-2 to AC and reflex with shield

[tassadar7945]

I'm using the 4th edition character generator, and i'm getting a -2 penalty to both AC and reflex when equipping a shield. Aren't shields supposed to just give a bonus?

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

They've got some bugs in their defence math at the moment. For example, equipping any masterwork armour resets your AC bonus from it to zero or something.

Just have to do it like in the old days - double check your math and use pencil and paper!

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

Yes, recently there is a masterwork armor bug. If you equip a type beyond the base armors it does not include the proper bonuses. To get around this you have to equip just the +# armor without selecting a type of masterwork such as Braidmail.

 

[tassadar7945]

Thanks, yeah i'm currently using the old version (pre online only) and i always seem to lose AC with a shield rather than gain it which is stupid beyond compare. Why equip a shield for a net gain of 0 AC or even a -1 ac when i could go with a two handed weapon for the same lol.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Ah yes, that bug was introduced into the old builder later on. I swear they sabotaged their old tools before discontinuing them.

It's been fixed in the "unofficial" continuation of the old builder. I can't tell you any more than that.

 

[tassadar7945]

So i should just knock off the extraneous -2? the problem is, i'm hitting it in the new character builder as well. I'm thinking i might have to throw in an extra "house ruled" feat that gives an additional +2 reflex and AC within the program.

 

[doctorhook]

Ah yes, that bug was introduced into the old builder later on. I swear they sabotaged their old tools before discontinuing them.

It's been fixed in the "unofficial" continuation of the old builder. I can't tell you any more than that.

Can you tell me where I can get this unofficial continuation?

 

[tassadar7945]

okay, after looking through the math that it's doing (best i can see) it looks like the -2 is being put in because the heavy shield is giving a +4 bonus to ac/reflex instead of a +2 like it should. so i'm not sure if its a bug or their "fix" to the bug.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Can you tell me where I can get this unofficial continuation?

Not officially.

It's very googleable. I would start with Something Awful.

 

[tassadar7945]

thanks for the help guys, after doing the math old fashioned with the PHB in front of me, the final AC that i'm getting, 27 (10 + 4 [half level] + 9 [Layered plate] + 2 [enhancement] + 2 [heavy shield]) vs the char builder saying 27 = (10 + 4 [half level] + 9 [Layered plate] + 2 [enhancement] + 4 [heavy shield] -2 [miscellaneous])are the same, so i guess the builder had a bug in there somewhere that gave +4 on shields, so they needed to throw in the -2 instead of rewriting the entire code. the math equates the same way on reflex as well. curse my poor int and dex scores though lol, only a 19 reflex lol