Geater WF, Greater WS, Improved Critical,

And the two weapons feats... Two-weapon pounce, TW rend.. etc

This way, he han specialize in TWF, without needing high dex (or being a ranger) he can improve his weapon prowess easily because it is the same weapon in each hand, and he can mix the benefits of a shield build and a TWF build, without losing his shield bonus to AC...

Is this build even posible? or logical? (mechanics and fluff-wise)
And if it is posible... would he get a better AC for having two shields??

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Possible, and suboptimal... and I am not sure if the 'weapon focus'... etc feats would apply to shields.

You have to stat up the shields as a 'weapon' and as a 'shield'. THe character would chose from round to round which method the shield is being used as. The damage of the shields would be based on the 'shield bash' manuever.

Since shields provide a named bonus, only the better bonus would apply.

 

[Darklone]

As mentioned: The two shield bonuses to AC do not stack.

Still, bashing shields are pretty good light weapons.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

A friend of mine came up with this character concept:
A Fighter that fights with a shield in each hand... Maybe exotic round shields with a sharp edge, or spiked shields... It does look wierd, but maybe it is character with a very exotic personality.

He wanted to take all the cool shield feats from the PHBs
Improved Shield Bash, Shield Specialization, Agile Shield Fighter, etc

And the "Weapon.." feats, so he can spend
Weapon Focus, Weapon specialization, Geater WF, Greater WS, Improved Critical,

And the two weapons feats... Two-weapon pounce, TW rend.. etc

This way, he han specialize in TWF, without needing high dex (or being a ranger) he can improve his weapon prowess easily because it is the same weapon in each hand, and he can mix the benefits of a shield build and a TWF build, without losing his shield bonus to AC...

Is this build even posible? or logical? (mechanics and fluff-wise)
And if it is posible... would he get a better AC for having two shields??

I made a character like this (who was eventually going to be a Dwarven Defender). So I'm probably biased but I think it's a possible build both fluff- and mechanics-wise.

Fluff-wise it's a little unusual and in a realistic world is probably a poor fighting tactic. But I think it has an interesting flair for a fantasy character.

Mechanically it can work too. When used to bash, the shield is a martial bludgeoning weapon, so any normal feat would work with it (i.e. Weapon Focus: Shield).

Keep in mind that as per the SRD: "An enhancement bonus on a shield does not improve the effectiveness of a shield bash made with it, but the shield can be made into a magic weapon in its own right."

And don't let him forget shield spikes. They help bump the damage of a shield bash so it's not such a suboptimal build.

The nice part is that you can benefit from more magic shield special abilities than a character wielding just one can (i.e., you could have a Cold Resistant Shield and an Acid Resistant Shield, where a sword and shield fighter would have one or the other).

 

[nathreet]

Per the rules and FAQ clarification, yes this is possible. The shield bonus to AC does not stack. And anything you can do to a weapon can be done to a shield, including feats and enchantments. But you need seperate feats and enchantments for the weapon aspects of the shield. A shield's enhancement bonus to AC does not apply to it's AB, for example.

It's suboptimal to fight this way unless you bend the rules. And many do, adding AC or etc. where they shouldn't via supposed "loopholes". But even when you play by the rules it isn't a horrible tactic, just well below par.

 

[Jin_Kataki]

I played in a game where each PC had to roll up a personality flaw for the character. One of the PC's rolled for "Touched in the Head". As a result he created a character he did the dual wield shields thing, but was convinced one of the shields which was a family heirloom was actually a sword. That was a fun character to watch be played, but man did he get us in some trouble. I think what worked for him was that he was playing a Crusader so even though he wasn't do a whole lot of damage he would grant the party some great bonuses and such. Plus being in full plate and having a high con made it hard for the baddies to drop him. I don't remember what kind of feats pertaining to the shields he used.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

It's quite possible, I did it once for a Bozak (human-shaped dragon, basically) in a draconic group. While both shield bonuses won't stack, you still have plety of options. For one thing, you can optimizeAC bonus on one and get offensive special abilities on the other. Also, there's lots of fun abilities that happen to cause you to lose the use of your shield for a round. With two, you can use theseand still keep your AC up! Some examples are the Shield Sling feat and the Shield Block and Shield Counter Devoted Spirit maneuvers. The Wall of Steel teamwork benefit also lets you provide your shield's AC bonus to an adjacent ally for the round. My character was a bodyguard, and I played up the motif as well as I could. Aside from the dual (oversized, thanks to Strongarm Bracers) spiked heavy shields to look menacing, Bozak gave him some sorc casting, so he had Wings of Cover to guard allies, too. One fun combination is using wall of Steel on an ally, then using the Shield Block maneuver with the other one. This means they're getting say...your left hand shield to AC for the round, and then as an immediate action, also get right hand's shield AC +4 for one attack, which stacks by RAW (the maneuver's an unnamed bonus).

Great feats to get are Agile Shield Fighter (to use dual heavy shields, kinda stinks you still need TWF in order to get ITWF and GTWF), Shield Sling, Shield Specialization and Ward, Improved Shield Bash (obviously), some Martial Study if you have no adept levels, andgenerally any damage increaser that would work well for a sneak attack build works nicely for a dual shield fighter.

Basically, I found the best way to play such a character is as a stalwart bodyguard of the party. You can't benefit from both shields, but man can you do some great stuff if you're willing to occasionally lose the use of one!

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Also, there's lots of fun abilities that happen to cause you to lose the use of your shield for a round. With two, you can use theseand still keep your AC up!

Good point! The Shield Snare feat (Dragon 309; lets you ready a Disarm attempt but lose the shield's bonus to AC) would be a good one for that reason.

Another good feat, especially for the bodyguard angle and if your allies don't use shields is Shieldmate (Miniature Handbook; gives adjacent allies a +1 Shield bonus if you can take actions).

 

[Sir Sebastian Hardin]

Hey, Thanks everyone for your thoughts, specially Stream... it doesn't sound like a bad idea now... I migh even try it myself... at least as a NPC in my next campaign.

I have a question, the Shield Block and Wall of Steel you speak of are maneuvers of the ToB, right? (not maneuvers from a tactical feat)

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Hey, Thanks everyone for your thoughts, specially Stream... it doesn't sound like a bad idea now... I migh even try it myself... at least as a NPC in my next campaign.

I have a question, the Shield Block and Wall of Steel you speak of are maneuvers of the ToB, right? (not maneuvers from a tactical feat)

Shield Block is a level 2 DS maneuver from ToB, yes.

Wall of Steel is actually neither. It's a teamwork benefit. A concept introduced in DMG 2 first, I think. Basically, you and your party can pick one for every four HD you have, and only people who meet the requirements can be a team member and benefit. The team also needs a leader, which has harder requirements. You can find it on page 83 here:
http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Skills_Actions.pdf

"A Team Member may grant an adjacent Team Member his/her Shield bonus to AC as a Swift Action. The bonus stacks with the adjacent Team Member’s Shield bonus (i.e., he/she can receive an AC bonus from two (or even three) shields)."

Now, people need shield proficiency (but don't need tower prof.) to be a member and get protected by you, which may be annoying. It really depends on group. In mine, it was quite literally a draconic group, in every sense. Almost all had dragon blood, and almost all mixed martial classes with casting ones. The only one that had no casting ability was still an anthropromorphic crocodile Dragon Shaman. So, pretty much the whole party was eligible to join for that teamwork benefit, and several had poor AC. In fact, the aforementioned croc was what 4E would call a striker. He did the crazy damage, with a large greatsword and strength in the 30's, so my character on many occasions ended up keeping him alive from desperate enemy attacks en mass.