Loincloth of Armour
First Post
From Design and development: Elite Bulettes
The fighter is also in range of the burst, but he brushes the soil aside with his shield.
From a (probable) excerpt from Races and Classes:
Feats and fighter powers will allow a sword & shield fighter to accumulate greater AC bonuses and the ability to defend others.
And from a Mike Mearls comment:
"Shields are a little tricky, because if they're too good everyone wants one, but if they are too lame everyone wields a big weapon. For 4e, we've taken an approach with shields (and most other weapons) where classes that are supposed to be good with something have options and abilities that augment that thing....So, a fighter might take maneuvers or feats that improve his shield use. A cleric might carry a shield, but the cleric class lacks any specific mechanics to make the shield better."
It would appear that WotC is striving to make shields different than they have in previous editions. I have no inside information (curse not playtesting!), but I will speculate that in 4E, fighters can use a shield to block, much like the Jedi Talent from Star War Saga Edition (SWSE).
For those lacking SWSE, the block talent allows a person to negate a melee attack against them by rolling a skill against a DC of the attack roll that hit him. A similar idea could work with a shield. Roll (something or other), with a DC of the attack that’s hit you. If you succeed, your shield intercepts the attack and you take no damage. (In principle it works much like the Mounted Combat feat in 3.X, but with shields instead of horses.)
Having shield block as a talent would still allow clerics and others to carry a shield for the AC boost, but a fighter would have extra options. It would also provide a clear difference between the 2-H greatsword using brawler and the more defensive focused combatant.
Your thoughts?
The fighter is also in range of the burst, but he brushes the soil aside with his shield.
From a (probable) excerpt from Races and Classes:
Feats and fighter powers will allow a sword & shield fighter to accumulate greater AC bonuses and the ability to defend others.
And from a Mike Mearls comment:
"Shields are a little tricky, because if they're too good everyone wants one, but if they are too lame everyone wields a big weapon. For 4e, we've taken an approach with shields (and most other weapons) where classes that are supposed to be good with something have options and abilities that augment that thing....So, a fighter might take maneuvers or feats that improve his shield use. A cleric might carry a shield, but the cleric class lacks any specific mechanics to make the shield better."
It would appear that WotC is striving to make shields different than they have in previous editions. I have no inside information (curse not playtesting!), but I will speculate that in 4E, fighters can use a shield to block, much like the Jedi Talent from Star War Saga Edition (SWSE).
For those lacking SWSE, the block talent allows a person to negate a melee attack against them by rolling a skill against a DC of the attack roll that hit him. A similar idea could work with a shield. Roll (something or other), with a DC of the attack that’s hit you. If you succeed, your shield intercepts the attack and you take no damage. (In principle it works much like the Mounted Combat feat in 3.X, but with shields instead of horses.)
Having shield block as a talent would still allow clerics and others to carry a shield for the AC boost, but a fighter would have extra options. It would also provide a clear difference between the 2-H greatsword using brawler and the more defensive focused combatant.
Your thoughts?
