Feat: Shield Balance

[Bront]

Shield Balance
You know how to balance your body when using a shield, allowing you to make more offensive maneuvers with it. This technique originated in the pits of Earling and took some time before it found any use outside the pits. Today, it is still rare to find practicioners, but there are many in all parts of Enworld where shields are in ready use.
Requirements: Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Shield Bash
Benifits: Any non-tower shield may be considered a light weapon when making any shield attack using Two Weapon Fighting.

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Last one for a while.

Basicly, it lets a sword and board fighter shield bash and other attacks with a heavy shield. It's not cheep, and it requires some pretty hefty stats, but I think it's a good option.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

I think this feat is broken. Thanks to Razh, I've been paying close attention to the rules of shield bashing. Improved Shield Bash is an awesome feat as it is, and this just makes it ridiculous. A large spiked shield with Bashing becomes a light 1d12 weapon, which also gives a shield bonus to AC (since Improved Shield Bash is a requirement). Though personally I'd love for Razh to pull a 300 and bash people over the head with a large steel shield and still use it for protection, I think they made large shields one-handed for a reason.

If, by some fluke of fate this passes as is, Rasereit is definitely taking it. Which is part of the reason I don't like it.

 

[Bront]

A large Spiked heavy Shield is 1d8

A medium Spiked Heavy shield is 1d6.

Not sure where you got the D12 for.

Don't forget, you need a Dex of 15 to qualify for 2WF.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Bashing, magical shield ability, +2 sizes for damage purposes.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Hmm... It's not as inordinate as I thought. I was thinking that heavy spiked shields gave more damage than they do... 1d6 damage with a light weapon is not irrational at all, and on second thought, the damage increase I'm thinking about is due to a magical ability, so it makes little sense to use it to compare things.

 

[Bront]

Hmm... It's not as inordinate as I thought. I was thinking that heavy spiked shields gave more damage than they do... 1d6 damage with a light weapon is not irrational at all, and on second thought, the damage increase I'm thinking about is due to a magical ability, so it makes little sense to use it to compare things.

Agreed.

Spiked Shield as light weapon requires 2 extra feats, and does 1d6 x2 crit. A short sword does 1d6 19-20x2 and doesn't require the feats.

Yeah, you can go nuts with magic, but that costs you money too.

On a side note, flavor wise this can be added pretty easily, as there are a number of different swordsman schools, and perhaps it even comes out of the Gladatorial pits of Earling, as warriors look to gain an extra edge.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

On a side note, flavor wise this can be added pretty easily, as there are a number of different swordsman schools, and perhaps it even comes out of the Gladatorial pits of Earling, as warriors look to gain an extra edge.

Yeah, I like that a lot. This feat sounds better and better.

 

[Bront]

Bump...

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

It's only been you and me so far, Bront, so I hesitate to make a vote. Also, I may be biased. I'm actually not sure that Razh will be taking this feat now, because he's invested a significant amount of money in a light shield. But if the cost-benefit ratio works out... I don't know.

I liked the bit about the gladiatorial pits of Earling. It doesn't have to be exclusive to that region, but it could have originated from there and spread across the land.

The requirements are tough, but if you're a sword-and-board shield-basher, you're going to have them. This would be like the next step in the feat chain. I think the requirements are good.

I vote YES, with the strong recommendation that you complement the rule with a little history and flavor.

 

[Bront]

Yeah, I'll add that little background tidbit in the description at some point before it's final.