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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gort" data-source="post: 3289371" data-attributes="member: 11239">I think you might have got this from Baldurs Gate 2 - that's the only place I've seen this particular rule. They put it in because in Baldurs Gate 1 bows were the ultimate weapons even when fighting in melee range, since there weren't any attacks of opportunity in 2nd ed, on which BG1 was based.Speaking of bucklers, from what I've read/seen (hooray for the Royal Armouries) they tend to be used in an offensive fashion - you "attack" the opponents weapon with it so that he cannot use it. I wouldn't doubt that they would provide some small protection against arrows and suchlike though - you could at least hide your head behind it if you were aware of incoming arrows.To be honest, though, D&D simplifies shield fighting quite a lot already - treating it as just another layer of armour. If you want bucklers to be more realistically modelled, you'd have to model all the other shields in the same manner.Also, bucklers don't really become significant in any way until you start making them magical - taking a -1 on attacks for a +6 to AC is quite an easy decision to make. Add to this the fact that they have a 0 armour check penalty - you don't even need to be proficient with shields!</blockquote>